The Best Little Trip

I am so behind on this really important blog post:

We ended our Christmas vacation with a one night's stay at the Embassy Suites ~ a favorite spot of ours. This year I actually prayed about what to get the girls from us for Christmas - what a novel idea, right?! Alas I had never thought to do that before... And the first thing that came to my head was to do something memorable and fun with the girls.

So they got a $10.00 Santa gift this year, and a really stuffed stocking, and then we ended our short little Christmas morning-present opening-celebration by sitting them down and telling them that we had booked the Embassy for a one night's get-away at the end of that week. To my relief and excitement they were ecstatic. It truly was their favorite gift this year and they counted down the days all week.

We had a really fun time swimming and swimming and swimming. A little eating in there too I guess:). We woke up there on Ruby's 2nd birthday - another reason for our outing. It was perfect. I think we have decided to make it a tradition.

I left the hotel that afternoon telling Mike that my "family time cup" was over-brimming with JOY (and chlorine).











We went home and all the girls in the house took naps:) Mike took the awake shift so I could regain some of the not-great-night's sleep that I got at the hotel. I felt no guilt to squeeze in a 2 hr nap that afternoon, as he informed me right before we went to sleep at the Embassy that he would be wearing ear plugs so that he could a good night's rest. As much as that peeved me a bit, I know that we work best taking turns:) in this parenting partnership. So alas, my nap....it was great! And then I woke up and had 2 hours to pick up the house, run to the grocery store for some balloons and such and get ready for Ruby's small birthday party. It was a cozy affair and a huge success! We ended the festivities by watching Ruby's first home video - oh how's she's grown!