Anniversary Vacation

Kevin and I just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We were trying to figure out something big to do and thought about getting away for a couple nights. You'd think being an anniversary get-away we'd go without the kids, but we wanted the kids to come so it turned into a family vacation. The last time I stayed in a hotel was when we went to South Dakota right after I found out I was pregnant with Bradley - so just over 5 years ago! That's just crazy to me. And it was crazy thinking that our kids, especially Bradley, had NO idea what it was like to stay overnight in a hotel and go on vacation. So - long overdue!!! We were kind of debating between Glenwood Springs or Yellowstone and because Glenwood Springs was half the drive we decided on that. We only had a couple days because Kevin could only take off 1 day, so we headed up on a Friday after he did a couple things that morning and got back on Sunday night. I was a little worried about Gracie in the car for 4 hours. She is VERY independent and VERY strong willed and has NEVER liked the car seat because she doesn't like being strapped in to anything and not having freedom to go wherever she wants. Even when she was a baby she would push and pull at the straps and grunt and squirm and try to get out for a whole hour straight. I was kind of expecting her to fall asleep since it was approaching nap time anyway, but that didn't happen. However, they were very very good. They kept each other occupied and were being very nice to each other (for the most part). I just switched their car seats and I'm so glad I did. Bradley used to be on the other side with Sammie in the middle and Gracie just can't keep her hands off of her and would bug her constantly (and take her paci), so now it's MUCH better! Sammie did sleep off and on and was a sweetheart as usual.

It was so cute how excited they were. The hotel was very nice, it had a nice indoor pool with a HUGE slide. The first night we just hung out, ordered pizza and swam. I didn't get any pictures of the pool, which I'm sad about, but I kept debating bringing my camera and taking pictures or getting in the pool and swimming with everyone and every time I opted to swim :) (even though NOW I wish I took some pictures :) ) The slide was big and winded around and the first time I went down sitting up and it was SO much fun. Then Kevin went and told me to lay down so that you go faster. The next time I did I layed down and was going so fast that I pretty much got whiplash going around one turn. I heard my neck and back crack and it was sore the rest of the trip!

The next day we went on the tram up to the Glenwood Springs Adventure Park. The tram ride was a lot of fun. We were in the tram with a girl who worked there and I was taking so many pictures and she was texting on her phone the whole time - I guess it's not very exciting to her anymore - but we sure thought it was cool! :)

       

 

 

 

I ended up having mixed feelings about the Adventure Park. Gracie was about 1 inch too short to ride almost all the rides, even though all of them I would have gone with her and she would have been totally fine. A couple of the workers let her slide which I was VERY appreciative about. But all the others just made it SO hard on her. Standing in line to get on a tiny little Farris wheel then being told that she couldn't go just crushed her. It was a mess because then I didn't want to go at all, but then Bradley wanted to go so bad. I was SO mad at the lady because her head was touching the pole, she would have been just fine, but whatever... One nice lady let her get on a roller coaster when we first got there and the place was pretty deserted. Gracie was fine the first 2 times around, then she started crying which REALLY surprised me - I thought Bradley would have been more likely to do that :)

We rode the Giddy Up ride a lot because there was no line at all and the guy was one of the nicer ones that let Gracie ride.

Sweet baby girl just fell asleep watching all the excitement :)

We sat in the sandbox for a long time letting them dig and play since Gracie was so limited on what she could do, then decided to try out the 4D 5-minute movie - worst mistake of the trip! I didn't really know what to expect. Sammie and I sat behind everyone in the non-motion seats and I didn't even bother putting on the 3D glasses. Not even 15 seconds into the movie you got sprayed in the face with water as the car in the movie splashed into a puddle - and all hell broke lose! Bradley and Gracie immediately started screaming at the top of their lungs and we had to grab what we could and run out of the theatre. We had to go back in later to get the rest of the stuff we couldn't get in the haste to get out. It was such a mess. For hours, no, actually WEEKS, they would both randomly start complaining about how scary that movie was. Gracie would say "No like movie! Scary! Sprayed water in my face!"

 

 

They have a canyon swing that Kevin was going to try out but then we completely forgot about it since it was kind of off on its own. This was when we went to check it out and the kids didn't like how loud it was :)

We came back down the mountain and had lunch and relaxed at the hotel for a little bit then went back up right before it closed for the night, thinking that it would be less busy but it was worse. Then the next morning we got a late check out so we could go swimming in the pool all morning and we were the only ones so we got this huge pool all to ourselves, it was so nice. On the way back we stopped for lunch and Kevin took one bite and his spaghetti and meatballs got stuck in his throat again. I don't know if I've talked about his tiny throat issue on the blog before - but it's just that - he has a tiny throat. Food gets stuck very easily, he's had to get his throat stretched 2 times now and has learned how to deal with it pretty well and can usually get food out by himself - luckily we've only had to take 1 trip to the ER. This time it was lodged in there the longest it's ever been because he was being stubborn and not wanting another medical bill from the ER. If it was my choice we would have gone in, but 12 hours after it got stuck he finally got it out. It was an unfortunate way to end our vacation but thank God it didn't happen on the way TO our vacation.
I was thinking this little mini vacation would be the perfect amount of time. I hadn't taken a vacation in a long time and was even hesitant to do this one, I'm definitely a home-body and don't really like going too far from home. When I got back home - I was so sad! I could have easily stayed another day or even two and am longing to go on another one soon. Now that I know what I've been missing I don't want to go too long without one again! It was just so nice just being able to hang out together and not have to worry about day to day chores and obligations and Kevin needed a break from work and one mean client in particular. We're thinking about going to Colorado Springs next time because we haven't been there in a while and it's still close to home. Maybe some day we'll venture out of state! Gasp! :)