{storm lake}

Steve had a couple of days off this week (the Dr. he is rotating with was at a conference) so at the last minute we decided to pack our bags and headed to Storm Lake, Iowa. It is located about 3 hrs from where we live, and it has this beautiful lake there. The boys were so excited (mainly Hunter--Tanner was just happy to be along for the ride.) I'm not quite sure why it is, but Hunter thinks staying at a hotel is almost as exciting as Christmas morning. Literally this kid gets so full of energy and excitement that the entire 3 hr drive there he kept asking "Mom, when are we going to be at the hotel?" Really cute at first...but then again it gets a little old after about 10 minutes.

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So we did eventually make it to the hotel, and to my great shock and initial disappointment, discovered that the hotel water park was closed for the day. You should have seen the look on Hunter's face when the lady at the front desk informed us that there would be no swimming for him that day. It is a good thing that kids this young can be easily distracted, because believe it or not, the hotel bathtub made for an awesome swimming pool. So we whipped out the boys swimming suits, and made them a great big bubble bath. As you tell from the pictures above....Tanner didn't seem to agree that a bathtub is just as fun as an indoor water park, but it was fun nonetheless.


Thankfully, the weather was perfect while we were there, so we took full advantage of playing outside and enjoyed walking around the lake. They had this really cool padded playground that was right next to our hotel, and the kids had a blast playing there for hours. There was this cute little family of geese that swam right by us, and Steve got this neat picture of them.

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That night we watched Hotel for Dogs (hmm... I wonder who picked that movie??) It was so fun to just kick back and relax, and spend time together as a family . As you can see from the picture at the very top, there was a walkout balcony that overlooked the lake from our hotel room. You can bet that my kids thought that was the coolest thing ever!! It has been teetering on the totally stressed out.... to completely overwhelmed meter at our house lately, so this was the perfect little getaway we all needed to take a break from hectic lives and remember what is most important in life......

hotels and bubble baths!