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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