We headed to Louisiana for an Easter weekend with the family.

Every time we head home to West Baton Rouge, we hit traffic around Lafayette. What’s up with that, universe? That being said, Maddie has been an amazing traveler the past few months. She can entertain herself with her books and toys for the entire 5-hour trip. But every now and then Lauren and I let her watch a movie if we’re in the car longer than expected. I caught this funny shot when she was watching the Lion King!

We felt bad waking her up to have to go play! But we had to do it because some eggs needed to be hunted. We woke her up, let her compose herself and headed out. It was packed when we arrived but Maddie had a blast finding the eggs and cracking them open to discover the goodies inside and playing with her cousins and eating snowballs… at night. That was a long sentence! Bedtime turned out to be an adventure.

Day Two: Easter Day

Pro Tip: The key to good parenting is to roll with your toddler and be prepared to not get what you and your significant want more than 15% of the time. Remember this, and you’ll be golden.

Nothing is easy with raising a toddler. THE WANT: We had a beautiful yellow dress for her to wear and wanted to get pictures of her with the family. THE REALITY: The dress didn’t stay on for long because it wasn’t as easy to climb EVERYTHING IN SIGHT, so it came off and shorts and a shirt took its place… or so mom and I thought… Recall that pro tip now.

Later that afternoon we headed to my grandparents to visit. They weren’t home when I got there so we decided to take Maddie to see that ‘big dirt hill’ (levee). I thought it would be fun and a good way for her to burn some of the limitless supply of toddler energy she has. She climbed about a 1/3 of the way, then I dad had to carry her the rest.

Pro Tip: Carrying your toddler up a 40ish degree incline is both a great workout for your arms and your legs. Breathe slowly and consistently and you’ll do great.

We played up top for a bit, then saw my grandparents come home, so we headed back to visit. My mom and dad arrived as soon as we got to the house too, so it turned into a party. We visited, she entertained my Maw Maw and Paw Paw (I’m southern, this is how we speak) and she wanted to go back up that hill. So, guess what happened. Yep, Dad carried her up the whole way this time. Workout 2 complete. I captured amazing memories up there the second time around.

When we came back down, I thought it’d be fun to put her in my dad’s 1973 Camaro. She had a ball behind the wheel and we were all tickled with how she acted. She was so excited and even mentioned “I want to drive up that hill” haha. We, of course, did not let her do that, but it was a laugh nonetheless.

After visiting, we headed back to my parents and finished out the weekend. All in all, it was a good trip with great memories. I love documenting our happenings with Maddie Moop.