Weekend Getaway

This year we planned another weekend trip with Cory's high school friends. We missed last year, so we were all excited to see each other again. There was drama with the rental house a couple weeks before we were to leave. I got a call from the rental agency about the house that we had rented. There was a new noise ordinance placed on the house for 24 hour noise levels. There could be no noises above a normal talking voice anywhere outside at anytime. With 13 kids, we knew that would be an impossible challenge! Luckily, there was another property that would still fit our huge crowd. It turned out to be a pretty cool place. One main house with four bedrooms, a separate one room cabin, and another separate two room place. There was a nice pool right in the middle of the property, and a lot of room to explore. Each family got their own room, and after we got unpacked, we headed to the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood for some amazing food with everyone. The restaurant had outside seating, which was fantastic for our ridiculously rowdy kids. They ran around, climbed on the tables and the trees, sat and ate for a few minutes, then ran around again. Everyone said it was great food, but being a vegetarian, BBQ doesn't really have much for me. :) After dinner, we all headed home to rest up. We had noticed that there were birds in the chimney of Sonja and Carl's room. They had tried to get them out, but the best they could do was close the flue, and hope that they didn't actually get in the room. The worst part about it was that there were baby birds in the nest, so they chirped and went nuts all night long, every time the mama bird fed those little babies, it was so loud! Sonja and Carl didn't sleep all night. The other problem was that the air conditioning wasn't cooling the rooms in the main house very well. Another huge problem was that Dana was sick. We didn't know just how sick, but it ended up that she was sick in her room with a crazy high fever and a stomach bug the entire weekend! It was so horrible :( I called the rental agency to see if they could do anything about the birds or the air conditioning. Long story short, they never really fixed either problem. Luckily, everyone dealt with the issues and had a great time! We mostly stayed around the house, playing in the pool, battling each other in horseshoes, and the kids loved having Nerf gun battles and playing hide and seek. On Saturday, most of the girls got in the pool at noon, and didn't get out until 6:30 for dinner! Unfortunately, on Saturday, Luke also got sick, so the Griffins left their noisy room and headed home early. It was a really fun time, despite all the drama and sickness. It's great to see the kids of old friends becoming new friends. Everyone got along really well, and there were lots of smiles and giggles throughout the weekend from the adults and the kids!