Our Vacation, Day One
We had an opportunity this summer to go to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. It’s a resort town with lots of beautiful beaches. Our trips started out with a 7 hour drive. The kids did well, as always. 
For most of the trip, they entertained themselves looking out the windows and at books. We had no snacks in the car and stopped off for lunch at McDonalds about halfway through the trip. Also about half way there, we hooked up a portable DVD player to the van’s little TV screen and let the kids watch a few episodes of Curious George to pass the time.
Ila didn’t cry much. She did practice her trick of transferring toys back and forth between her hands and feet.
All of the kids took a nap in the car
We checked in, got unloaded and then headed out for dinner at Fat Baby Pizza. We ate peppers stuffed with prosciutto and cheese and a delicious thin crust pepperoni pizza. The kids were not fans of the peppers, but they tried them.
After giving Ila a bath in the hotel sink and feeding her, I put her to bed in our pack and play to let her cry herself to sleep. 
She was very distracted by everyone in the room so I took the other three kids out on a walk to acquire more pillows and ice. She was still crying when we got back so I decided to take the kids on a bedtime swim at the hotel pool. 
Our pool trip was cut short unexpectedly for reasons I won’t detail here, but our rush back into the room and the changing of all three kids out of swimsuits and into PJs awaked Ila just after she had finally fallen asleep. The rest of the night was difficult as Ila and Nicole both had some trouble falling asleep and as a result, Zach and I also got very little sleep.