Tag Archives: hotel

Hotel weekend

Last Christmas Tom won a two night stay at Aloft hotel in Ballentyne. In our usual fashion, we left the gift certificate sitting in a dresser drawer until two weeks before the expiration date.  I called Aloft and thankfully they let us extend the expiration date until we could go in January.  

We decided to take the kids with us to the hotel on Friday night and then Tom and I would stay without the kids on Saturday night. Aloft was a fabulous hotel with a pool and the friendliest and most helpful staff. We truly enjoyed our stay and the kids loved it. 

The kids swam in the pool Friday night, Saturday morning by 8:00am they were down there again, and then they retuned two more times that afternoon.  Well worth the stay. 

Friday night we took the kids out for dinner at Red Robin. There I realized that we never take the kids out for dinner, and the reason why. It cost us over $70 to feed five people dinner, dessert and two beers for Tom and I. We can’t afford to do that very often. It was a special treat.  

 Saturday night we sent the kids to my parents’ house for the night.  The first thing I did was take a nap (which was desperately needed) and then I went out for Indian food with Tom. 

The funniest part of our date night was when Tom and I were trying to decide what to do after dinner. We discussed whether we wanted to go out or go back to the hotel room to watch football, read and sleep…is was only at 9:00 at night. Our conversation went something like this….

Tom -what do you want to do now?

Me- I don’t know. I feel like we should do something fun. 

Tom -why?  The hotel can be fun 

Me – I don’t know. I feel like we should be out doing something fun and different just because we can….even though I really just want to go back to the hotel. 

Tom – you know, tonight I am just hoping to get some rest. 

Me – Should we each sleep in our own double bed? Lol 

Our priorities have changed over the years. We are no longer out to prove something or have the night of our lives.  We just want to relax, have a good meal and get a decent night’s sleep.  We ended up going to the hotel room, watching tv and I fell asleep by 10:00, even after having a two hour nap that afternoon….and I slept in one bed while tom slept in the other one. It was great!!  I can’t wait to have another “stay In a Charlotte hotel”  weekend. I realized that we don’t have to go out of town to get away, we just need a hotel with a pool and a babysitter.  

Here are the kids enjoying their hotel experience…

  
 

First day of travel

Today we drove up to Pennsylvania to see Tom’s family. We had packeted the night before so all we had to do was get three kids in the car with their blankets and shoes. (I think we forgot Miller’s shoes).
About two hours into the trip I decided that it was time to take a nap. I might have had my eyed closed for two minutes when I jolted up because tom was slamming on the brakes. He tried to stop, luckily the car in front of us slid to the side and we stopped without hitting it. However, the guy behind us wasn’t so lucky. He slammed into the back of us. We were a part of a multi car pile up on the highway. Thankfully none of us were hurt and our car was still drivable. It also delayed our trip by two hours. The kids did great and sat in the car for two hours while we waited for the police report. Then we were finally on our way.

So eleven hours, one accident, one lunch stop, three bathroom breaks, and many coffees later- we made it to Harrisburg, PA.

The hotel we are staying in is awesome! Tom had racked up enough points at the Sheraton for us to stay for free for four nights and to be upgraded to the suite. The kids were psyched to have a hotel room with a couch and a pool. Believe it or not but they had never seen a sofa bed before! Can you believe that? It is the little things in life.

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