Jason had a work conference at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear on Thursday and Friday this week, so we got Hallie's absence from school excused and packed up the whole group for a quick trip to the bay.
While Daddy was in meetings Thursday afternoon, the kids and I explored a little. We found a playground right on the coast of the bay, so we stopped to play.
We stayed at the Marina House (the name of Hallie's favorite character on Fresh Beat Band, as she was quick to point out).
The beautiful landscaping attracted a ton of butterflies, which the kids loved.
We ate cookies at Tea Time in the lobby of the Grand (until Brooks decided to throw himself on the floor in protest because Mommy said "only one cookie"--then we headed back to our room).
We ate dinner with Daddy at Wintzell's, which is where Jason and I ate lunch when we stayed at the Grand for our one-year anniversary. It was just a LITTLE different this time...
After dinner we admired the sunset and went for a night swim to wear everyone out before all sleeping in the same (thankfully, large) room!
Sara and Brooks swim with their vests all by themselves these days, which makes pool time a lot more fun--and more doable for me when I'm by myself with the kids.
Swimming lessons with Daddy.
Friday morning, we enjoyed the amazing buffet breakfast in the main dining room at the hotel, where the kids were surprisingly well-behaved, thank goodness! I was fully prepared to evacuate if things turned ugly, since Jason's coworkers were also eating their breakfasts in the fancy room.
Then Daddy went to more meetings, and we donned our swimsuits for the morning. We walked out to the beach area. On the way, we did some ballet/gymnastics by the water.
Stopping only briefly to humor Mommy with a picture.
We played on the sand and splashed at the edge of the water.
Then we went to the pool to play.
And sunbathe.
We also found a cool playground near the pool, so we did that for a bit. This was done largely to console Sara, who got turned down when she tried to ride the cool slide at the pool. You have to be 48 inches tall, which Mommy didn't know until a dejected Sara came racing down to tell me about the 'bad bad man" at the top of the slide who wouldn't let her go down.
Daddy ate with us by the pool during his lunch break.
After lunch we went back to the room to pack up. Brooks was asleep within 5 minutes of sitting in the car, and the girls weren't far behind him! We stopped briefly at Peach Park on the way home to eat some of their homemade ice cream (they don't sell chocolate chip anymore, which has been my staple PP purchase since I was five! I'm still not quite over it). And then we were home. It was a whirlwind trip and a bit of a haul in the car, but I am glad we did it. The kids had a great time, and 36 hours was just the right amount of time for me to fly solo at the pool and beach. If it had been much longer our fun level might have deteriorated somewhat! :)
