"Water" Rapids

We took a mini-vacation this weekend and visited GR. I know its not very far away, but we LOVE Grand Rapids and since its fairly close, its a great little get away to take with the kids. The hotel experience with the kids was amazing! They did so well. Sleeping was effortless (we wore the kids out and they pretty much just passed out each night). Eating was enjoyable. We made what seems to be our traditional a.m. run to Starbucks for breakfast, met up with some friends for lunch, and strolled downtown and grabbed a late dinner later Saturday night. As for activities, we went swimming...A LOT. The kids turned into fishes and begged to go swimming almost every waking moment. We did find time to squeeze other entertainment it. But, like I said before, this was a vacation and we treated it as such. We didn't do a lot, which was so nice and relaxing. We went shopping at Rivertown after lunch on Saturday and the kids were surprised when we took them to Build-A-Bear. They were giddy as they picked out their bear (or Tiger in Benn's case) and outfits. Their favorite part was giving their animals a "bath." They did this by laying them on a table under faucets that blew air (instead of water) and they used scrub brushes to get any excess fuzz off. It was a great time.


Here's our weekend in pictures...


Benn and his tiger "Paws" (original, I know!) :)


Avah with her bear "Princess"



Benn virtually swimming on his own.



Avah hanging out poolside.



Being silly in the hotel room.



The kids were obsessed with the corded phone in the room. Weird. They wouldn't stop playing with it.



More swimming.



Playing on the steps.



Benn did this probably 100 times. He'd get mad when we would hold our hands out and say, "No, go way! I do myself." So, we let him. He jumped and we'd scoop him up after. He'd come up for air laughing so hard. He's our little water baby!



GR was great, we're already talking about planning our next mini-vacation. :)