It was a swanky hotel. M had an event for work and had to spend the weekend in said “swanky” hotel.
The baby was a hit, as most of the attendees for this conference were older(ish) pastors and L was the only baby in sight.
S spent the afternoon with my mom (who lives about 10 minutes away) then I went to pick her up for dinner.
Dinner, was well…interesting. There were about 8 other kids there and they all ran out to play tag barefoot in the grass. S, bless her little heart, wanted to play soooooo bad. She had me walk her outside and she stood away from the other kids, watching and chewing on her fingers (her nervous indicator). She stayed out for a good 20 minutes just watching the kids play. The kids were very gracious and offered to include her often, to no avail. There was a small fountain and one of the older kids (about 8 years old) opened his wallet and gave S a penny to throw it in. Very, incredibly sweet!
Dinner was winding down and people were leaving the site we were at to head back for the night time meeting. As I gathered up my stuff, I looked up and didn’t see S. Panic ensued. I found her out where the kids were playing (who had all left) with her shoes off ready to “play”. My heart broke for my sweet, sweet girl. She takes so long to warm up and missed out…
After we returned, we went into the kid’s program. S took a long time and hugged her teddy bears so hard. This is a common sight. S near the kids, but not “with” the other kids. I love my sweet, pensive girl. She did eventually warm up and interact with the other kids.
After the kid’s program, we went back into the main hall where S attempted to help M work. Basically this means that she messed with his sound board, but it was adorable.
There was an ice cream social, which S had a few gummy bears and some fruit…and then we headed up to our room. Beautiful. Swanky. Hotel. Room. It was 9:30 already, so I quickly changed the kids into their jammies and tried to settle them down. While this was happening, S realized she could make L laugh, so I quickly grabbed my camera.
How I love these two!!
I did everything within my power to get S to settle down. But 9:30 turned into 11 and 11 turned into 12:30 and then a wide awake S asked to go home. We were exhausted by then, and M had to work at 7am…so we bundled up the kids and I left at 12:45. The hotel was about an hour away from our house, but it was late and I was tired. I stopped and got gas and snacks and drove home.
On the way, I spotted a drunk driver weaving and essentially driving in the center of both lanes of the Turnpike. so I spent most of the drive on the phone with 911 and Highway Patrol trying to identify the car and watch for crashes. It was scary, but I remained a safe distance behind him and was happy to make it home safely!
Oh, and btw…because we left early, I missed out on my FREE hour massage at the swanky hotel. Maybe next year!!
