Family Wedding, with Toddler

This past weekend we travelled to the Jersey Shore for a family wedding. It was an extremely long trip involving two different railroads, several cabs and about eight hours round trip, which was an interesting experience with a sixteen and a half month old... He actually travelled quite well. He ate alot of yogurt, drank water, and slept only a tiny fraction of the journey. He flirted with female passengers and waved to his reflection in the train's window. He squealed and clapped at the passing trucks. He was amazingly good.

We stayed at a small inn in Belmar Saturday night, then cabbed over to Bradley Beach at check out (an hour and a half early.) My parents were supposed to call us when they arrived at the BB train station at noon, so we could meet and get a bite to eat before the ceremony. They didn't call, and ate by themselves, which meant Kev and I got nothing whatsoever to eat all day and sat roasting our wedding clothes on the beach until after the ceremony. Mikro had us worried. I lubed him up with SPF 45 sunscreen, and we kept reapplying it, but he looked like he might be getting burned. He's extremely fair, so it was a major concern. Turns out, he was just a little flushed from running around in the heat. We got him to drink alot of water, and his color faded back to normal and he perked right up. He even behaved pretty well through the ceremony, and Kev walked him around the boardwalk nearby when he got fidgety.

My cousin Tom married his beautiful bride Barbara, and both were radiantly happy. The reception was at a nearby restaurnat overlooking the beach. I nursed Mikro out on the porch in relative privacy and he fell asleep, which freed me up to go hang out with the cousins. I hadn't seen most of them in years, and we had a great time catching up and reminiscing. Supposedly we are going to all get together at Thankgiving in NYC at one cousin's place. And another wants to host a huge family reunion in South Jersey (which will be another huge trek for us...) and make it an annual event.

We left at 6 pm Sunday night, riding the NJ train with my parents, who kept Mikro entertained all the way to Penn Station. I wound up nursing Mikro on the Metro North train after we ran out of yogurt. We got home around 10 pm, totally exhausted and pleasantly surprised about how easy it was to travel with the boy.