cool Mother's Day getaway

We went to a hotel for a night for Mother's Day. A friend of mine was planning to go with her family and we thought it sounded like a good idea, so we tagged along. We ended up being assigned to the room right next door to our friends, which was fun.

There was a nice heated pool and we had it all to ourselves most of the time. It was warm enough that we all stayed in the water for as long as we wanted, and the kids had a blast. Alex was jazzed about the fact that the lifejacket would keep her from sinking. We bought the kids $2 inflatable rings they could hang on to and Alex quickly learned to pilot her ship around the pool all by herself. It was a big milestone for her, and I think she will enjoy swimming pools on a whole new level this summer. She even asked Papa to dunk her all the way under and she closed her eyes, held her breath and did it! Sam wasn't so fond of the lifejacket idea at first, but eventually he got used to it and even floated on his back on his own for a few seconds at a time. He's funny - whenever the back of his head is in the water he closes his eyes. Mostly he liked being zoomed around the pool by papa.

We also bought a new toy, a set of 4 fishing nets and 32 colorful plastic fish, turtles, and seahorses. Most of them floated but a handful were sinkers, so the kids paddled around scooping up the floaters with their nets and the adults swam down to retrieve the ones on the bottom (I picked them up with my toes). I was a little nonplussed with the price tag when I bought it ($20) but it was worth it.

We were outside our room in the hallway waiting for our friends when an older lady walked by. Alex stood right in front of her and asked, "Are you my Nana?" She said, "Well, I have grandchildren, but I'm not YOUR Nana." Alex looked at her for a moment and asked, "Whose Nana are you?" She then named all her children and grandchildren for us. She didn't really look like either Bryan's mom or my mom, but I guess Alex thought maybe since we were in a hotel we might run into them!

I was looking forward to a nice relaxing Mother's Day breakfast (provided by the hotel), but it wasn't exactly what I had pictured. Alex and Papa were in the room so I had Sam by myself, and he was the proverbial bull in the china shop. He threw a plastic spoon, dumped food on the ground, smeared syrup on the table, and managed to turn his chair over twice on the tile floor. Finally he was so naughty I took him back to the room for time out in his crib, went back down and finished my (now cold) Belgian waffle by myself. Next time I will be more strategic and insist that we all eat together. Let papa handle the bull in the china shop on Mother's Day!

Anyway - it was such a good time I hope to do it again every year. :-)