mental health weekend...

You might have noticed a few dates missing in my "fun fridays" posts. Those would happen to be the Fridays that we had the stomach flu, that we discovered G had brought home head lice from school for us all (awful 3 week ordeal that I won't go into, unless you want me to, and believe me, I know way more than you ever want to know about those yucky critters), and when G&W&C got strep throat. We are used to ailments of various sorts, that is the nature of the beast with many small children, but all of these things fell right on top of each other. And that was enough to make this momma and dadda (mostly the momma, who has been trying so hard to have more patience and perspective and grace...and let me tell you grace goes right out the window with head lice) go crazy. So we (mostly I again) decided a little mini vacation was in order over the long President's Day weekend. And while we did not escape to a warm tropical destination, a hotel stay with a pool down the road a bit and some activities we don't do often here in the cities was just right for us. And these photos will be enough to keep me smiling through whatever infectious disease comes next...

the ice castle at the MOA:

 

(SOOOOOO cold, but so fun, must be true Minnesotans....)

fun at the hotel:

(watching Wild Kratts from bed in the morning =)

(then tackling dadda to wake him up for a little fun with photo booth on the iPad)

(nice pool for the ages our kids are at - this side was only 1 ft deep)

(and this side was 3-4 ft deep - G LOVED the slides and that she could touch through the whole pool)

(H was a little unsure at first, but eventually had fun...and learned the cutest trick ever that we will have to take you all back to the hotel pool to show you =)

(and oh did these two have a blast!  many hours were logged in the pool by the time the weekend was over)

We also did Sea Life MN at the MOA, lunch at IKEA in our favorite spot where we can see the airplanes fly in, and of course pizza at the hotel for supper one night.  This is the first time in over a year and a half that we have gone anywhere other than to our parents' houses (we love you parents!!!), and although we didn't drive far (and that part was nice), it did feel like a get-a-way and we all enjoyed it so much!