Scenes from The Weekend (getaway)

One of the things I've been wanting to do for ages (three years to be exact) is take the girlies on a surprise overnight trip...Something totally unexpected, where we just whisk them off, no advance notice.

The last couple of weeks, with the trip to Germany and the start of a new school year (and the unfortunate head cold and stomach bug that my family seems to be passing around), have felt especially, well, harried. So before the overscheduling juggernaut that is "fall" kicks-in, I managed to cross "impromptu adventure" off the list.

We picked both girls up from school at lunch on Friday and drove down to Austin for two days of cocooning. We swam for hours, roasted marshmallows, watched movies in bed and generally just enjoyed each other with no interruptions, no computers or blackberries or phone calls (the only time we pulled out the iPhone was to take a few snaps, as an hour into our trip we realized we'd left the camera at home...in retrospect, a good thing; we spent more time doing and less time "recording").

I have to say, the girls were kinda gobsmacked by the whole experience. They loved the trip (as we were leaving Millie was begging to "stay for a week"), but I think they loved the surprise even more -- so much of our day-to-day is planned to the nth degree, so apparently doing something utterly unplanned is completely novel to my kids. Needless to say, this is major food for thought...

and something we'll be doing again.