mini vacation

In late February, we took a mini vacation!

A little getaway...a staycation. We all needed to get away. 

We'd been talking about it for a few weeks, but hadn't planned anything. So it was all a little last minute.

Justin came home for lunch on a Thursday, and told me he had Friday off work, since he'd logged so much overtime during his on-call week. I said let's go on our trip! He went back to work, and I got busy booking the hotel and packing our bags. I didn't tell Barrett anything about it. So when Justin got home from work, we told him we had a surprise for him...he was so excited!! Like his mom, he loves to stay in hotels :)

We checked into our hotel around 7pm. 

Then we headed to On the Border for dinner...

After dinner we took Barrett to the Alley for arcade games.

He was in Heaven!!

We stayed out late, and then slept-in the next morning!

Perfect vacation hours :)

 

Our little man crashed in the big bed...he's always the last one up in our house!

After he got up and dressed, he told us he had some "work to do at the desk."

Then we headed for some shopping, and lunch at a family favorite, Il Vicino.

They give kids a ball of dough to play with while you wait for your food. Barrett made a snowman with his.

 

After lunch we went across town to a new place one of my Wichita friends told me about.

Color Me Mine

(Barrett fell asleep on the way)

He picked out a race car bank. You pick out the piece you want to paint and the colors. 

They supply the paint brushes, paint, and do the cleanup and firing of your project!

They called us the other day to let us know that Barrett's car was ready!!

After painting, we had to stop in to Cold Stone Creamery!

 Our bellies were full, and we headed back home!

It was a great family getaway!!

NOW, this mama is counting down the days to my girls weekend getaway!!!

So ready!!

That's a wrap {Summer 2011 wrap up}

Thanks to my friend, Sky, all of my files were recovered from my old/dead MacBook!

So, I can finally catch up on a few of our Summer activities.
I had forgotten about some of the things we did and photos I took. They'd been trapped on my dead computer for so long.

So, as we celebrate the end of Summer this weekend...

I will post a wrap up of our summer activities & photos!!

We did a LOT of swimming and Gigi and Papa's pool.

Barrett loves the water, didn't complain a single time about wearing the vest
(I hope we can find one like this next year too...didn't rub his chin at all), and is one tan little fish!!

Barrett took several classes from the Arts & Humanities and Rec Center.

Super Heros, Wacky Water, Dora & Diego, Dinosaurs and swimming

Dora & Diego Class with his friend, Lydia!

Wacky Water

Swimming Lessons

This was the first year that Mommy didn't get in the pool with him. I was very nervous about how that was going to work. It wouldn't be so bad if parents could sit semi-close to the pool to observe. Where the kids could see them, and felt a bit more comfortable with the situation. BUT no, they are strick that parents aren't allowed by the pool. I sat back behind a big row of shrubs. I could hardly see Barrett, and he usually couldn't see me. It worked, but I wasn't too happy. After the first day, he did pretty good. I was happy to find out that Norah Kate was in his class, so that helped him feel a little more comfortable with it. All-in-all, he did really good. He didn't learn much, as it was mostly just free-play. That was okay with me. I was just happy with the step of letting mom be so far away :) 

We went to the 2011 Cowley County Fair!

It was HOT...so we only made an appearance for one night.

(I also didn't "block off" the Fair on my portrait schedule, so I was bummed I had sessions EVERY night but one)

We took Barrett to the Demolition Derby on Thursday night and he LOVED LOVED LOVED it! While we were there we checked out the animals, and walked around. We didn't get to ride rides this year, since it was after 10pm when the Demo Derby was over, and there wasn't anyone around to ride with B. He was a little sad. 

We had picnics in the park...

and got a new Jeep =)

Barrett helped Papa with mowing!

We went on a weekend vacation to Table Rock Lake with Justin's family...

We relaxed, fished, cooked, went tubing and swam off the dock.

Mimi was the worm lady :)

The kids were catching little perch off the dock, right and left. They had a blast!

Barrett made us so proud and went tubing!!!

We had some issues with the tube loosing air. It kept getting pulled under the water, and we had to bail. But Barrett was a trooper. 

 Even Grandma went tubing!!

It was a great summer, but we are looking forward to FALL!!!!

AND we're still trying to sell our house before we loose the new place! Please say a little prayer, and if you know someone in the area that needs a cute little cottage, please send them our way!!

Have a great Labor Day weekend!