Lake Geneva: Day 2

After talking up swimming all evening, Connor was ready to try again the next day.  He was a little nervous at first, but he warmed up quickly.  We started at the fountain where he was most comfortable the day before.

Then he asked to go on the swing...

Played basketball...

And then he went on the slide all by himself!

Finally, a little swimmer!

After long nap, we drove to downtown Lake Geneva.  Unfortunately, it was snowing pretty hard, so we didn't get to walk around very much.  We stopped at a couple souvenir shops and Connor picked out an Elmo t-shirt and school bus toy.  For dinner, we went to Sprecher's which is one of our Wisconsin favorites. 

The hotel gave us some free arcade cards, so we headed back and showed Connor how to play some of the games.

With all 66 tickets, we picked out a yellow ball and a green star slinky!

That night, we hung out in the room to watch some Animal Planet.  Connor was so sweet when he gave the baby a kiss and wanted to snuggle with her!

Lake Geneva: Day 1

We went on our summer vacation a little early this year since we'll be pretty busy over the summer.  On Thursday night after work, we drove up to Lake Geneva to stay at Timber Ridge Resort.  We stayed there once before Connor was born (totally weird without kids) and I thought it would be perfect this time.  We got an early start Friday morning at the pool, however, Connor was not as excited as we hoped.

He was terrified of the pool!  I think the large amount of people there might have scared him even more, but it was probably also just a little too overwhelming for him.

He cried and screamed for almost an hour, but it was so loud in the pool area that we just kept trying to calm him down and convince him to try the pool.

Finally, after we sat on the side for about 20 minutes, he calmed down enough to see how all the other kids were having fun.

A little splashing convinced him to try it himself and he finally warmed up!

The splashing only lasted a short time because he got pretty tired and want to eat lunch.

After a long nap (for both of us), we took him on his first trolley ride!  The trolley drove around the property so we rode it to the other resort up the hill.

We had a little snack and walked around the resort.  I begged for a photo of us since we hardly have any with my bump in them.

A quick photo while we waited for the trolley to come take us back to our hotel!

We ate a yummy BBQ dinner at our hotel and Connor watched the swimmers in the pool while we ate.  We talked up swimming all afternoon and night, so he'd be excited to try again the next day.

Our first night away

On Saturday night, Mommy and Daddy had our first night away without our little guy.  I've been gone one night before and Daddy has been gone before, but we've never done it together.  I knew Connor was in good hands, so I wasn't worried about him at all.  I just worried that I would miss him and I didn't want to miss spending the weekend together.  We left at naptime on Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and resting in the comfy hotel bed.  We had a yummy dinner out and then took a walk around the area before going back to the hotel. 

In the morning, I woke up early even though there was no reason to.  That's when I started to miss my baby and I wished I got to see him when he woke up in the morning.  By the time we got breakfast, I was ready to go home and see my little man.  We hurried home and found them playing outside.  I ran to him for a big hug!  

So we did it.  We survived and he survived.  I'm glad we did it, but I don't really have a desire to do it again any time soon.  I'd rather spend more time with my little guy!

King of the Blackstone Castle

The whole weekend, we were crammed in this tiny hotel room. Every person that came by went out of their way to comment on how their room at the same hotel was so much bigger than ours and they didn't have a crazy toddler to take care of. Nice how we ended up with the smallest room, huh?

So anyway, Connor and I spent a lot of time in the lobby. But let me tell you, this was one FUN lobby! It was huge, there was tons of eclectic furniture and decor, and the hotel employees were all wonderful. Every morning, Connor and I would go down and spend some time exploring and meeting all the people walking by.

I have to brag that my little guy was quite a hit! The employees all knew him by name and couldn't stop gushing about how cute he was. I was such a proud mama when they asked if they could tweet a photo of him on their hotel Twitter page!

I had no idea that this gold couch was their signature thing, but I put Connor on it in his jammies because I thought it was kind of ironic and funny. (It was also the perfect size for me to lay back and let him climb around. I was freaking exhuasted!)

He also loved sitting on this big black couch right in the middle by the elevators to wave at everyone who came out.

We also happened to be in Iowa Hawkeye central since the big game against Northern was that weekend. It was like a sea of yellow in our hotel and around the city. Of course, Connor had to join in and show off his Hawkeye onesie in the lobby after their win on Saturday night.

And one more photo from another level of the hotel with these huge red spiral couches. Connor had a blast playing on them!