Its Friday morning of Presidents weekend. All our buddies have fun trips planned to Salzburg, Berlin, Austria, you name it. I roll over to Chris and say, “I am so happy to have a lazy weekend at home”.
Chris’s response, “I actually have a surprise for you. I planned a weekend away. I am not telling you where. But I packed for myself and the boys while you were at book club last night. I just need you to pack up for the weekend and take Pauli to her holiday spot – we will leave this afternoon.”
Well, lets get packed. Knowing Farrah is on her way to an amazing weekend in Salzburg, I resist the urge to call her saying – can you believe Chris planned this weekend away? Meanwhile, in a house 20 miles down the street, Farrah is learning her Salzburg trip is being postponed, their babysitter is not coming and Brian is packing his road bike. Eeek…. Somehow she manages not to call me to complain.
The family is happily in the car on headed on our weekend away. I am quite excited about this preplanned trip and am purely enjoying the ride. Until it takes us to France (not my favorite country). …. Chris assures me that all will be o.k. so after another hour of questionable roads and remote country side Center Parks. A new family style resort area.
http://www.centerparcs.com/EN/GB/villages/moselle_domaine_trois_forets
Wow – it looks brand new. Chris and I have talked about trying a weekend at a resort like this. I am so impressed with his planning. We get the information at the gate and roll up to our cottage. As we pull up, I notice that another family has opted to bring their bikes too – guess its got a great road biking area. We unload the car and start walking up to the cottage. Nick shouts, that looks like Tates bike! I check it out and say, hey your right, and that kind of looks like Brian’s bike – just as Brian McCullough opens the door! It takes a few seconds for my brain to process that the McCulloughs are NOT in Salzburg. We are sharing a beautiful cottage with us!! Meanwhile, Farrah (after setting up their three bedrooms for their family is finally relaxing enjoying a glass of wine thinking the folks at the door were delivering their towels, when, the Leadbetters walk in. She was totally shocked!
Let the most memorable weekend begin!! We cannot believe the guys managed to keep it from us for over 2 months!! The entire family is thrilled. How lucky are we all! Yes, the husbands were right, everything will be o.k. – no wait, everything will be PERFECT! They had scheduled play time for the kids, dinner and breakfasts, spa appointments etc!! Not to mention this brand new resort has a HUGE indoor water park! Words cannot capture how wonderful that moment felt! Thank you to Chris and Brian for planning it and thank you McCulloughs for being that family that spending every second with is everything we all want! Now onto the sights.
After recovering from extreme surprise and excitment, we head out exploring. Once the car is unloaded, we park it rather far away, not needing it for the rest of the weekend. The petting zoo is a quick walk from our cottage.
Macy and Shane walk hand in hand while Tate and Nick sprint ahead.
Lets check out the animals. Donkeys, goats, sheep, bunnies, chickens, ponies - you name it!
Here are some of our favorite animals =)
After the petting zoo we venture over to the main building. It has 4 restaraunts, a small grocery store, a bakery, a center playground area and HUGE water park.
The boys are thrilled to run around
This is the main complex during the day
Here is one of the bridges that the boys would pedal over
Saturday morning was our experiement. The boys were signed up for play time at the Kids Club. The theme was 'Cowboys and Indians' and we were told they would 'perform' during the final 1/2 hour of play time if we want to come watch! of course. Well, we showed up and 2 boys opted out of dressing up.... hmmmm. Guess Nick and Tate can understand English and German, but weren't interested in French. The counselor told us they didn't participate at all. We had a bit of a discussion and attitude adjustment as we draged them out of there not stopping at the playground or petting zoo as punishment. (Punishment for the parents too!)
Sunday is a new day and new attitudes! Archery started at 11:30 and the boys were already practicing.
On a side note - during one of our walks, Shane took a face first dive onto the asphalt. Guess I should say nose first. What a bruser.
The second Kids club was a HUGE success. The boys dressed up as a lion and tiger and performed AWESOMELY. Check out our video.
Monday morning was filled with another treat. Warm hugs and beautiful snow!
This is the view from our family room. Beautiful glass windows where we enjoyed the snow. EVERYONE wished we would get snowed in.....FOR WEEKS!. Sadly, we only got a dusting, so we packed up and headed for our final day at the pool
Saying goodbye to the animals
The adventure course - maybe next time!
Onto the water park. This place was AMAZING.
This was the slide for Shane and Macy (Nick and Tate would 'warm up' on it)
This was Nick and Tate's water slide. They did it about 1,000,000 times
Check out this video too
Love the water babies =)
We had a wonderful weekend. We stayed up nights chatting and playing games. We opted to not order WIFI which was rather refreshing (no emails, no connectivity) the only frustration was when we tried to look up movies that Bette Midler starred in..... but we are SO fortunate to have such a wonderful family in our lives. Thank you, thank you, for the wonderful weekend. We all went home exhausted!
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