Dream Vacation

So the contractor came and ripped out a wall. As it turns out, there's no mold, just mildew. I'm glad. It sounds a lot less scary. But I suppose Andrew has a bad mildew allergy, because being in the basement still gives him trouble. Medicine and sleeping upstairs have helped, however, and we are looking forward to the basement being cleared out, cleaned up and back to normal. In the meantime, we're still moving.

While all this was going on, we decided to take a trip to Columbus to get out of the house, use Andrew's paid time off, and find a place to live. Maybe a little trip to Ohio doesn't sound like a big deal, but we were excited! We realized this would be the first real trip we've ever taken alone together as a family. I kept imagining us splashing around in the pool together, relaxing in the hot tub, gorging ourselves on continental breakfasts, and jumping on the king size bed in slow motion.

Seriously.

We headed out last Saturday, and on the way, stopped by Lebanon to visit Andrew's cousin Josh, his wife Chelsea, and their 3 adorable little ones. It was a lot of fun! The kids played, we grilled out, made a trip to Jungle Jim's (a huge, AMAZING international food store) in Cincinnati, made some Brazilian cheese bread, relaxed and went to bed. It was a quick visit, but we loved seeing them.

The next morning we headed out early to make it to church in Columbus. I was a little nervous to go to the ward we'd likely be members of the next four years (please don't let these people be weird!), but we were blown away by how incredibly welcoming and friendly everyone was. We had planned to stay in our car and eat trail mix until check-in, but that afternoon found us eating lunch with strangers who seemed like friends. They even let Asher take a nap and filled us in on tons of housing info. Burke and Julia, if you're out there, know we are grateful for your kindness! We want to send you a fruit basket.

We spent the rest of the day hopping around town looking at lots of places with members, having dinner with more stranger friends, and checking into our hotel. We thought we would end the day with a little dip, so we pulled on our swim gear and headed to the pool like giddy school children.

The door was locked. Closed for maintenance.

Vacation dreams partially shattered, I pouted for at least an hour. Thanks for nothing, Comfort Inn. We came here because we wanted the best. If we'd have wanted some dumpy hotel with no pool we could have booked a Microtel.

Okay, just kidding. The pool really was closed, but it opened the next day so all was forgiven. Monday we saw several more places and stopped by Chic-Fil-A for lunch, where Asher had his first Play Place experience. It was so cute to watch him play with all the other kids!

Wild delight. Sorry for the blurry phone picture.

Plum tuckered out after all his running around

We headed back to Louisville Tuesday afternoon, only to leave again Wednesday for Central City. Andrew had the whole week off, so we figured it would be fun to spend Conference weekend with his family. Have I ever told you how much I love those sweet people? They really are wonderful.

We spent the next four days talking, relaxing, playing games, eating too much, and hearing from inspired leaders. Kind of a perfect weekend. 

Saturday morning in bed with Daddy. Still mesmerised by the iPhone. No, Asher doesn't sleep with us, and yes, he wears clothes.

Our sweet boy enjoying the beautiful weather

The End