Weekending

He looks so tiny in the great big king size bed!

Mommy & her boys--hanging out at the hotel.

Science Spectrum--I think the daddies were having more fun than the kids at this point!

Jonathan & Rory checking out the treehouse.

Abby & Jonathan banging on the big drum.

This past weekend was an awesome one for the Merriss family! We met up with our very good friends--the Hanna family--and took a weekend-long roadtrip to Lubbock. We arrived around dinnertime, so after checking into our hotel we had dinner at the Japanese restaurant Ohanas (Lubbock's version of Kabuki). Jonathan was more interested in the chef cooking our food at our table than he was in actually eating the food! The chef really played up to him too--trying to get him to catch a piece of chicken in his mouth, playing with fire, making a volcano out of onions, and even spelling out "I love you" in the food. Jonathan started mimicking him halfway through the service, trying to cook just like the chef was. Jacob got his first taste of Japanese food and apparently loved it! I let the little guy have a sampling of my soup and he quickly became addicted. He wound up splitting it with me!

We stayed in a really nice Super 8 Motel. Our room had a jacuzzi (sp?) in it! (I soooo want one of those for our house!) It was the boys' first time ever to stay in a hotel. I think they had a blast. The kiddos got together for a "slumber party"--they stayed up until about 1:00 in the morning watching VeggieTales! Afterwards all four of us slept together in the giant king size bed. For as small as the boys are they sure do take up a lot of room! I had Jacob either on me or slightly off to one side of me all night long, and Jonathan slept in between John and me. Sometime during the night he wound up with his feet on the pillows and his head either down in the blankets or propped up on my hip. Yes, it was an interesting night. Needless to say, neither John nor I got very much sleep that night. After breakfast the next morning we tried out the hotel's indoor pool. John took both of the boys out in the water. Jonathan did pretty good until John attempted to put his head under water. After that, Jonathan pretty much wanted to stick close to the steps, where he could put his feet down (and he wanted to be wherever "my Taira" was).

After lunch we took the kids to the Science Spectrum, which is kind of like the Discovery Center in Amarillo only bigger and (I think) a little bit better. There are all kinds of exhibits and activities. You can also watch a 3-D movie on a huge screen with your seat moving to interact with the movie. (That part is called Omnimax. We decided not to go for the movie though; we worried the kids would be a little scared.) There's even a play room for kids under five. The kids did pretty good, but we went to Science Spectrum late in the day before heading back home and none of the kids had had a nap, so there were a handful of meltdowns (mainly from Jonathan). In the end, I think he had a pretty good time in spite of it all. Next time we'll remember to take the kids first thing in the morning! :)

We had a really wonderful weekend, and hopefully we'll be able to do it again soon. Now we have to get back in the groove of things back here at home. I'm trying to get the house somewhat back in order. Jonathan and Jacob are trying to get back into their routines. And John is leaving for California in the morning--thankfully only for a day (he has to do an inventory count on Thursday, but he's on a plane home first thing Friday morning). Reality is not nearly as much fun as a weekend getaway.