Our little Trip

Last week Nate went to SLC to take a class for 3 days on Auditing (continuing education credits...). I immediately saw this as an opportunity for a vacation when he initially informed me of this obligation and decided to tag along! So naturally, I felt as excited and nervous as any mother of two 16 month olds would, knowing this would be our longest stay in a hotel with our 2 children and I would be alone all day long! Amazingly I felt capable, and confident that tagging along was a much better idea than staying home. Thankfully I found myself pleasantly surprised by their ability to adapt.  

We stayed at a nice hotel in downtown Salt Lake City which had two downfalls. We were essentially required to valet park our vehicle at the hotel and there were no meals at the hotel. This may not seem that horrible, but when you have two children who feel the need to feed themselves and are really messy at it, never eat much, and when they do, you're just hoping they'll eat what you place before them while feeling a great need to provide a nutritious meal, it can a bit stressful and expensive when eating out is your only option.  On the other hand, imagine how fun it is to get to your hotel and immediately you are having your door opened and suddenly you are feeling rushed to get your two little ones, along with a days worth of mess out of the car in what feels like 30 seconds. Not a trip killer, but these two things definitely added a nice little twist!

We found ourselves completely off schedule, actually, we had no schedule! I left early every morning and returned when Nate returned from his class only to take off for dinner.  We generally never got our kids into bed before 8:30 or 9. It may not sound late, but they are usually in bed by 7 or 7:30. And yet they did really well.  I was really lucky to get to see some really great friends while I was here and we got to visit and have some fun play dates for our kids too!  We went shopping, Visited Temple Square, had a nice couple hours at the McDonalds playland, went to the zoo, ate out way too much, discovered some garden boutique, and just had a really good time in a new city!

 The garden boutique was decorated with these witches everywhere. They were so cute and fun to look at.  The kids actually stayed in their stroller for the most part... and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the suckers I gave them! Bribing every once in awhile never hurt anyone, right?!

I was so happy to see Kels and her kiddos who were visiting from Texas! Hard to believe we survived our outing with 2 sets of twins under the age of 2 and little Luke...we must be super moms! Or at least that's what I tell myself.

 I was really worried the zoo would be a bust, but they loved it! They worst part was that I only have two arms and my measly human strength and abilities! AKA I couldn't carry them around the entire time or be in two places at once, so they had to get in and out of the stroller multiple times and they NEVER wanted to get back in. They would point at the animals saying words i'll never know, squeezed between legs to see the polar bears, begged strangers to pick them up at the rhinos, smiled at and loved the giraffes... let us just say it was worth all the effort, but I'm pretty sure we'll be taking daddy next time! :)

We truly had a blast and I just love my little munchkins so much! They are so entertaining and loving.  I cannot imagine life without them! (And Thanks to all our friends who made our trip so fun, Kels, Bre, Brooke, Steph, and Brittany!)