Our Getaway

Brooklyn has been asking for the past 6+ months to go to a hotel and go swimming. Well since I have the week off for Spring Break, Chad got some time off, and it's Brooklyn's birthday this week, we decided to rent a hotel room with an indoor swimming pool and take the girls for our own little family getaway. I scoured the internet and found the cheapest place downtown with an indoor pool to be the Shilo Inn. (Brooklyn doesn't care what the room looks like, right...) so off we went. We decided to let the girls take a nap before we left, and of course Brooklyn got out of bed 4 times. We finally made it downtown at around 6:15...

After we finished checking in, I asked the clerk, "Now where's the pool?" "Oh," she replies, "it's broken." Little miss Brooklyn is sitting next to me, heartbroken. You could see the tears in her eyes. I then explain to the clerk that this is the reason we chose this hotel and why we came downtown. She finally admitted that we could use the Hilton's pool which was across the street.

So we dropped off our stuff, and went to dinner. We ended up at the Olive Garden because it was close and the wait wasn't long at all.
After dinner we ventured off to the Hilton to look at their pool. Of course you needed a key to get in, so we were on our way back to our hotel when Mary Beth and Charlie asked us if we wanted to go for a ride. Chad had been saying all week how fun he thought it'd be, and since swimming wasn't working, we sucked up our pride and purchased a carriage ride around downtown. Mary Beth was awesome and Brooklyn loved every minute of it. Her head was sticking out of the carriage the whole time. Charlie even lost a horseshoe as we were on our tour, so she got to see the horseshoe up close. Here's our lovely family shot!
Well first thing we did this morning was go swimming. For all who know me well, I hate to swim, especially when it's cold. This pool was cold, but both Jacee and Brooklyn loved every minute of it! We swam until we had to go eat...we couldn't loose our free breakfast... and Brooklyn kept asking if we could go again. Unfortunately, we couldn't. Walking back and forth across the street and down the road just takes some of the fun out of swimming.
After we ate and showered, we went to the Clark Planetarium. It was a little too old for Brooklyn, but she had fun watching the movie in the dome theater. After the planetarium, we went and got lunch.
By the time we got home both girls had crashed, but we had a super time! (Even if the pool wasn't working... getaways are just what a family needs!)