Spontaneous Getaway

On Saturday, we decided that we were bored, needed to get out of town, and we could take an overnight trip. In a way, a spontaneous trip works out much more nicely than a planned one, since plans seem to go wrong more often than not. It seems like looking forward to a trip will often mean that it gets canceled, or someone gets sick, or something happens to prevent it, but a spontaneous one just happens.  Or maybe I'm just getting cynical.

Anyway, we went north, which is where we usually go for surgeries or social worker stuff or that kind of thing.  But really, when you live where we do, there aren't a lot of options, so that's where we went.

We stayed overnight in a hotel with a swimming pool, which I did not get any pictures of, because it took all of my attention, and Hubby's, to wrangle Bean in the water, and introduce Abi to her first swimming pool experience, as well, as an excited Curly and a hesitant Mister. So no pictures.  Still, it turned out to be fun, in spite of Hubby being completely preoccupied with something he wouldn't tell me (until later) and forgetting essentials like swim trunks and diapers.  

After the hotel, we jaunted east for an hour to visit the cabin and check on it for Mom. All was well there, and since it wasn't opened yet, we only stayed long enough for the kids to get a taste of playing in the woods with a promise to come again later in the summer when the weather's warmer.

Curly loved the swing. To me it seemed a bit like deja vu to watch her. I seemed to see myself at her age swinging in the same place, as if time had reversed 25 years or so.

Abi has never been in the woods before; even in Africa she never left the orphanage, so playing outdoors has been a novel experience for her.  On this trip, she mostly clung to Daddy, but I have no doubt that with a little familiarity she'll be ready to explore.

Bean and Mister spent their time collecting and piling rocks.  It made me smile, since those two rarely find much in common and almost never play together.  But they are both boys after all, and the lure of the rock piles called to both of them on this occasion.

We found a tree that had been chewed by something (a beaver?) but luckily it wasn't close enough to the cabin to cause any damage.  We soon headed back home again. I was pleased that all four kids did great in the car. It's been years that we have always had a baby in the family and were prevented from doing much traveling by someone getting car sick or screaming for hours on end. I hope this means that we can now drive farther distances again when we get the bug.