...more than the person who just had one." -Author unknown.
Last week we had our first family vacation since the triplets were born (not counting friends' and families' cabins). Yes, a real "road trip" including a hotel. With a pool. Are you picturing the Griswolds yet? We'd gotten a great deal on a 2 night stay at Whitefish Lodge in Crosslake, MN, and were generously invited to spend a night with Dave's aunt and uncle in Pequot Lakes, so off we went!
We left last Wednesday afternoon after eating lunch and packing up everything but the kitchen sink into the minivan. It was a beautiful day at home and thankfully still beautiful when we finally made it up to Crosslake about 4 hours later. The lodge was really nice, and the desk clerk took pity on me and upgraded us to their "King Kiddie" suite, which included one king sized bed and a twin/full bunk bed which the kids initially loved. (More to come on that later). The lodge was also mostly empty, but for the poor souls who were across the hall from us in our upgraded room.
We got there just in time for dinner and made our way over to a restaurant nearby where we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset on their patio overlooking Big Trout Lake. The kids were a little restless after the long car ride but overall were pretty well behaved. Unfortunately, I'd left my camera back at the hotel so missed my opportunity to capture the beautiful sunset as well as Ellie throwing her arm around Aidan to walk with him along the path to the beach. Awwwww........
On the way home after dinner we happened to see three deer in the woods right outside our hotel. The kids were so excited! We quickly parked the car and tried to very quietly walk on the path around the hotel but didn't see them again. We made our way back to our room, and Dave and I unpacked while the kids checked out the bunk bed and the TV mounted on the wall next to it.
We spent Thursday morning at the pool which Ellie loved; the littles, not so much. Aidan camped out near the exit doors for quite a while, but Zoe and Maddie at least hung out near the edge of the pool, though they weren't too thrilled to get into the water. They all did finally get into the hot tub with us and seemed to enjoy that, though Aidan took an unexpected dunk when he inadvertently stepped off the bench seat and briefly went under. Overall they seemed to have a good time. After lunch, we meandered over to the town square which was adjacent to the hotel and did the touristy thing, checking out the gift shops. Unfortunately, the only candy/ice cream shop was only open on Saturdays this time of year:
Thursday afternoon was spent napping back in our room (my favorite part of the trip up to that point), and then we had some yummy pizza and the biggest plate of nachos we'd ever seen from Zorba's nearby. Zorba's had a really neat old firetruck parked out front so we made up for our missed photo opportunity from the night before:
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| (Maddie was most definitely not in the mood to get her photo taken on the fire truck) |
The kids were pretty tuckered out by the time we made it back to the room, so we managed an early bedtime. On that night, though, Ellie was feeling pretty left out so all four kids and I got "comfy" on the bed while Dave got the bunk bed all to himself.
Dave and the kids talked me into another quick trip to the pool Friday morning before checkout. Aidan spent nearly all that trip to the pool camped out at the exit door. We couldn't even get him into the hot tub again, though he did leave the doors long enough to locate the buttons to start and stop the hot tub jets. Repeatedly.
After packing all our stuff back up and loading the car, we traveled to Nisswa and had lunch at A&W (yep, really expanding our horizons on vacation, I know). Dave and the kids indulged me by letting me poke around in all the fun shops in Nisswa; Aidan even did a little shopping!
Ellie came across these cardboard cutouts of Dorothy and the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz and was so excited - she just had to have her picture taken with them:
Not one to be outdone, Aidan found a couple more cutouts and demanded that his picture be taken, too (this one disturbed me a little, I confess):
The kids got a huge (and cheap!) thrill by riding this old horse:
And, they finally got their fill of ice cream and candy from Nisswa's Chocolate Ox:
Friday afternoon turned pretty windy and chilly but after meeting up with Dave's Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Cubby in Pequot Lakes we made it over to the high school to their granddaughter Erin's double header softball games, which they won! Our kids ended up in the car for most of the two games, alternately napping and coloring, as it was just too cold for them to sit outside.
Dinner that night was at Cubby and Cheryl's house, and while carrying the girls up the stairs to their door, klutzy me missed a step, fell, and in the process dropped both girls and my camera and cut my knee. Poor Maddie took the brunt of the fall and ended up with a good sized goose-egg on the back of her head, and my camera lens came apart. We both have since recovered (except for my pride!), and Cubby thankfully fixed my lens. We had such a nice time visiting with Cubby and Cheryl; our family of 6 is definitely a lot to take in, even for one night! We took our time getting home on Saturday, stopping first at the Brainerd High School Spring Arts & Crafts Fair (awesome!) and then at Theilen's Meats in Little Falls (yummy) and for quick visits with the Grandmas in Coon Rapids. As much fun as we all had, we were pretty happy to finally be home.
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