Weekend Away

This past weekend we travelled 2.5 hours to the nearest town to us to take the kids to see The LEGO Movie.  They had been anxious to see it since seeing previews for it and had asked if we could travel to see the movie in theatre 15 hours away (the only previous place they've seen a movie in theatre).  We had told the kids that wouldn't be possible, but then I thought just maybe the little theatre nearby would be playing it.  It was!  Dwayne and I planned the trip about a week in advance but didn't tell the kids until 5 minutes before we were leaving the house Friday afternoon.  The kids were over the moon!  To make it even better, we arranged to stay with friends who happen to have two little girls of similar ages to our eldest two girls and they were thrilled to get to play with them for a whole weekend.  It was one of those delightful conbinations of personalities that allowed the kids to play all weekend without argument (which meant us parents got to relax and enjoy ourselves as well) and the only tears were the ones shed when it was time to leave and when Abby took a bit of tumble.  The girls have agreed to be penpals and have already made a number of cards to send.  The weekend was spent seeing a movie, lots of free playing by the kiddos, dog sled rides from our friends' husky, eating birthday cake made by our lovely hostess, visiting with friends we don't see often, church Sunday morning, lunch at the local diner after church, a visit with Hendrik's former French Immersion teacher, and a fair bit of quoting lines and singing snippets of "Everything is Awesome" from The LEGO Movie.  We have plans to do this again soon - same friends but different activities - we're considering ice fishing next time around!