End of the Year Adventure

One of the exciting things about the week after Christmas was that Lala & Baby Hugsy were coming from Texas, and were going to spend a few days at our house! Then a terrible stomach bug hit me...and then Allie...and it was decided that they probably should stay elsewhere. The sickness passed (thankfully quickly), after a day or so it seemed like no one else was going to get it, and we decided to go a night early to the family party and spend the night in a hotel to get a little extra time with them. It was very spur of the moment (we checked into the hotel less than 24 hours after having the idea), and the twins were so excited about our special adventure!

My adorable nephew.

Playing with Hugsy.

A happy Nana.

A proud uncle.

We filled the afternoon/evening with a bunch of mini-adventures. Seeing Lala, Nana, & Poppy, playing with Hugsy, riding the hotel "alligator" (elevator).

He insisted Linny come along for the adventure.

Pressing the buttons is their favorite part.

It made me a little sad that Ryan started saying "elewator" instead of alligator while we were there. Just another of the baby things falling away...

Swimming at the hotel pool was the big highlight they looked forward to all evening. They were so thrilled!

I love this picture of them dancing in the water.

Ry-guy liked to walk all the way to the other end of the pool to jump to me and then swim to the front. This is him walking "slow like a turtle."

We practiced some of the things we learned in swim lessons this past summer. Their favorite was being "monkeys" along the wall. They would hang on with their hands and move across the wall - eventually without us holding them! They loved showing off this skill :)

Making monkey sounds.

Daaaad, I know what I'm doing. Let me go by myself already!

Eventually, big kids came, and Allie was shivering, and the chlorine was bothering me too much, and we had to go

Wrapped in their towels and watching the big kids.

That night I was so nervous. The chlorine really agitated my lungs, and I was worried it did the same for them. I kept checking on them and couldn't sleep. I finally fell asleep, and about an hour later Ryan was awake and crying. He said his throat hurt (I thought it was the chlorine). He sad he didn't feel well (I thought it was the chlorine). And then he threw up, and I realized he had the nasty bug. Despite the night of little sleep, and the adventure ended way early with us checking out and heading home before the party, the twins still talk about how it was such a fun adventure (and how they are like little fishies!). The nasty bug hit Lucas on New Years day, so hopefully we are done with the sickies for a while!