Monica’s out of school on Spring Break this week so we thought we’d spend some time together as a family. We had a lot of fun together…staying at the show and tell. That’s what Nathan called the hotel, “The Show and Tell”. Unfortunately, Amanda and Monica don’t have the same spring break, so we had to sneak in an overnighter together. It seems like it has been forever since we have gone away as a family, but I’m glad we did. We found a hotel in Bellingham and took off Sunday after church. We stopped at IHOP for breakfast (I passed on the Waffles and Chicken special). We got the older girls a room of their own and Debbie and I stayed with the younger ones in our room. The hotel had an indoor swimming pool and a hot tub. We were there for about 10 minutes when the younger ones got their bathing suits on and went down to the pool. They had been counting the days since we told them we’d be going last Thursday. They were so excited that they packed their own suitcases the night before (Noelle is so sweet, she packed Nathan’s suitcase and her own…pretty responsible for 5 years old).

We couldn’t have planned it better. The swimming pool had a 2 foot wading pool attached to it. Nathan and Noelle were in it immediately. What is it about little kids and the pool? Noelle loves to swim with me. She stands on the edge of the pool and tells me to go out “farther, daddy, farther”. I wish I’d gotten a picture-she flies straight out to me and I catch her as she lands in the water. Of course Nathan has to do exactly what his sister does, so he, too, jumps to daddy. This time I let him jump to me and he decided he was going to go in all the way, so I let him.

If you’re reading this you’re probably thinking “wow, kinda like watching somebody else’s home movies…pretty exciting…for them!” You’re right; writing about my family spending time together is very exciting for me. I’m certain that I’ll forget about Nathan calling the hotel a “show and tell” in a few months, but in a few years when I read this blog it will bring it all back to me. Who knows, maybe Nathan will read daddy’s blog when he has a son of his own.

Amanda and Monica used to love to swim just like the little ones do now. We used to go to hotels and spend the night together just to go swimming. This time, they were more interested in the hot tub than the pool, but Amanda did join us for a while when we were swimming.

We went out to dinner at “Kyoto” a Japanese Hibachi restaurant. It was a lot of fun. They have a big grill that you sit around and you watch them cook your dinner. Monica decided she wanted to try sushi, so I let her. She ordered California rolls and she loved them (now I know what I’ll be ordering next time we go out on a date night)! Dinner was great and the entertainment was awesome. Nathan and Noelle were enthralled watching him cook right in front of us.

We went back to the hotel and put the little ones to bed. Amanda and Monica took a sauna together, then went to their room and engorged themselves on junk food. The next morning Debbie and I took the little ones out to breakfast at McDonalds and watched them play as we reflected on our time together. Why is it so hard to do something so simple? Families love to spend time together, and we’ve found that we do best when we pack up and spend the night somewhere else. Why don’t we do it more often, we thought? What would be the optimum frequency to go away together as a family for a night or two? Is there a way that we can “hard wire” our time away? Perhaps we could get a timeshare condo with fixed time away? We’re not sure exactly what our plan is, but we think we’d like to go away once every three to four months together as a family.

It was pouring down rain on our drive home. We stopped at the outlet mall and Debbie and the older girls went shopping while Nathan napped and Noelle and I hung out together in the van. Noelle was particularly sad. The tears flowed down her cheeks on the ride home. She loved our time together so much she just didn’t want it to end. This time together as a family really bonds us all together, especially when we are away from home.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on different ways you bond as a family-let me know!