A little getaway

 Austin had a conference in Dallas, so we left the older kids here for school/jobs/etc. and took the youngest 3. Conveniently, the conference was at the Ritz-Carlton, so that was where we stayed! It was really amazing!

We arrived late Sunday afternoon and quickly checked in so we could go visit with the K family. The hotel was beautiful, the room spacious, and they even had a coloring book and hotel scavenger hunt for the kids with a stuffed animal reward for completing it. All the door opening and fanciness took a little getting used to but we "Dallas-ed up" as Austin started calling it. (I even wore my big dangle earrings!)

 They were already hard at work while Austin and I readied the room. Thankfully it had plenty of space for all of us, although sleeping in one room with these guys was not my favorite part of the adventure since I am a light sleeper. But it wasn't TOO bad. ;)

 Fun dinner with friends

We left Anastasia to stay the night there and headed back to the hotel. Austin and I explored the hotel after getting the two little ones to bed.

The next day we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast since the conference started closer to lunch. We did a bit of school and then headed over to hang out some more with the K family.

We went back to the hotel that afternoon for a swim and then dinner with Austin. The pool was nice and heated so it was a great chance for the kids to have some more fun and me to squeeze in some exercise. It was on the second floor terrace which we thought was cool.

 The next day we ventured out of town to meet up with some neighbor friends that moved away earlier this year. We had a nice little visit with them before visiting the zoo that afternoon.

They loved the meerkat and decided we need one for a pet. :p We also learned that a porcupine is a rodent.

That was expensive lettuce but totally worth it. What a cool experience!

We went for another swim before meeting up with the K family for dinner out on the town.

We thought we were checking out the next morning after breakfast, but Austin discovered he had to host a zoom meeting at 11:30. So after receiving permission for a later checkout, the kids and I walked to this nearby park to play for a while. These giant building blocks were so fun!

They were intently building creations when a littler fellow decided to start crashing their stuff. I reminded them about how when we had smaller people in the house we would build towers for them to crash so they could have fun too without destroying our creations. So they started doing that and probably had more fun with that than their own building. Sebastian kept trying to build the tower taller and taller. The little boy's grandmother even complimented them on playing so well with him. :)

We had lunch at a favorite cafe of mine nearby, went back to the hotel to check out and headed home. It was such a fun getaway and a nice chance to focus on fun with the younger kids. I had plenty waiting for me when we arrived home so it was a crazy end of the week but totally worth it!