Hotel Visit

Everyone who has or has had young children knows that a night in hotel is no easy feat.  Between the upheaval of routine, the extra crap you have to haul in, the questionable cleanliness of the floor they drop everything on and the screaming and crying it can be a stressful event.  Regardless of all these factors we have stayed in hotels with our kids many times.  The first time was when Ben was two weeks old for a wedding and we stayed in three hotels before he was two months old.  After that I lost track.  Regardless of the woes of parents, Ben and Tessa LOVE hotels.  We stayed in one for my cousin's wedding in November and they are still talking about it.  We stayed in a hotel on Saturday night before my niece's baptism the next morning and they asked over and over how long it would take to get there.  They were ripping their clothes off to change into swimming suits as soon as we entered the room. That night they laid in their bed like they owned the place. 

Tessa got Justin to buy her a huge Shopkins pillow at Walmart on the way to the hotel. 

Ben picked Legos for his treat but now keeps talking about how he wants a pillow.  Figures.  This particular hotel had a full sized water slide.  There was a HUGE birthday party happening there with lots of kids and even more obnoxious adults so the water slide and pool was kind of overwhelming.  It was a typical no rules enforced hotel pool and as a former lifeguard I get nervous in those situations.  The good thing was that no one cared if you doubled up down the water slide, which was always a huge NO at the pool I worked at before but at least we were able to slide with the kids.  The bad thing was that the other kids there had no concept of appropriate water slide wait time and they would just jump on and come out at the end practically landing on top of you. Also, I almost got hit in the head with a  ball five times because these people were playing catch with multiple balls across the pool.  When we were going to leave the shelf of pool towels was empty and no one who worked there cared or did anything about it so the whole hotel, including the second floor because the party was set up on a balcony, was covered in water.  It was a mess. They did it to themselves I guess. 

But, of course, the kids were oblivious to all of that nonsense and had a great time.  They are still talking about the hotel and yesterday when I got out of the shower I found them like this:

I asked what they were doing and they said they were pretending to sleep at a hotel and they were going to a wedding. 

This our first night away from the house since Christmas so we finally got to really spy on Allan with the Petcube camera.  Here is some night vision footage of Mr. Creepy Eyes not sleeping on the back of the couch. 

I always wondered where he sleeps when we are gone and it turns out, at least for that night, he sleeps on the ottoman close to the top of the stairs with his head facing the stairs.  He waits for us!  I felt bad because a big hard cover book was left on there so he didn't have much room.  Now I know to put a blanket on there for him next time.