Army family fun weekend!

I have returned. We have been having so much fun having fun, that I have had no time to write about it. I'm starting to think we are addicted to family fun, and that's ok with me! But there are some seriously fun things we've done that I don't want to forget, so I'm going to take a little flash back in time to review. First, I want to start with Chris's birthday weekend (at the very end of February.)

Chris's birthday was on a Thursday this year. We had a nice night celebrating by going out to dinner, enjoying some German chocolate cake I made for him, and some birthday presents. We had a great evening together (except when I randomly became very nauseous and sat on the bathroom floor for a couple of hours while Chris got the kids to bed. Happy birthday to you! Thankfully, I wasn't really sick, but hadn't been drinking enough water. I know it's weird, but it happens sometimes to me, despite that massive amount of water I do drink.)

Anyway, the next day we went to Wisp Ski Resort for an Army funded family get away! All meals, lodging, a date night, child care, and family fun activities were included for free! We had a few group sessions with an Army chaplain and his wife, where we talked about how we can be better spouses and parents. On Saturday, after our morning group session, Claire and I went snow tubing! I've always wanted to go, and I was so excited. It would have been better if we could have all gone as a family, but Maddie was in desperate need for a nap since she didn't go to sleep until after midnight the night before, and Amelia was too young. Chris kindly volunteered to take them back to our room as he knew I really wanted to go tubing. We had such a blast! There was an escalator-like thing that you stood on to get up the hill (something I dreamed about as a kid sledding on my back hill.) We had a blast going down the hill as many times as we could in our two hour slot. Claire LOVED it too, and by the end, she wanted to go down by herself instead of me holding on to her tube and going down together. I definitely want to do that again!

I forgot a camera when we went, but got this shot of the tubing hill that night.

When we got back from tubing, we went straight to the pool which was right across from our room. (I'm so glad my pediatrician happened to tell me there was a pool, or I never would have thought to bring the kids' suits!) We had a blast in the pool, and Amelia got to go swimming for the first time. She loved her special time with daddy (who usually isn't a huge fan of the pool.) Maddie and Claire also had a great time and really didn't want to leave the pool. (Sorry for the blurry cell phone pictures. Can you believe we forgot our camera?)

That night, we had a much needed date night! The kids had a great time at child care playing games, having dinner, and watching movies. Chris and I had a delicious, free dinner at the lodge. It was AMAZINGLY good. I've become quite a fan of salmon and I'm still dreaming about the salmon I had there. Mmm. Afterwards, we went on the mountain roller coaster. It was a track that went up the mountain, then twisted it's way down. You ride individual cars and can either quickly coast down, or use the brakes and take the scenic route. Chris chose the scenic route, and I chose to go fast (until I caught up with him and HAD to brake.) It was really cool, and unique (at least to me who's never been to a ski resort before this.) After walking around in the crisp air for a while, we went back to our room and watched some tv. I know it sounds totally lame, but we really miss having relaxing tv watching hotel time when we're with the kids. Usually we have to get them to bed which means we have to get ourselves to bed since we're in the same room. We also spent some bubbly time in the warm hot tub by the pool. Ahhh. I like to take advantage of hot tubs when I'm not pregnant. :) We had a wonderful time enjoying time with each other at the ski resort.

The next day we got up and had one more short group session after breakfast. Then we headed home on the four hour drive. (We were surprised how far we could drive and still be in Maryland, but it's in the far northwest corner.) It was a magical weekend and we were so grateful for the opportunity. Thank you Army, and thank you belly, for not really being sick!

This is how Maddie woke up. Holy bedhead! Hahaha