Vacation...sort of

My idea of a vacation is taking a break, relaxing, and getting away from it all. So in that sense of the word, this was not a "vacation" but more like a trip or an adventure. After a lot of planning, three days of packing and a 3 hour long session of carefully packing up the car full of all our essential baby gear, we bravely head out on on our first road trip with the babes. We traveled to Salem, Oregon to visit the kids' Great-Grandparents (my grandparents). It was a 4-hour trip in the car with one stop to change and feed. It was a little awkward trying to change and feed three babies in the car at a gas station, but we made it work. The kids were pretty well-behaved and only fussed for about 10 minutes out of the whole time in the car - hallelujah! We stayed Friday through Tuesday and celebrated my first Mother's Day, Grandpa's 88th birthday, and the kids' 5 month birthday.
Here is a picture of Grandma and me with Chase, Reece and Kate on Mother's Day. It was very special to get to spend Mother's Day with my grandma, who just recently got the news that she is free of cancer after being told that she had terminal pancreatic cancer last year and undergoing months of chemo and radiation. Thank you for this miracle, God! While it was an absolute joy to get to see my grandparents interact with my babies and it warms my heart knowing how special this visit was to them, it was quite stressful for the Zacharda family. First of all, our kids are not used to much noise, not used to being handled by lots of different people, and do not like being out of their routines. Lots of family, extended family, friends, and neighbors stopped by to see our famous triplets, which was quite overwhelming for Jacob, the kids and me. The kids didn't nap well, were way over-stimulated, and CRANKY! So needless to say, we did not relax or "get away from it all". It was very hard on all of us, but we are so glad we went because we created some good memories and made my grandparents so happy. Reece explored Grandma's yard and enjoyed looking at her flowers (well he didn't just "look", he actually ripped all of the petals off of the tulip. Sorry about that, Grandma!) and sitting in the grass. Kate loved sitting with Grandpa and watching baseball on his big screen TV. She sat rocking with him in his chair and sucking her fingers, which she just recently "discovered". She cried every time a commercial came on and Grandpa would yell "Booooooo!" and then she would stop as soon as the game came back on. I swear that girl loves her baseball. She must be a Daddy's girl.
Chase hates being in the sun and makes the most wretched face when the sun hits his face, so Grandma bought them all sunglasses to help the little guy out. He LOVED them and could actually tolerate being out in the sun with them on. Plus he knew how cool he looked with them on!
Can you tell Grandpa absolutely LOVED having his great-grandkids visit!?

But the old saying stands true, "Wherever you wander, wherever you roam, be happy and healthy, and GLAD TO COME HOME!"