Check out the first installment of our week in Gaylord here.
I have to admit that things are going pretty well so far, all things considered.
I mean, spending a week at a Holiday Inn with two little girls in the dead of winter UP NORTH is not the ideal getaway. Lots of time inside, lots of eating out, sharing a room every day and every night.
A few times I’ve almost lost my mind.
I’ve definitely lost my cool.
But we’re in the home stretch!
Tomorrow is our last full day and we hit the road after breakfast on Saturday.
Not that I’m counting down or anything! Lol
I’m just growing weary of breaking up fights between the girls, constantly telling Grace that she has to share her toys and that she cannot rip things out of Avery’s hands. I don’t know how many more times I can answer the following questions:
1. Can I have a snack?
2. Are we having cookies after dinner?
3. Can we go swimming now?
4. Are we going to go swimming?
5. Can I watch a show on dad’s pad?
6. Can I play a game on your pad?
Agghhh!
The alternative to staying cooped up in the room and answering these questions ad nauseum is going out. Going out means that I have to bundle both girls in socks, shoes and coats and then I have to wrangle them through the hall, down the stairs which are kept at an inferno temperature and through the snow outside to the car. Then I have to strap them both into their seats and listen to the crying protests about their buckles and straps and omgmakeitstop.
So, we strike a delicate balance between staying in and going out.
I do think we have been doing a pretty decent job of making the most of our time here though. Yesterday Andy didn’t have to work with the doctor, so we went out for lunch and then checked out the famous Call of the Wild store and museum.
Grace checking out a badger. This promptly made me laugh all over again about the funny, yet highly inappropriate, honey badger YouTube video.
Upon seeing this bear, Grace shouted, “Look Mom! It’s like Merida’s mom!” Disney’s Brave is such a cute movie with fabulous Scottish accents. In the movie the girl (Merida) wishes a curse upon her mother and the result is that her mom is turned into a black bear. Grace is such a movie buff.
Avery was clearly thrilled with everything. Lol
The museum didn’t take too long to get through and it was nicely done. Lots of animal info and early Michigan history were included.
The Call of the Wild store was fun to browse through too. Cowboy boots, portraits of elk and deer and Minnetonka moccasins were in abundance. In fact, if they’d had her size I don’t know if I could have resisted buying a pair of these for Avery…
I mean how cute are those?!?
I also felt incredibly nostalgic when I saw a pair of these…
As a kid I regularly sported a pair of these in white and in pink. I’m still debating whether I should buy a pair! They are “too much” right?
RIGHT???
Maybe I could start a new trend…
Ha!
For dinner last night we brought a Jet’s pizza back to our hotel room. As much as we love Jet’s, I have to say that it tasted different here than at home! Still good, but not quite as good.
Maybe it’s because I just really want to eat normal, healthy food again! Rich hotel breakfast food, followed by PB&J for lunch, and dinner out every night is getting old. I feel like I’m being preserved from the inside out with all the salt I’ve eaten this week. Blech!
I know I’m kind of in a minority with loving to cook so much, but honestly I just could not handle eating restaurant or packaged food all the time. It makes me feel yucky and bloated and gross.
Quick someone, give me a celery stick!
This morning after our regular breakfast/daddy drop-off routine, we hit up the Kid’s Discovery Center again and the girls had a great time.
Grace loved the indoor sandbox today and Avery’s favorite part, as always, was snack time. That girl can EAT!
Right now we’re chilling in the hotel room while listening to a VERY LOUD plow clear the parking lot right outside our window. I kid you not, this thing has been at it for THREE WHOLE HOURS and I cannot believe Avery was ever able to fall asleep with all the ruckus.
I’m doing my best to ignore it, but I’m failing miserably. Thankfully I’ve calmed down in the last couple of hours, but when we first got back to the room and everyone was tired, hungry, and crabby and this monstrosity was revving and scraping and grinding directly outside our room, I had a few choice words I wanted to shout out the window!
God is showing me every single day how much I need Him. How gloriously feeble and out of control I am, despite the fact that I try to white-knuckle my way through everything every day.
Thank you Father for loving me. Your stubborn, cranky, whiney daughter. I’m forever grateful :)

Oh man. I’m with you about the eating-out-all-the-time thing. I can’t do it, either! A homecooked meal is the solution to all bloating, I’m sure of it. We’ve done road trips quite often, but I always make sure we stock up at the grocery store for some lunch meat and veggies- not sure how that would go with little ones, but for me and Hunky Husband, it works pretty well!
I did bring some veggies and fruit, but have mostly been rationing it to the girls everyday so they don’t become malnourished! lol i suppose i could have gotten stuff to make salads for me, but that’s such a pain in a hotel room…you know?
Is it bad that I laugh reading about the buckling antics and you going nuts over the myriad questions from grace? :) today, after “doing too much” once again ( went to the trampoline park in Troy) and have already been to Canada one day this week and Sesame Street live on Monday…can we say overdoing it? The girls were getting out of the bath and driving me batty…I just started singing every Christian song I knew on repeat. Put Cecelia to bed while she screamed and I sang through all of it…I probably looked nuts but it worked…kept me from exploding in frustration:)
Hang in there! Parenting is so humbling and such a reminder of god’s grace for us. I’ll pray for you and please do the same for me:)I don’t have celery but I can offer you a Brussel sprout? :)
Ps the girls looked soooo adorable in their suits!!! And when did grace grow up so much?!
I’m glad you thought it was hilarious :) I know all of us mothers of small children can relate! I love your idea about singing praise songs…I need to do that, although I’m not sure it would keep me from blowing up. Haha
That play place looks awesome! Loving your stories about hotel living and mothering:)