R and R

Yes, a little Rest and Relaxation with Russ and Rita (my in-laws) was Rad and Refreshing. Ok, enough use of r and r, on to the vacay recap. Here are the highlights.

-After no less than 10 hours of searching, I found what I thought would be a great place to stay. Although it did accommodate us nicely with number of beds and floor plan (a 4 bedroom town house with a loft located in a community with a pool/clubhouse which we actually didn't even end up using), there were a few glitches along the way. No AC+broken fridge+burned out light bulbs+smoke alarm that needed a new battery were a few of the downs. A fixed fridge+flipping the breaker so the smoke alarm would stop beeping+a partial credit for the inconvenience of the broken fridge+a private hot tub on our deck were a few of the ups. Not sure we broke even...
-Dinner out to this little spot was pretty fun minus Addie's huge melt-down mid-dinner. We were celebrating Russ and Rita's 40th Anniversary which is actually today. My dinner was delicious, although Pat wasn't that impressed, but I reminded him that I'm not sure I've ever been to a nice dinner with him where he was impressed, and he agreed he's pretty hard to please.
-Of course we worked in some time at the outlets where I scored some major deals at The Children's Place (church pants for Sam for $1.99 plus another 15% off- unheard of!) and picked up a few things at Carter's. I could've spent more time shopping, but it's probably good we quit when we did. The boys spent a little time on the golf course to cancel out our shopping time, I suppose.
-My fear of heights was in full force during our gondola ride to the top of the mountain and back down. I was informed just as we were sitting down and the gondola was taking off that Sam couldn't be strapped to me in the carrier that he was in, so I hurriedly unstrapped him and we were in the air. I have never been so nervous. My squirmy 18 month old plus my overtired and a little bit grumpy 3 year old had me on pins and needles- one wrong move and my babies would be gone! We sang songs a good part of the ride- a way to distract the kids and keep my mind off the impending danger. The views were beautiful and the breeze was nice on the way back down, which I enjoyed much more than the ride up. We were planning to hike around at the top, but Addie face planted after we got off the gondola (so bad she had a mouth full of dirt), her cousin H wanted to go back, and everybody wasn't feeling the hiking love, so we headed back. (The above pic is when we were at the top- notice the dirt all over my chin and all over Addie- it was taken shortly after her fall. Sam's pose is how he stayed most of the weekend- he's making some serious progress on teeth right now with at least 2 more in the works and 4 having cut in the past 2 weeks.)I'm hoping to get in some hiking some time soon- it's one of my favorite things to do, and it's been way too long, but it wasn't meant to be this weekend.
-Hot tub time, adult conversation after the kids were in bed, and delicious treats and breakfasts are some of the makings of a great trip. It's really amazing to me that we could travel less than an hour and have such a nice change of pace. I think family trips are really important- it's nice to see each other in a different element and have time to relax and play together. But I'm also glad to be home!