Anniversary Fun

Yesterday we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.  It seems surreal that it's been that long.  I looked through photos from our wedding, 5th anniversary, 10th anniversary, and this year to post something to facebook.  It struck me that in the 10th pictures we were pregnant with the twins and now this year we have three kids.  Life has changed more in the last five years than it did over the first ten.

We didn't have anyone to leave the kids with so we could vacation away for our celebration.  We really struggled with how to make this celebration special.  I lined up a babysitter for the afternoon/evening, but then there weren't any movies we were really excited to see and couldn't think of anything else in town that we really wanted to do besides go to dinner by ourselves.  Eventually we came up with the idea of getting a hotel room and spending the night there as a family.  The kids love staying in hotels, there's an indoor swimming pool and they and I love swimming.  So the babysitter came over mid-afternoon and Glen and I left and hung out until an acceptable dinner time.

Dinner ended up being an interesting and memorable experience.  We went to a local steakhouse.  When they seated us at our table we realized that at the table next to us they were set up with a professional video camera prepared to film something.  As we sat there it became clear that they were from Texas Bucket List and were filming for an upcoming episode.  The host was sitting at the table, they had a server poised to deliver a hamburger meal and then later a steak platter.  It was very interesting to watch.  I was nervous they'd pan around the room and catch us awkwardly eating or something.  The manager would come by every once in a while and check in with them and the owner of the restaurant even made an appearance.  Once they'd finished filming the eating part the host of the show came over to chat for a few minutes.  They chose another couple to interview, which is fine.  He was probably chatting with us to see if we'd be interview material, but they ended up at the next table with an older couple who said they actually watch the show.  When we were leaving I remembered that I'd wanted a picture of us at the restaurant, so we set up for a selfie in front of the sign.  The host and cameraman happened to be out there, so the host offered to take our picture for us and then Glen asked if he'd like to be in the picture with us so the cameraman took one of the three of us.  We'd never heard of the show before but now that we experienced that I think we'll look into it. It's something right up Glen's alley.

After dinner we picked up the kids and loaded up to go to the hotel.  It was a big hit with the kids.  The pool was fun and then when we got back to our room the kids fell asleep pretty quickly because we'd tired them out.  Unfortunately they didn't sleep well so I was up a lot with them.  Glen had to get up for work and left around 6:30.  The plan was for him to come back around 9 to help me check out and load up the van, but in the middle of the night I remembered that Luke had an OT recheck scheduled for 8:30.  I was a little disappointed, but then realized it only changed things by about half an hour.  The biggest worry was that when I packed for overnight, I'd planned to just come straight home, so I didn't pack stuff for fixing my hair.  The kids and I got up and hurried to get ready to leave and just as I got the van loaded (completely by myself) I got a voicemail that the appointment had to be canceled.  Shoot!  So we regrouped and I decided to brave breakfast with all three in tow.  It worked out well, they were excited to try "restaurant" food.  It really was a confidence booster.  I'm always so afraid of trying anything new with them because I'm afraid of failure and I don't want to get into a situation with them that's out of my control.  I don't push myself and it really holds us back from some fun opportunities.  So this morning, doing all that myself really helped me feel more capable.

During breakfast I asked if they wanted to go home or if they wanted to go swimming.  I was on the fence because our swimming stuff had just sat in wet piles all night because I knew we were just coming home.  But we'd also had so much fun swimming the night before.  They, of course, voted to swim so we walked back to the van to get the suitcase and went back to our room to change.  I didn't realize until I has halfway through changing that housekeeping had been in and started cleaning the room. That was kind of unsettling.  We swam for about an hour. The crazy thing is that Luke and Micah both ended up having to poop while we were at the pool so we had to all get out of the pool and go into the bathroom, wait for one of them to do his business, go back out to the pool and then the next boy announced he had to go.  Last night I'd taken Josiah in to the bathroom and he'd pooped too!  What's with that pool?  Last night Josiah discovered he could float with his puddle jumper on without holding on to me.  He'd also taken his puddle jumper off and was experimenting with jumping to me. Today he learned how to actually kick his feet and move his body while wearing his puddle jumper to swim.  It really was amazing and I can't believe the swimming improvement over the summer.  I pretty much could be on my own - keeping a close eye on them - as they swam around.  I'm so proud.

We went back to our room and changed clothes and then headed home.  It really was a fun family experience.  I loved that our hotel was so close to home so if we forgot something it would be easy to run home to get it (I forgot something to sleep in, but made do with the clothes that I did bring).  We didn't have to pack the boys vitamins or milk because we'd be home quickly in the morning.  Yay to 15 years!