We survived our first family vacation with our toddler (and she’s 21 months today)! I don’t know how so many of you do it with multiple little ones as we’ve had a post-vacation hangover with just our one since returning home. Now I get what, Mike, a fellow blogger and stay-at-home dad who owns Sunshine Dad, was talking about in his post “I Need A Vacation From My Family Vacation“.
Don’t get me wrong, we had an awesome time in Colorado with Going Mom’s family, Nana, Papa, and Niece Ashlee, but geez, traveling with a little one really takes it out of you! All of us against one should be easy, but it proved more difficult than I once thought.
That said, we are still in wind-down mode and I need more time before getting into the details. Whoa, whoa, calm down! I’ll get to it, but for now, I’d like to spend the rest of the weekend with my wife and our crazy little Avery.
I have plenty of pictures to share and stories to tell, and will tackle them all with each post covering a day. At least that’s what I’m thinking. In due time, our memories will be shared.
For now, I need rest….and more food. Here are the pics I posted on Instagram of Avery’s first flight out to Colorado…
Both times had their challenges, but flight home was extremely trying! Guess flying at her normal bedtime would be a big reason there. Oh well, we’re here and functioning (thanks to coffee) and can still say we all had a good time.
Have a great weekend and come back soon for tales from our travels!
Having done the Revolver Brewing brewery tour two days before, the next obvious stop with our visiting family was a local craft vodka distillery. This is not just any vodka either, it’s distilled using mainly black-eyed peas, the world’s first!
Before the tour, we met at a cool little joint called Lili’s Bistro for lunch. Any place that is happy to accommodate my request to do or add less is an instant favorite, and they pulled through! Actually, we all enjoyed our meals and the service was good too.
But Avery was on the wild side (no surprise) and we quickly found out highchairs are NOT acceptable. Instead, she switched between my wife or my mom and me as she danced around on the booth. Thankfully, G-Ma’s sunglasses case kept her somewhat preoccupied.
Good ol’ Grandma in the background. Isn’t she pretty? I would never believe she was in her 80’s if I didn’t know her. One of my mom’s friends joined us for lunch and took my grandma out shopping afterward since she didn’t care much about trying vodka. I think she was burned out on drinking after this visit!
For the rest of us, good thing we had vodka to look forward to right after because Avery made it necessary! Okay, not really, but it sure does help! The distillery was only a few minutes away and we went right to it after paying our bill.
The name is TreyMark Vodka, and is located in an old fire station in Fort Worth, Texas. The creator, Trey (obviously), put together everything with the help of his business partners/friends and started distilling the world’s first black-eyed pea vodka.
This used to be where the pole was located for firemen to slide down.
He chose black-eyed peas since his family had a large farm with the legumes and it just wasn’t turning a profit, so why not make alcohol? Check out his story and look out for a bottle near you!
I first spoke with Trey’s mom/manager (how cool is that?) who arranged the meeting for all of us to meet for a private tour. No charge, no hassle, and he opened the doors just for us! The only drawback was having no A/C on when we visited, but I can’t blame him; gotta keep costs low!
Uncle Paul with my mom on the left and Aunt Tammy on the right.
That’s the distillery behind the lovely ladies and handsome young man.
Trey kindly greeted us at the front and gave us an excellent history of how he got started and gave a great summary on how he produced his one-of-kind vodka. Leave it to me to poke and prod with too many questions that he couldn’t answer due to being a family secret and what sets him apart from other vodkas. Hey, gotta try, right?
It’s crazy to think just a couple guys were able o put all of this giant equipment together! The entire place smelled heavily of alcohol (duh), but it wasn’t overwhelming. I actually kind of enjoyed the scent. What none of us enjoyed was the very hot, stale air, but we were provided a little relief when we went up stairs for tasting and he opened a window.
Going Mom is not a big fan of vodka and opted out of the tasting, so she kept watch over Avery as she danced around the wooden floors. She really enjoyed the loud tapping noise her Soft Star Shoes made when tromping around the room.
She also explored a little and since we’ve never had her up stairs like this before, she was fascinated at the view from below.
Well, at least for a minute, then Kelley had to give up her phone to keep the peace.
Crisis averted!!
While Kelley was watching over our crazy toddler, we were learning more and more about the vodka world as we tried TreyMark’s vodka alongside another top Texas “handmade” competitor. Holy burn, Batman, the stuff I used to think was good had nothing on the smoothness of TreyMark!
All of us tried the competitor’s vodka, which Trey ingeniously keeps on hand for comparison, and came to the same conclusion; TreyMark took the trophy, hands down! Check out Paul’s action shot with all of us except our escapee toddler.
I could hold his vodka in my mouth without a major burn, but the other stuff just lit my mouth up instantly. I never would’ve thought there is so much of a difference, but it’s all in the processing, and Trey has it down pat.
You want this!
After feeling the burn of one, lesser vodka, and enjoying TreyMark’s smoothness, we were feeling the family love and posed for a few pics.
Lucky to have these beautiful ladies in my family! Love you, Mom and Tammy! As G-Ma went to get money to buy a bottle of vodka, I guess Avery thought it might be for her college fund or something….
I think my mom is saying “Silly girl, this is for vodka, not edu-macation.” Avery remained expressionless, and hardly cracked a smile when I tried to pose with her even as I held the almighty phone.
Everyone enjoyed the tour and I’m thankful to Trey and his mom for providing a great experience for all of us. This was the last time for us to see Paul, Tammy, and Grandma before they headed back up North to PA, so we said our farewells in the parking lot.
It’s crazy how fast time flies and we never seem to realize it until after the fact. Still, it was great seeing my family and look forward to flying up to PA with Avery when she’s a little older.
Have you ever visited a distillery?
Would you prefer spirits, wine, or beer or something else?
Kids in highchairs. How do your act in restaurants?
My wife was out in our backyard with Avery following her every move the other day and both were keeping quite busy. It was hot, as usual, but it didn’t seem to slow our little busy toddler down a bit. Kelley brought the camera outside to snap a few shots and ended up capturing this close-up of her red-hot cheeks and beautiful blue eyes.
Another job well done by my wife for getting such a great shot. Maybe I’m a biased parent, okay, I am (aren’t we all?), but her stare goes right through you. Not in a scary “I’m going to haunt you.” kind of way, but more of a “Hi, I’m cute, will you play with me?” way.
I love her deep stare photos, and it never gets old staring right back into her vibrant blue eyes.
Does your kid’s face turn bright red after playing outside?
Do you have a favorite “deep stare” photo of your kids?
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
