Mini family vacay

Brad politely named this trip "the trip from hell". More on that later.

Brad was planning a work trip to the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia so we jumped at the chance to join him. Who wouldn't, look at this place!

For anyone who is a true addict of the Bachelorette like me, Emily Maynard came to this hotel on one of her dates.

 

 

It was built in 1778 and houses a spa, a casino, shopping, 9 restaurants, 5 bars, a bowling alley, an indoor pool and outdoor pool, golf courses, an ice skating rink and much more. We left on Tuesday and were planning to return on Saturday. Brad had to work during the days but we planned to go to dinner as a family and explore during the evenings.

The trip there went okay, we were packed tight in Brad's little electric car. We brought WAY too much stuff on this trip but really neither one of us knew what to pack or expect.

Owen started to get a bit fussy as it was WAY past his naptime at this point.

Finally fell asleep, look how peaceful. He slept a good 20 minutes in the car, what is up with that? Oh well, good thing we have Elmo!

It snowed quite a bit that day and the back roads of West Virginia are a bit scary when they haven't been cleaned off.

 

However, the snow made for a beautiful drive.

Nevertheless we finally arrived.

Here is our room. Dorothy Draper designed the interior of The Greenbrier back in the 1950's. As you can see she is an anti-minimalist and was known for bright colors and large prints. So there is not a dull color in the entire hotel. Look closely through the pictures and you will begin to understand her style a bit. Some of her work includes the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan and the Drake Hotel in Chicago (Nicole this info is for you).

Next up was pizza served room service style (my favorite)! Excuse my inappropriateness but I was SO excited to finally be there and take a nice long shower.

 

Then it was time to explore the hotel. We were so excited to get out and walk around a bit.

 

The indoor pool

The indoor bowling alley. You can't see the attendant here but he is the fanciest bowling alley attendant I have ever seen, he is even wearing a bow tie.

The movie theater

The outdoor ice skating rink.

The shops, which actually had some pretty fabulous clothes. Of course there was a store dedicated to Lily Pulitzer with a scarf designed by Lily specifically for the Greenbrier. Lily Pulitzer reminds me very much of Dorothy Draper's style.

The casino that we never actually made it to, more on that later.

Owen was so tired from our drive and his short nap that this sums up his evening of touring the facility.

We decided ice cream might stop the tantrums, it worked.

That night went well, everyone slept soundly and Owen seemed pretty happy the next day. We had a pretty good morning while brad was off to work.

We had a nice breakfast date.

Then we went for a morning swim.

Owen had a great time playing at the incredible toy store.

We ordered a nice big cheeseburger to our room for lunch.

Brad came home while Owen was napping and I went to get a massage. It was wonderful!! Right before I went to the spa, I was starting to feel sick but the massage definitely made me feel better for a short time.

Just look at the decor in the spa, my eyes were exhausted from all of that busyness.

We made dinner reservations at The Forum. All of the restaurants are inside the hotel. Owen and I didn't step foot out of the hotel for three days. It was fabulous on such a cold and snowy week.

Owen enjoyed his pasta for a good five minutes then we were back to crying, screaming, and not able to console him. I don't know why we didn't think about it but I guess it was the start of him not feeling really great.

We all may be smiling here, but behind those smiles we are all a little frustrated with the way the trip is beginning to turn out, because by dinner time the benefits from the massage had worn off and I was back to feeling pretty pitiful.

 

We went to bed hoping we could sleep off Owen's grouchiness and that I would feel better in the morning. Well we didn't have to wait that long to find out that we weren't going to get any relief, Owen cried off and on until about 12:30 a.m. and would not go back to sleep. We thought maybe he was hungry since he hardly ate the whole time we were there. We tried to give him snacks. Here is a very tired mama at 1:00 in the morning trying to figure out what is wrong with Owen. We finally gave him ibuprofen and let him sleep in our bed which equals no sleep for the two adults getting kicked by a toddler in his sleep.

The next day we were supposed to spend together at the hotel. We hired a babysitter for the evening and were planning to go to a nice dinner, go to the casino, maybe grab a drink. But I didn't sleep, didn't feel good and I was worried about a new babysitter trying to play with the toddler who has been throwing fits every evening. So we decided to pack up and go home a day early. The drive home was no fun, but we were so happy we made that choice and could sleep in our own beds that night.

"The trip from hell" actually had nothing to do with the Greenbrier. The hotel was amazing and the staff was incredible. They truly catered to our every need and went out of their way to be so friendly. We will definitely go back in the future but for now we are happy to be home.

 

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17 things about our 17 month old

Owen is growing and changing way too fast! He is hilarious and fun and learning new things everyday. Here are some of the things Owen is doing these days.

1. Owen has a new joke he loves to tell, especially about his cousins. When you ask Owen where Luke is, he points to himself and laughs, and waits until you say "nooooo", then he signs for "more" and the game continues on and on until you can't name one more person.

2. Owen loves basketball, I may have mentioned this in my last post but it is his absolute favorite thing so I had to mention it again. He can now say basketball, which no one can really understand what he is saying besides mommy and daddy. When daddy comes home he makes a swish motion with his hand, yells "oohhhhh" and runs to the basketball hoop in his playroom in hopes that daddy will follow him.

He shoots......

He scores.....

3. Owen now says so many words I can't keep track of how many. He repeats a lot of the words we say. He still likes to have conversations of pure jibber jabber that no one quite understands, but he is able to communicate many things to us now.

4. Owen's loves to read books. He is moving onto picture books, which is exciting for us to read different books for a change. Here are a few of his favorites....

Owen calls this one the "dada book"...

Owen says "arlo" when he is requesting that we read this one...

And this one is the "no, no" book...

5. Owen still has a whiny time after his afternoon nap and before dinnertme. If he had it his way I would carry him around on my hip while cooking dinner each night. It would be beneficial for all moms to have two extra arms at this time of the day.

6. Owen loves the great outdoors, each time we get out of the car at home he tries to take off down the sidewalk in hopes that I will chase him and allow him to play outside for a while. One day it will warm up, I promise Owen.

7. Owen is eating pretty well, he is still funny about foods that look different to him. I read somewhere that kids will have a harder time eating foods that aren't introduced to them before the age of three. Well I have a whole lot of foods to get in front of Owens face in a year and a half.

8. Owen loves bath time and requests "bubbles" each time we take his clothes off.

9. Elmo is owen's favorite character, we use the iPad holder in the car for long trips so Owen can watch his favorite show.

10. Teeth, ahhhh! Owen has been cutting his incisors for over a month, it is a very frustrating process because it seems like he is in pain off and on everyday. Just come through already!!

11. Owen takes one nap from about 1:30- 4:00, sometimes even 5:00 or later if we are lucky.

12. We put Owen to bed around 8:00 and he sleeps until 7:30 sometimes 8:00. He has been waking up at night lately, but putting himself back to sleep. I blame this on those darn incisors.

13. Owen is not a fan of story hour. We go to different story hours around town once a week and Owen usually chooses to play at the train table instead of listen to the story.

14. Owen's favorite people are Max and Luke (Owen now calls Luke "do"). When we gets in the car to go anywhere Owen requests "max, max". When he finally gets to see his favorite boys he claps and giggles with pure excitement. It is the cutest thing.

15. Owen sleeps with his giraffe (he now calls it his "baby"), two blankets, and his big Jellycat dog. As soon as he sees his "baby", he pops his thumb in his mouth.

16. I cut Owen's hair myself. I usually let him watch Baby Einstein on the iPad while he stands in his tower and I give him his monthly hair cut. I have a feeling he is going to have very thick hair like mommy and daddy and it will become more difficult to cut myself, but for now it works great!

17. We started putting Owen in "time out" when he would hit us. He seemed to do it when he was really frustrated so we started putting him against the wall and we would walk away. He would be very upset and eventually would get up and follow us. He really hasn't hit us or anyone else since we started this. Now he is into throwing his food so we have been putting him in time out for that, hopefully that will taper off as well.

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Girl time!

Owen gave his Mimi a name last week. Mimi came for a visit and we have been trying to get Owen to call her Grammy for a long time, but apparently that is a hard name to say. He started saying Mimi when she was around and then last week officially called her Mimi. He was VERY proud of himself and since Owen is Mimi's first grandchild he kind of has the honor of naming her. So Owen and his Mimi had a lot of fun during the visit.

Since Owen was in such good hands I decided it would be the best time to make a trip to Indiana to meet beautiful baby Julia.

How gorgeous is this baby? And how amazing are these photos? I didn't get any good pictures while I was there so I had to steal some of these. Kristi's sister Miranda is a talented photographer in Nashville, I am very impressed Miranda!

You can see where Julia gets her beauty, just look at her mama!

I'm so happy for this adorable little family. I cant wait for Julia to get big so Owen can play with his newest girlfriend!

After visiting the new baby I went to Martinsville and spent time with my dad and Karen, then I went out with these two girls.

I woke up the next morning had breakfast with this lovely lady (no, she didn't wear her cowboy hat to the breakfast table).

Then I headed off to Cincinnati to meet some of my Columbus girls for shopping and lunch. We had our typical 3 hour meal and the waiter was sooo ready for us to go. I was sad to say goodbye, but I will see them soon for Rycki's baby shower next month.

After a weekend of girl time I was excited to get home and see my two boys.

 

 

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