Where to go?

 We have known since probably August that Blake would have a 4 day weekend over Memorial day weekend. So we have thought some about what to do. A few weeks ago we thought maybe we should go to Nauvoo. So we started looking into hotels and what all there is to do there. We weren’t sure if that was our plan or not, so we also looked at other option. Thursday after Remi got home from school we were still trying to decide what to do. We thought maybe we should just stay in Omaha and save some money. We would go camping, on bike rides, Blake and I could go on a date. So that became our plan. Then we looked at the weather. It was supposed to rain and be cold the whole weekend.

So we were back to square one. What to do? There isn’t a whole lot near Omaha that sounded like fun to us. We just wanted to be outside and the weather wasn’t cooperating. So we went to bed Thursday night still not knowing what we would do the next day, but thinking we should just stick with our original plan. Friday morning Parker woke up at 5:30. I fed him and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I got up and started some bread, then went to the Wal-mart to get treats and some grocery’s we needed. I got home and we got all packed and left the house about 12pm, still not really having a plan, but headed for Nauvoo.

We stopped at Best Buy right by our house so Blake could run in and get something for the DVD player to play over the speakers in the car. While he ran in Best Buy I went and got gas. While I was getting gas I realized I had forgotten mustard and Mayo for our sandwiches. Also Broden started telling me he needed to go to the bathroom(we had them all go right before we got in the car) So we drove home(good thing because we left the garage door open. Broden went to the bathroom and I grabbed the mustard and mayo, then we headed back to get Blake. He got in the car and we realized we had forgotten the DVD’s for the kids. So we headed home again. So finally at 1:15 we got on the road headed to Nauvoo, or somewhere in that direction. We were going to drive a little while and have lunch at a park or something, but the kids were too hungry. So we just age in the car while the kids watched tangled. We decided to just go to a hotel in Des Moines and stay the night since hotels were so much cheaper here than in Nauvoo.

We arrived at the hotel around 3:30, changed into our swimming suits and went to the pool. This is the whole reason our kids like vacations and pools is so we can swim. We swam for a couple hours then headed to the room to get dinner. The kids also think that if you are swimming at a hotel you have to order pizza, so we did. It was a nice relaxing evening just doing what we wanted, when we wanted to. After pizza we relaxed and watched TV for a while, then headed back to the pool. We fell asleep Friday night watching the Animal Planet.

Saturday morning we got to sleep in until 8! We went down for a yummy continental breakfast then headed back to the room to watch How to Train Your Dragon on TV. Blake stayed with all the kids and watched that while I went and exercised. Then we all went to the pool to swim one last time. I sat in the hot tub with Parker for a while, then went to the room to get ready and pack. We checked out at 12 and drove to a state park close to our hotel.

It was raining, so we just drove around it, then ate in the car. Then we took a little walk to a bird blind that was set up in the woods. There were like 15 bird feeders in front of it and we sat there for about half an hour watching birds fly in to eat. There were probably 20 different kinds and some we had never seen before. There were rose breasted grosbeak, red belly wood pecker, red headed wood pecker, orioles, blue jays, indigo buntings(I didn’t see it, it is my goal to see one someday), cardinals, and tons of other amazing birds. I could have sat there all day. The kids were ready to go though. So we called the Ingersoll’s to see what their plan was. They said they were going to a garden near Des Moines then staying the night in Des Moines and heading to Nauvoo in the morning. So we pricelined the same hotel and  headed to the garden’s to meet them.

I think it was called Reiman’s Garden. It was a beautiful garden. At the beginning there was a butterfly building. The butterflies were very friendly. We each had butterflies land on us. They especially loved the girls bows in their hair. Then we walked through the rest of the grounds meeting up with Ingersoll’s for the kids to run around together for a while and to take a few pictures. I love gardens like this. There were walking paths everywhere and all different kinds of plants. There was one area that talked about how important bees are to pollinating and it had different ideas to get bees to live by your plants. One of them was just 2x4’s screwed together to make the shape of a house. Then they took a drill bit and screwed holes into them, for the bees. I would love to have a garden like this someday. I told Blake I would rather live in a shack and have nice fun outside things, than a huge house.

When we left the garden we stopped and got some KFC and headed to the park. It was just our family in the whole park. We enjoyed our dinner, then played tag and hide and go seek tag. It was so fun! Parker even had fun just laying on the blanket watching us. He would laugh whenever we were running after eachother in front of him.

When we got to the hotel guess what we did? Yep, more swimming with Ingersoll’s this time. We swam for a while then headed to the room for bath’s, pj’s and a movie. It was funny in our room all 6 of the kids were on one bet all huddled around the DVD player watching Spirit and Blake was sprawled out on the other queen bed, all by himself watching Animal Planet on TV. We talked with Ingersoll’s and decided we had loved our trip so far and would be fine going home in the morning because it had already been a successful vacation. So we tried getting a hold of the Hotel in Nauvoo to see if we could cancel our reservation, but they didn’t answer.

Sunday morning we woke up at 8 again and tried calling the hotel. We didn’t know if we should get packed and head to Nauvoo, to stay in the hotel we had held with the credit card, or relax, swim and head home. Finally at 9 we got a hold of them and they said they could cancel our reservation. So Blake took the kids swimming, then we showered, packed up and headed to a park to eat lunch and head home. I don’t think I am a fan of the no church on Sunday thing. Usually even on vacation we will go to church. I didn’t say anything this time, but I really missed it. I think we will always go to church on Sunday’s, no matter where we are. I need it to much to not go. Yes, it might be a sacrifice, but isn’t that what Christ did for us? Make a sacrifice?

So now we are headed back to Omaha. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough tomorrow to go fishing, or hiking or have a fire or something. Remi is all done with school and I am so excited to be able to do things at night and stay up a little later.