Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows how important my family is to me. I can obtain success in every other part of my life, but being a dad will always be the single coolest thing in the world to me. If that ever changes, then something is wrong in my life and everyone has permission to give me a swift kick side the head. But, I'm not worried about it. Saturday afternoon we headed up to Portland, Maine for a little get away family time. Nothing crazy or extravagant. Not even really that many plans. Just dinner with some old friends and a hotel with a pool. That was the only thing we had planned. I put in the suggestion that I really wanted to see the Portland Headlight in the snow and that is where this picture was taken.

It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast in the pool. Plus, they thought it was pretty cool that we surprised them with a hotel room of their own connected to ours. They were not looking forward to sharing a bed so they loved this.

We hit the mall on Sunday and just sort of walked around and chilled after breakfast at an IHOP. Turns out the kids had never been to one before and asked if we could sometime. I had all sorts of funny memories set in from college. Especially when Dylan saw all the variety of syrups. A famous rant from "Pancake Angst" popped into my head and I had to giggle a bit. When he asked I couldn't really explain it.

Emily was a little off most of the time, but not enough to cancel the trip. She is home today with me because she had a fever last night that seems to have broken, but I would rather keep her home for a day of rest then have to go pick her up in the middle of the day if she gets feeling bad again.

I'm so glad Laura pushed for this weekend. We booked it out over a month ago so that I'd be sure to keep the date free. It was exactly what we all needed. Ahhhh.....