road trip | The Angel Forever

Category Archives road trip

Weekend away and pool time

Posted on March 16, 2009 1:20 pm by TheAngelForever

When JL made the reservation at the hotel for the weekend, having a pool was a huge perk. One of the hotels had it closed for a function for the evening thanks to a party. We quickly said no to that hotel thanks to that and no free breakfast.

After going to the outlets on the way to the hotel (great deals on clothing and shoes for the kids), heading to an important store that is not close to home, and meeting my sister-in-law and her family for dinner we opted not to go in the pool Saturday. We figured the kids would be more fresh and enjoy it Sunday morning after a quick breakfast. What I fail to mention was the stress of getting lost twice after we arrived at our destination. Google Maps said the one store was on the left, nope on the right. We managed to quickly find our location. Going home from the mall at night was not the same. A 12 minute ride took us over 45 very stressful minutes. When we arrived back at our room after 9:00 I was already in a mood. The noise issues going to 2:00 in the morning did not help.

The morning brought a new day and we were hoping to have some fun in the pool. I opted not to swim and take photos. This was partially thanks to my electric razor dying and needing a new part. Nol retailers locally feel the need to sell said items for women, and only do for men. *sigh* If you know of any online that sell the foil guard and blades please let me know.

NHL was told that he could not go in the pool right away. His behavior at breakfast left a lot to be desired. So he sat on the side looking around. He was not happy about it, but he sat patiently hoping that we would let him into the pool.

JL tried to take JSL into the water. When he put his little toes into the water the result was this:

Note that rather large tear in his eyes. He was not happy and wanted nothing to do with the COLD water! I grabbed JSL, put him onto the sidelines and we allowed NHL to go into the water. JSL was really tired and happy to sit and watch. Plus he liked getting down to look at his Jibbitz.

Meanwhile NHL adjusted to the cold water and had a blast with Daddy.

NHL played in the pool for 45 minutes or so. Then it was time for all of us to head back to the room to shower, get dressed and pack our things up. We had a double birthday party to head to. The pool time fun for NHL was well worth the money. Now if only the black mold in the shower had not ruined things so quickly (JL did not notice it, but to me it was hard to miss). I guess that should have been a sign that things were going to continue to go downhill.

Categories:
fun jl jsl my boys nasty things nhl photos road trip travel weekend

Nephew Birthday Party times two

Posted on March 15, 2009 9:16 pm by TheAngelForever

It is so good to be home. It was an adventure of a weekend for many reasons. Saturday morning we packed the kids into the new car for our first trip with it. We had been invited to a double birthday party for our nephews today. Since my sister-in-law and her family live about 3 hours from us, we thought we would splurge and stay at a hotel over night for some fun.

We decided to stay at the same hotel as last year since it was a good deal and nice location. The only problem we had last time was uninvited ladybugs in our room. The hotel has a pool and serves a nice free breakfast. If you follow me on Twitter, last night you saw that things were not going too well there. I barely slept three hours thanks to some issues. The troubles required me to call the front desk three times and I was tempted to call again later on, but gave up.

More about the adventures and fun swimming later. I am off to decompress after the lack of sleep and stress from last night and today.

Categories:
birthday photos road trip travel vent yummy

Chicago dreaming

Posted on November 30, 2008 10:59 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday I really started to wonder if going to Chicago this summer was possible. Why do I want to go to Chicago? This is the reason:

The last two years I sat at my computer watching as bloggers from all over documented their fun at the BlogHer convention. The first year I had just given birth and was a newbie at blogging myself. Last year I wanted to go, but traveling all the way to San Francisco was not very practical. Chicago is a completely different story. Not only are there a lot of flights that way, but driving could be possible.

While out yesterday, I mentioned to hubby that I really wanted to try to go. I looked at flights. Of course booking this far out showed $400 options, which is insane! Then I thought about making it a family destination. I looked and sure enough there is a Six Flags in Chicago and we have those season passes that are good there!

Hmmm. . . .

It really made me think about the possibility of things to do in Chicago and places to stop and see on the way there and back home from BlogHer. There are SO many things that we could do, it is actually mind boggling. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. By next summer the boys will be almost 6 and just 2.

Update: This morning hubby informed me that he was pricing things out last night when I went to bed. He thinks that it may not be a bad option to make this into a family trip. In fact, he was also Tweeting about it to see if other families would be heading out to the BlogHer destination for vacations together. So if anyone is thinking of doing this please let me know.

This week I will be heading to AAA to pick up driving options to Chicago from here. I have heard that it is at least a 14-18 hour drive. We could certainly split it up and make it work with desination stops to see new places that we have never visited.

Categories:
decisions interesting me moments road trip travel vacation

Fun nearly ruined

Posted on September 27, 2008 10:49 am by TheAngelForever

A week ago at this time we were on the road to Six Flags. JSL was staying with my parents for the day and we had a special day set for NHL. Our things were ready to go, our prepaid tickets printed and everyone was excited for a fabulous day at the park.

When we arrived at our destination we opted to drive past the park and head to lunch. We quickly found a cute little pizza place and went there. After lunch we got back into our car and went to the parking area of the park. As I was loading things up to go inside the park I looked at JL and asked where my purse was.

Ever have one of those moments where your heart skips a beat and you can not breathe? This was my moment.

My purse was not there. I then recalled putting it on the seat next to me at the pizza place. I am not used to having a purse, especially a small one and just forgot it. I quickly went to an attendant in the parking lot. He told us to go to the gate and ask for our parking pass back since we had a prepaid. JL hopped out of the car and went to the gate where we had paid. They quickly gave it back to us.

As we drove a short distance it seemed like forever to me. I had to literally remind myself to breathe. My heart was ready to leap out of my throat. Everything was in that purse – cash, credit cards, gift cards, drivers license . . . the works! The tickets for the park were safely in the backpack in the car with us.

When we finally arrived back at the restaurant JL ran in. People were sititng at the table where we had been. They saw how anxious JL was and asked if he was looking for a purse. Sure enough when they sat down they saw it and gave it to the people of the restaurant. Everything was still inside – thank goodness there still are honest people.

When we drove back to the park my heart was slowly settling back down. We were lucky enough to be able to go right back to the parking spot we had left (right next to the bridge to the park) and went in.

After a few rides and watching NHL’s smiling face I was able to put the scare behind me. Thank goodness our day was not ruined by my stupidity!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

While visiting in Looney Tunes National Park NHL and JL went onto a little roller coaster. Here is a sign that we passed on the way there.

Here are the boys waiting for and then going on the ride. It was anticlimatic after the Bobsled ride, but fun none-the-less.

Of course when you are near Wile E Coyote there has to be TNT. I thought this was cute and too funny not to take a photo of.

When we were ready to head out of the area they still had the water on and JL joked that he would toss NHL in to cool off.

Clearly finding my purse was meant to be. Someone was definitely watching over us. Had something different happened in the morning, none of these memories would have happened.

Categories:
family fun jl nhl photos road trip weekend

Ready for the bobsled team

Posted on September 23, 2008 8:50 am by TheAngelForever

Think back to your childhood for a minute. Did you like to go on amusement park rides? If you did were you more of a merry-go-round kind of kid, or did you like the thrills of any or all fast moving rides?

Saturday at Six Flags we quickly confirmed that NHL is into thrills. He was disappointed that he was not allowed onto two rides that were interesting to him (you had to be 48 inches tall), but quickly found one that was his absolute favorite by the end of the day.

After leaving Wiggles World for the first time, I convinced both of the boys to go with me on the Alpine Bobsled ride. JL was not too sure about this, but I promised him it was a very fast yet controlled ride. The boys agreed and we went onto the ride in seconds since there was absolutely no line.

Both of the boys were pleasantly surprised with the ride. NHL actually asked to go back on it immediately. JL took him on this time and I caught up with them for some photos. Here are NHL and JL in the Team USA bobsled. NHL was not looking at the camera since he was paying attention to the bobsled ahead of them.

Next they come around to check and make sure the bars are in place and locked correctly.

Then you wait for your bobsled to head up the hill of the track.

Here are the boys on the last turn of the journey.

Can you tell they like it? Oh wait, perhaps you can not see NHL since he is a little low in the bobsled (you can barely see the top of his head). Still you can tell JL’s response. This is just before coming back to the station.

NHL adored this ride and went on it four times during our day at the park. In fact at one point when we offered to go back to Wiggles World he said "No Mommy, it’s boring there I want to go on the Bobsled!"

LOL – that’s my boy!