Road trip PART 3.5

I just posted about the morning of competition but I'm having to break it down a few photos at a time because of my Internet service. So here's the pool shots I took before we got ready and headed out to compete. 

State comp. road trip PART 3

Last night I typed out a big huge post and because my service is soooo bad out here it got deleted after it tried to post for 7 hours. So I'm going to break it up into a much smaller post and only do a few pics at a time. 

The morning of competition we woke up early, showered and went down to breakfast. Since we had gotten to the hotel so late the pool was already closed. The kids REALLY wanted to swim but the pool wasn't supposed to open until 10:00 am. All the girls had to be on their way to competition by then so my besties hubby went to the front desk and told them we had 3 little cheerleaders who really wanted to swim. They said absolutely no problem at all and let us open the pool after we were done with breakfast around 8:00. The kids got to swim and we were the only ones out there for 90% of the time! 

Here's a few photos until I post more. 

State Comp. road trip PART 2

We got to the hotel around 11:00 Friday night. One of our other friends also got to go because her daughter placed in regionals as well. So all 3 of us won that day and it was awesome to know we would all travel together. We left the hotel up to her and simply told her to let us know how much we owed and where to go. She reserved all 3 rooms. She choose WELL. Better than well. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites. It was sooooo great. We were all so surprised and none of us wanted to leave it Saturday. 

Once we got there Friday night the mad scramble began to get everything up and unloaded. Room shuffles began as well and my besties daughter begged to sleep in mine and Makaylas room. She got her wish. A little after midnight the girls fell asleep. 

My bestie went downstairs to the van and sent me a pic of a coffee bar by the desk. We went back down almost immediately. The BEST coffee I've ever had. We had such a great nights sleep. Best $$ we could have spent on a hotel. 

State competition road trip! PART 1

This weekend was our State Cheerleading Competition. The girls got 2nd at regionals so they earned their place at state. My bestfriend (from kindergarten) also got to go since her daughter got 1st at regionals in her division. We decided to road trip together!! It was AMAZING! She brought her husband and 4 kids and then it was Makayla and me. It was a 5 hour one way trip. I have SO much to share about this but I'm gonna have to break it up into at least 2-3 posts. I'm gonna start with the ride up there. 

They came to pick us up and when they pulled up we were so excited to see they had written the girls names and cheer stuff all over their van windows. SO cool. I wish I had gotten pics because it rained almost right after and washed off. (More on that in a second.) 

So we pack up and get going and  less than a block from my house we hit traffic.  5:00 pm on Friday with construction traffic. We set the van to track our mileage. 10.2 miles in 70 minutes. Yes 70 minutes. It started raining and I couldn't get out so I had my bestie take one pic of the writing from the inside lol. Better than nothing right? 

We finally clear traffic a little and by then it was around 6:30 and everyone was starving. We had at least 4 hours ahead of us still to get there so we stopped to eat. Best Mexican food restaurant EVER. A little pricey but worth every single penny. We ordered and less than 10 minutes later our food arrived. We kept saying no way is that ours already. And let me tell you it was beyond fantastic. I've grown up on Mexican food and it may have been the best I've ever had. We were all so stuffed after we couldn't move. 

We took care of bathroom breaks and got everyone locked and loaded and headed out for our remaining 4 hour drive. It was so pretty the whole drive. We made it to our awesome hotel around 11:00 pm. 

I'm gonna end this post with these pics of the way up there and then start with our hotel in my next post. 

An unexpected sleepover

I'm trying to catch up a little on my blogging today. On Monday we went to my bestfriends house and hung out all day after the boys dentist appt. As usual we had a blast. The kids swam and played outside ALL day. They even played the Hunger Games for a while. We got a lot of laughs out of that one. 

For dinner my friend made sweet and sour chicken. It was sooooo good. When we were packing up to go home my kids and hers all started yelling "sleepover!! Sleepover!!" Even her two year old started jumping up and down with the big kids. They did this for 20 minutes before her husband and both of us caved. So I left them overnight and came to get them in the morning. They had a BLAST!! 

It completely made their month. We are so lucky to have such amazing friends. 

To the beach!

We had planned to go to the beach with two of my bestfriends. I was so excited to have them both there. Early in the morning I got a text from one of them saying her husbands car had broken down and she didn't know if it would take all day to deal with that and that they might have to cancel. 

I waited around and finally heard the final word. They weren't going to make it. I was so bummed out about it. My other bestie and I continued on with our trip though and the kids had a great time. 

There was lots of stress before we got there. A low tire, kids spilling nacho cheese in the van,etc. I'm glad we went anyway because it was a great time. I took lots of pics but I'm going to try to limit how many I post today. 

Besties bday lunch

Today one of my best friends had a lunch  birthday get together. I got there a little early so I could sneak in and tell them to sing her happy bday. We were a group of 5. I didn't know anyone else there but I had a blast still. We were THAT table. You know the table everyone stares at and doesn't want to sit by because they are so loud. Yep that was us. 

We waited and waited and they hadn't come to sing her happy bday yet so I had to go ask them again. Finally they came out and to our shock they didn't do the normal big hat and singing. They smeared whipped cream all over her face and put a cherry on her nose. We were dying from laughter. 

We eat there ALL the time and they know us well so I guess they knew she would be a good sport about it. We had a great lunch without any kids. Sometimes it's so nice to get away. 

Tomorrow we are beach bound!! Can't wait!! 

Zoo (when it was super hot)

Monday we went to the zoo. It was HOT. Despite the ridiculous heat we had a great time. Makayla was visiting family this week so she wasn't with us. We still had a pretty large group though. The zoo had an awesome Lego animal exhibit which of course we all LOVED. They also had an awesome water park splash pad. The kids really enjoyed cooling off for a bit in the water. 

My feet always burn easily so I put a ton of sunscreen on them and still got burnt. Seriously I am so over this whole fair skin thing. Our visit ended up being way longer than we realized. We brought a cooler with our lunch and then found a nice umbrella table to sit and eat and cool off. At several points throughout our visit I felt like I was going to pass out. 

We woke up super late and had to rush to get out the door to meet our friends and didn't have time for breakfast. Not eating plus the heat was NOT a good combo for me. Thankfully the chimp exhibit is inside and has air conditioning so we hung out in there about 20 minutes and I felt better. The zoo keepers came in and talked to us and the kids loved it all. 

We love the zoo but the temps were making it rough on us all. We all pulled through and had a blast.