girls just want to have fun: The Very Best of Times

With the move and the house rehab, our summer was unmitigated chaos and we never did make it out of town for any sort of vacation. We decided to make up for that this past weekend with a trip to Lake Geneva's Timber Ridge Lodge. This was our second time at this resort, which features nice one-bedroom suites complete with full kitchens, fireplaces, and whirlpool tubs. We left Friday evening after Dean got home from work and arrived in time for a late dinner followed by a quick swim. The resort restaurant where we had dinner had windows that overlooked the indoor waterpark, and the girls were almost too transfixed to eat. They were so excited.

The minute we were inside the waterpark, the girls took off for the "baby" pool. The ten minutes they spent going down the little slides there marked the only time the girls actually spent in that pool the entire weekend. On a whim I decided to see if Sadie would wear one of the life jackets the resort had on offer. Once she put the jacket on and realized it enabled her to swim without ANY help, there was no going back to the kiddie pool except for the briefest of periods. And of course, Ella has been swimming she was four, so she had very little interest in anything but the big pool and the tube water slide!

Over the course of our two days at Timber Ridge, we swam a whopping four times. By Sunday afternoon, I was feeling a bit waterlogged. But we all had a blast. Dean and I took turns spending time with each of the girls individually--and also spelling each other for trips to the adults-only hot tub. Ella quickly found her niche on the tube slide (she needed a parent to ride with her, and Dean and I both enjoyed numerous trips down the slide with Ella) and on the netlike monkey bar apparatus over the big pool. Meanwhile, on day 2, I helped Sadie discover the indoor/outdoor hot tub, and she quickly fell in love. Despite the sign saying kids under 6 were not allowed, Sadie spent a great portion of her waterpark hours in the hot tub--along with many of the other "under 6" children in the resort. The temperature was perfect for little ones (not too hot, not too cold), and they all seemed entranced by the ability to swim under a little door (which I presume is completely open in the summertime) to get to the outdoor portion of the hot tub. The weather this weekend was absolutely beautiful, and the hot tub was fabulous outdoors, especially at night. I love me a good hot tub, so I was more than happy to supervise Sadie in her indoor/outdoor endeavors.

Aside from the swimming, we participated in a couple of resort-sponsored activities--T-shirt coloring one morning and the evening story time one evening, complete with milk, cookies, and goodie bags. We also took the girls for pony rides and spent a beautiful afternoon in downtown Lake Geneva before going out to dinner at a family-friendly restaurant near the water. On Sunday morning, the girls made the rounds at the arcade before we hit the water park one last time. Then we grabbed Subway and had a picnic at a gazebo on the lake before heading back to the burbs. The weekend could not have been more perfect.

While we were away, my lovely in-laws had volunteered to help us tackle some projects around the house, so we arrived home Sunday to a sparkling clean house with a tidy yard and dinner cooking on the stove. It doesn't get much better than that!

I'm not one to throw the word perfect around lightly--especially in relation to vacations with the girls, which always seem to end up more stressful than circumstances merit. But the stars must have been in alignment this weekend. Or maybe the girls are just getting older, and thus, easier. Or maybe we are able to sustain the happy, relaxed feelings of vacation best on short trips. Whatever the reason, we had such a nice, relaxing weekend that I was sorry to see it end--even if I was definitely ready to be done swimming for a while!

Here are a few pictures from this weekend. More can be found in our photo album.

Ella and Sadie sporting their newly colored Timber Ridge T-shirts