Vacation begins with driving range and car wash

By K.J. Cardinal

Anna and I got a jump start on April Vacation 2008 this afternoon as we hit up the driving range at Stow Acres with Scott.

It was in the mid-70s and sunny without a cloud in the sky, so I had to do my first-ever sunscreen application to Anna. As Angie can attest to, I detest sunscreen.

I hate the smell of it, the feel of it and most of all putting it on someone else. I still couldn't stand the smell and feel of it, but I didn't mind putting it on Anna so much. It was actually kind of fun. (I can't believe I said that).

Anyway, Anna was great nearly the entire time Scott and I were hitting balls all over the range...and I mean ALL OVER. Anna was sitting behind me in her stroller in a well-shaded spot, so she was loving life. With about 10 balls left in my basket, Anna started to get hungry. So, I took a break, made her a bottle and got back to hitting balls. She's gotten pretty good at feeding herself, so it was a walk in the park.

After the range, we had to give the new Xterra a bath, so I took Anna through her first car wash. She's usually unphased by nearly everything, but she did not like the car wash at first.

She started to cry and, being the jerk that I am, I immediately scrambled to take advantage of a gratuitous photo-op. By the time I got the camera out, she had already stopped crying, but I still took advantage of the cool camera shot.

So, this picture above is taken from the front seat of the Xterra looking back at Anna in the mirror that we have set up so we can keep an eye on her as she sits in her rear-facing child seat. My favorite part of the photo is that you can see the water streaming down the rear window of the Xterra...I love my new camera.

Well, it was a great way to start April Vacation 2008...and stay tuned to the blog all week for lots of posts.