a nice long weekend

It's that time of year again. Time for our family to make our annual trek to Wisconsin for THE PUMPKIN PATCH! And because this weekend also happens to be a long weekend for the kids AND Joe's weekend between rotations AND we were feeling especially generous we decided to surprise the kids by bringing them to a water park today before heading to our friends' house tomorrow. Meaning the kids and I got up bright and early so we could arrive by lunchtime. (Joe was at the hospital and joined us later...and YES I pretty much felt like super woman taking three kids to the water park by myself while pregnant...for a couple hours.) 

Four hour drives alone with the kids aren't my favorite activity BUT this drive wasn't bad at all. Plus I could hardly wait to see the kids' reaction to our surprise mini-vacation (as they thought we were driving directly to our friends' house). So imagine my dismay when 2 of my 3 children were brought to tears over the sight of the water park/hotel!!! Tears! Sheesh. One child refused to get out of the van initially. Not exactly the JOY and EXCITEMENT I was expecting. Sometimes you just can't win. 

Excited to be on vacation! NOT. 

Eventually I was able to drag them inside. And as we ate our (packed) lunch poolside the kids sloooowly warmed to the idea of staying and swimming. 

And since our arrival it's been mostly uphill. Lots of swimming. And snacking. And just having fun. 

Just what our family needed as we gear up for 5 weeks without daddy.  Four weeks of emergency medicine in Chicago followed by one week of hitting the interview trail. The next time we are all living under the same roof Joe will have 5 more interviews DONE! (All without my negative presence...I think it's probably for the best that I am NOT going with him for interviews.)

And now because this barely cohesive post is taking me far too long to type up, I will end with my favorite Charlotte quote from today. "Mommy we found this special restaurant where you can order whatever kind of water you want!!!" (AKA a bar.)