Change of scenery

I am not one to normally take on a challenge or adventure with my girls on my own.  I play it safe, stick to the routine, honor naps and bedtimes and life is pretty calm.  But...even now and again its nice to have a change of pace.  LD had to travel to Asheville overnight last week and invited us to join him, a decision he quickly hesitated on once he realized we may take him up on it.  After a little encouragement from my mom and a close friend...I decided to go for it.  My two hesitations were....a hotel room is always hard and LD's work committments meant he would be out until 11pm and working the next morning, so I really was on my own.
The two hour drive was cake for my two travelers after the 12 hour trip to Michigan. We stayed at Biltmore Park Square, which is where LD's Asheville office is, as well as the hotel and lots of restaurants and stores, so we were in good shape!

We started out exploring the shopping center and found lots of fun decorations!

And..a huge soldier standing guard by a BIG toy store...jackpot!

This toy store had so many fun things!!!

And it was set up for kids to play...

And play some more!!

Then we headed next door to Barnes and Noble and spent a lot more time playing there!

After our playtime we headed back to the hotel room with a pizza from Brixx. Since they didn't deliver I walked with my pizza, pushing a double stroller through the shopping area and to our hotel room!  As you can see the girls were really engrossed in something great on tv!  The Hilton does not have family friendly tv stations, so we were watching Cartoon Network, which is really not that great for a preschooler and toddler, but as you can tell they were entertained.

After dinner we changed into our bathing suits and swam all by ourselves in a big pool.  I would have loved to take pictures, but when you are by yourself in a pool with a preschooler and toddler, I promise the last thing you are thinking about is pictures! 

The next morning we headed back to our two favorite stores until LD was finished working.  We got to meet a few people from the Asheville office that he works with and then headed home, with a quick pit stop at McDonalds...or Mickerdonalds as Clare calls it :) 

So...we all survived...mission complete!!