Friday, September 5, 2008

Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend was my weekend with the kids.  It was great to have a holiday weekend to do something with the kids.  I looked around for things to do with the kids for the long weekend (I HATE crowds) and decided on the Welk Resort in Escondido.  When I did a search for the best hotel pool in California, this was one of the 3 hotels mentioned (the other two, Grand California and Disneyland Hotel both in Anaheim were a lot more expensive, plus Cupcake threw a mini-fit last time we stayed at Disneyland Hotel without going to the park so we'll wait until our annual passes are good to go back).

I grabbed the kids straight from school and we got on the road.  The traffic was a nightmare, but we made it late Friday.  The room was decent with a small room with a king sized bed and tv plus a tiny kitchenette (not even enough room for the food that I brought with us) with a fold out couch and another tv not to mention the bathroom which was decent sized, but didn't have a tub.

Saturday we slept in and then went to lunch at the hotel's restaurant which wasn't anything to talk about.  Afterwards we headed over to the pool area where they were decorating beach bags--Cupcake loved it and we came home with a great souvenir of our trip.  Then we decided to do something spontaneous.  We had passed an outlet mall on the way and decided to see what it had to offer.  Snickerdoodle wasn't thrilled, but the girls loved shopping for new clothes.  We came home with a few things (they had a Pottery Barn Outlet!!) and the kids even got to ride on the little train that drove back and forth down the "mall."  We got back just in time for the "Dive In Movie" which was the movie Over the Hedge.  Cupcake and Snickerdoodle had fun swimming while they watched while Caramel and I read our books (and I finished the first of mine).

Sunday we slept in again and ended up eating in the room.  We headed over to the pool which while cool wasn't quite up to the standards we're used to (my kids love the pools in Vegas and Hawaii which are pretty elaborate).  There was a water slide, but the kids only went once because it wasn't worth the line.  Plus there was a water play area with water squirting up and out.  We stayed long enough for me to fry (the sunscreen didn't go on even, I guess) and then I took Cupcake to create a necklace.  Afterwards we all walked over to another area that had ice cream sundae making.  Yummy!  Then we went back to the room to rest and then headed to Flemings for dinner.  Double Yummy!  

Monday we got up early and packed the car, checked out, and got on the road.  We hit IHOP for breakfast and then drove to my aunt's house in Long Beach.  They took Cupcake and Snickerdoodle kayaking while Caramel and I once again read (I finished book #2).  Then we went back and had a bbq at their house before finally hitting the road to home.  We rolled into town around 9pm and the kids went right to bed.   A nice mini vacation.  I'm already looking forward to what we're going to do for Veteran's Day (interestingly I seem to have a lot of the long weekends, but I guess that's because 185 lbs. started the every other weekend by not having the kids for Memorial Day, so he really can't complain).

The kids have their first soccer games tomorrow.  We have a love/hate with soccer.  The kids love playing, but it really does interrupt us being able to do anything on the weekend.  Next weekend I was going to take the kids somewhere, but soccer eats up most of our Saturdays and Cupcake's going to her 2 best friends birthday party on Sunday.

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