We had a great little summer getaway this weekend. My company took us to Madden’s on Gull Lake (near Brainerd) for our annual summer outing.

The weather turned out to be nice and (not nearly as cool as predicted) so we were able to be out and about.  The biggest drawback was the lack of sleep Maria got. It took us about an hour to realize on Friday night that Maria would not go to sleep with any sort of light on in the room and me in it.  It wasn’t until everything was off, and I hid (on the floor) behind the bed AND Chad told her I would come back when she went to sleep, that she finally stopped fighting it, and just laid down and went to sleep.  Napping wasn’t great the next day either, when she figured out she could climb out of her pack-n-play. Yikes, just hope she doesn’t get any ideas with the crib!

We did get some good playing time in with other kids her age, and also a fun hour in the pool. Turns out that Daddy is the preferred swimming partner for Maria as he is taller and able to play more games with her. Other than needing me to acclimate her to the water (2 minutes) she didn’t need anything from me.

I think I can speak for all of us that we will all be sleeping well tonight!

And on a follow-up, besides sleeping in a hotel adventure, bedtimes have been very smooth ever since I posted last week! I think I just needed some validation and encouragement to stay the course!  I started letting her pick 3 books before we even start reading, so she doesn’t lose count and keep asking for “1 more book”.  So far so good!

Here is one of the few pictures I took this weekend, but how cute is she with pigtails! Barely enough, but we thought it was cute… cute until I had to get all the sand out of her hair last night! Oh and when she puts on her sunglasses she says “I’m rock star!”