FAT Trip

Two weekends ago we had our first ever Dennis family FAT Trip. Family Adventure Time Trip. This year we decided to use our child tax credit to pay for some fun little trips with the family. We’re going to try for three or four a year. For this first one we decided to stay in a hotel. Of course the kids wanted to swim in a pool (something we never have time or energy to do when we stay in a hotel on road trips). So I found a hotel with an indoor pool. It’s still kind of chilly and windy, but most of the hotel pools around here were outdoor pools. So I found, what seemed to me to be the only indoor pool in Round Rock. Aaron and Scotty went to check in while Annie finished play practice. They called to tell me that the pool was...under construction. It was a big disappointment. But we all tried to buck up and have a good time in spite of this FAT Trip setback.

The room was nice. It had a little wall between the king bed and the sofa sleeper. I liked that--gave the illusion at least that the kids were sleeping in another room. That illusion was broken when Scotty came to chat with me around 4:30 am. But everything was very clean. We hadn’t been given any shampoo or hand soap, though. So the room was clean, but we couldn’t get ourselves clean. 

After checking out the room, we walked down the street to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Rudy’s. Aaron was very hungry. We ordered more food than either time when we took our parents to eat there. And we ate it all. So, so yummy. 

Back at the hotel we watched a little TV and chatted and hung out. Then we put the kids to bed and went to bed ourselves. Annie was the only one who slept really well. But when I was wishing I was asleep I just kept thinking, “I’m probably sleeping better than I would be if we were camping.” Camping was the other activity we’d considered. That thought kept me pretty cheerful.

In the morning of course we partook of the hotel’s free breakfast. We were still pretty full from Rudy’s, but we managed to eat a few things. No waffles, though, which was sad because their waffle iron was Texas shaped!

Our main activity for Saturday was going kayaking. At a homeschool park day we saw kayaks for rental near this nice little lake. That is what inspired this FAT Trip activity. We got two kayaks and spent an hour on the lake. We saw lots of turtles and ducks. Annie jumped into the water and swam around a bit. My arms got very tired. At one point, Aaron was doing all the paddling with Annie on the back of his kayak holding onto the kayak with me and Scotty. What a good husband. 

The weather was perfect, and we had a delightful time. We gave the kayaks back and the kids just played in the water for a while. I dropped my phone in the water once, but no harm done. Then we went to lunch at Subway. Then we went to Aaron’s work to see his newest robot, a screwdiver robot.

That was the end of the FAT Trip. Aaron took the kids home, and I went shopping for some much needed new shirts. It was a wonderful day.