A night in the "ho-tale"

"Ho-tale" is Abbey speak for hotel. Imagine a grossly exaggerated southern drawl something like "taell"(long a, short e). She knows she gets a laugh out of it, so she really drawls when she says it.

Anyway, this little girl loves, loves, loves to go and stay in a "ho-tale"!
John had to spend the night out of town for business last week, and asked if I'd like to come along with the little guys.  Like Abbey, I kind of like ho-tale living myself. So, I thought, "Why not." Then I remembered that Abbey had her first gymnastics class with her favorite instructor on Friday. (They did not offer a clase during the last quarter with Ms. Bethany, and Abbey really missed her). I told Abbey she had a choice to miss gymnastics and go to the hotel, or stay at home and go to gymnastics. I was a little shocked when she chose to go out of town.

John was in meetings, and we couldn't check in yet, so we went to Target and they played in the playground at Chic-Fil-A. Of course, we couldn't play without buying something, so we had to have a ice dream treat.

Finally we were able to check in. By this point, Abbey was so excited about the hotel, that she could hardly stand it. If she asked once how long before we go to the hotel, she asked a thousand times.

Hotel, sweet hotel

We had some time to kill before meeting Beth and Greg for dinner. So they watched the DV-go player(Abbey's name for the portable DVD player). Elijah, taking everything in stride, didn't seem to mind being in a hotel. I imagine that as he gets older, he will also love hotels.

Then Abbey went swimming. I forgot to take my camera. But imagine Abbey with a grin from ear to ear!

Back at the hotel, they both went out like lights.

The next morning, we went to visit Beth and Greg. We were going to go to a museum or zoo, but we ended up just chatting with them. Abbey and Elijah were even able to coax Greg into a game of "monsters". 

We later picked up John from his meeting, and went home. It was an enjoyable respite at the "ho-tale"!