A promised getaway in a hotel

I've gone through a serious cleansing and purifying stage of my home. i can't stand any clutter or extra broken toys, or clothes we don't need. So to encourage the kids to part w/ toys they didn't want I bribed them. I told them if they sold them at our garage sale then we'd use the proceeds to stay in a hotel. They were eager and our garage sale was a success!

So we took them a mere hour away Memorial Day weekend and stayed in a Marriot Residence Inn and we had a blast! (We went west-AWAY from the shore!) Lexi came too-she's our rent-a-daughter.

We swam, jumped, flipped, played ball...

Snuggled up and watched a movie.

See-so snuggly!!

Our room was great. Lexi had the pull-out couch to herself. Eliza was in the same room in a pack-n-play. We had our own room w/ king-bed (oh, how I want one!) and the boys shared another room. It was great!

Chase chillin' out.

The next morning we went to Round Valley State Park and it was great! They have a sandy beach at the Reservoir and we didn't swim b/c there were some nasty people in there-but the kids loved the sand.

Digging and generally working hard.

We sat in the shade and chilled.

She is drinking gatorade and not urine. Felt the need to clarify.

This was serious work. They loved it.

Then we drove to the other side of the reservoir to picnic and fish. We caught nothing, but had fun anyway!

She's obsessed w/ grabbing the camera!

I just love this picture of them swinging. Good, clean fun being had here!

Something about Eliza's legs in this pic freaks me out. Had to share.

She felt so important carrying this tackle box everywhere!

I love the contrast of all the colors. I love being outdoors!

The girls! And I swear I did Lexi's hair-something mysterious happened between that and this point. Wow!

She's still having a good time! As we all did!