It’s our first family vacation since the baby was born–nothing elaborate, just a week down the shore. We’re lucky enough that both sets of in-laws have nearby shore houses; otherwise, this trip would admittedly have been much more work.

But it was still stressful getting everything ready. How much food to pack, and what to buy when we arrived? One container of baby formula, or two? Would I have time to do all the laundry and packing before we left?

The day before we left, I was a stressed-out, tired mess. I had six loads of laundry in various stages of washing, drying, and folding. Only my older daughter’s clothes had been packed. My in-laws decided to stop by for a visit. Then, in the midst if my stress and semi-panic, my husband declares, ‘Don’t worry, we don’t need to pack much for the baby.’

Uh, ‘we??’

Somehow, we made it to the shore the next day without forgetting anything (major).

I’m the kind of person who always makes plans, who’s always busy doing something. And of course I had all of these plans and ideas for our trip. We could visit our friend who lives up the coast! Or spend a day at the nature preserve and science museum! We could go to the beach every morning! Or rent bikes with baby seats and peddle down the boardwalk!

Then, the first morning at the shore, I had a revelation: We. Didn’t. Have. To. Do. Anything.

The girls had both had a tough night; my oldest daughter took two hours to settle down and fall asleep, and the baby was up every two hours. My husband and I were beat. Instead of racing off to do vacation-type activities like we ‘should have,’ we decided to have a leisurely breakfast. I realized that if we did nothing more than lounge around all week, it was ok–we were on vacation! No matter what, we were going to relax and spend time together, and that’s what really mattered.

We did do some vacation-type stuff–the beach, the zoo–but we also did plenty of lounging around. Some days, my daughter just wanted to play games on her tablet, line up her Shopkins, and eat Apple Jacks. I actually managed to finish a book! And I felt pretty refreshed when it was all done…at least until I had to unpack everything once we got back home.