Hotels and kids....and swimsuits!

Okay who does not like to stay in a hotel?? I usually love it because it means "vacation"!! Well, we just got back from a week of "vacation" back home..."Red Oak". Technically the hotels, and I mean the plural of the word, weren't in Red Oak but we were in the DFW area. Anyway, we tagged along with my DH for a week back "home" while he had some business to do there. I was super excited you see because we would get to see a lot of our family and friends that we miss dearly. In theory it was all supposed to be as smooth as butter but in reality it was quite chaotic and by the grace of God my kids are all alive and well...PTL!!! LOL!!! Okay, the first night(Sunday) we stayed with my mom and it was great. The kids got to play with their mimi and gramps, I got to spend some quality time with my mom. A little crowded but we managed.

Monday rolls around and we get packed up in the car to go and check in at our FIRST hotel, very NICE! (a plush robe hung in the closet and the towels were amazing) Probably one of the nicest I've ever stayed in however the room was a single bed room. We have a family of 5! The bed in this room was a large king sized bed but to me I was questioning "are we really ALL going to sleep in this one bed"? There was no room for a roll away or we'd have gone that route. Anyway, I asked my DH can't you just go and ask for a double bed room? Seems simple enough right?? NOPE, he turns to me and says "well, you all aren't really supposed to be here". News to me...anyway we all proceed to "sleep" in that bed. DH has to get up very early to attend his work meetings there in the hotel...just after he leaves the phone rings..."make sure you have everything packed up before you leave...we're changing rooms for tonight". Guess he did not like the sleeping arrangements either. Well, as you know when you don't get enough sleep or at least for me, you tend to have a shorter fuse and I also start to loose my marbles. We were able to have a car because my DH business was in the hotel where we were staying. That was one of the reasons we all tagged along and I was under the assumption it would make things so much easier...It helped but having 3 kids 7, 5, and 3 couped up in a hotel room nothing can make things easier. Well, maybe one thing, the POOL! We were so excited about getting to go swimming, especailly because this hotel's pool was on the ROOF!!! It was soo cool! Apparently I began loosing my marbles before we ever left Magnolia...I FORGOT MY SWIMSUIT!!! How can you forget your swimsuit knowing that you'll be in hotels with 3 kids for a WHOLE WEEK! I knew that would be the one thing we could do to get out of the room when I felt like the walls were closing in...I FORGOT MY SWIMSUIT!!! Okay, so I'll just run to the nearest Wallyworld and grab one, they'll be on clearance, it'll be cheap...WRONG!! Three different ones and no suits to be found! Well, there were some cute little two piece, pieces of string type suits...LOL!!!!! You won't find me in one of those and you'd say THANK YOU!! By Wednesday, and our 3rd hotel, I was desperate so I decided to "create" my own swimsuit. So, for those of you that this might happen to in the future, there are some pieces of "work out" wear that will do in a "swimsuit crisis". My sanity and the life of my 3 beautiful children depended on it! Thankfully I do have a teeny tiny bit of creativity in me. It worked and we got to swim and had a wonderful time...my boys were pretending to be "Michael Phelps". Which was so funny because neither one of them knows how to swim but they sure tried. On a side note, it's amazing how Michael Phelps helped my boys overcome their fear of putting their faces in the water to swim and their fear of jumping in the water off the side of the pool. Thanks Michael!

Don't get me wrong, we did get to spend some wonderful quality time with family and our friends and I am so thankful for that. However by Saturday when we came back to Magnolia we'd stayed in 3 different hotels! Rest assured, I probably won't be forgetting my swimsuit again!