Vacation: Day One, the Hotel Stay

In late June, we headed out on our first family vacation of the year. I had activities packed for the car ride (each day was only about 5 hours in the car, four travel days total), and the first night we had reserved a hotel on-line that boasted a hot breakfast and a nice pool.

We rolled out of our town, into the next state, and several hours later into Rock Springs, Wyoming.  We checked in, found a nice Mexican restaurant to eat at, then went back to the pool to get ready to swim.

Here are the kids, ready for the big "swimming poops" adventure (that's what Kate called a pool every time she saw one, "Swimmin' poops!"):

We walked to the pool, and were sad to find that it was not in working order. It had water in it, but it was dirty. I never actually saw a sign that said "Pool Closed" or "Out of Order: Do Not Enter", but it was clear that no one had swam in it for a while.

What does one do when all day long you've been telling your kids that at the end of the day, they would get to swim? Well, you problem solve. The restaurant where we ate had a pool right next door, and Kate and I had watched some of the people swimming there. I had talked with some ladies who told me the water was pretty cold, but their kids had gotten used to it.

We drove to that pool, and sure enough, the water was frigid. As in, snow melt. We could only put our feet in, or risk hypothermia or frostbite. But we had fun.

Here's Ethan showing off his most excellent muscles:

After swimming, we returned to our hotel and got ready for bed.  I thought Kate might surprise us and go to bed really nicely.  See her here, happily getting tucked in for a night of slumber:

Soon after that, she started fussing, so Ethan said, "Probly she wants a pretend story." So he crawled over to her playpen and told her a funny "Bonk Rollercoaster" story, just like Daddy does for Ethan every night.

Unfortunately, the pretend story did not lull Kate to sleep.  Soon she was sitting with me in my bed,

and later, annoying me with her kicking.  It can seem so terrible at the time, when one is exhausted and just wishing you could peacefully go to sleep and stay asleep. 

But, we made it through, and ended up enjoying a decent hot breakfast in the morning.