Brynne's Mommy Date (Including Melissa's First Swim!)

On Saturday, Dec. 3, Brynne was baptized by Lee. It was a wonderful day and we were blessed to have lots of family come (including Sarah, Lee's mom, who flew from Seattle for the occasion). I'm going to do a separate blog a little later about Brynne's baptism, but I thought I'd give you a little teaser picture now since this blog has to do with baptism too.

When Morgan turned eight, we copied a great idea from a friend (thanks Lee & Traci Christensen!) and I took Morgan on a 24-hour Mommy date. I never suspected that I would have a baby when it came time for Brynne's Mommy date. I told Brynne we could wait to do our date next summer or we could do it now and take Melissa. Turns out Brynne was really excited to bring Melissa on her Mommy date!

We started our date on Monday evening with a trip to Domino's for Brynne's favorite pizza. We took the pizza to a hotel to eat it. Then we went for a dip in the pool. We were pretty excited because it was going to be Melissa's first time swimming. I was so happy to discover the water was heated and was actually quite warm. I think Melissa liked it too:

 

 We were really lucky because we just happened to be swimming at the pool when Santa Claus showed up!

 When we got done swimming we went to the hotel room to shower, watch a movie on the TV, and hit the sack. Yeah, it was quite late, but what are Mommy date's for? The next day we enjoyed the hotel's free breakfast buffet, let Brynne go swimming yet again, heated up leftover pizza for lunch, and then headed off to Salt Lake City.

Brynne was super excited to ride the train. SLC has a "free zone" right around Temple Square, so we rode back and forth in the free zone for about 45 minutes.

 Then we went to Temple Square. I fed Melissa while Brynne toured around the North Visitor Center. We met up at the statue of Christ for a few pictures. It was good to remember exactly why we were having a Mommy date; a time to celebrate Brynne's decision to be baptized.

 We left Temple Square just in time for Brynne and Melissa to both catch a nap on the drive down to Provo. We went to Lowe's Extreme Airsports where Brynne let loose! This place has tons of trampolines along with some foam pits. You can jump off a climbing wall or jump off a "diving board" into the pits. Here is Brynne making her way out of the pit at the bottom of the climbing wall:

Why just jump when you can jump in style?

 Brynne discovered a swinging high bar over one of the foam pits. She really wanted to swing on it but was quite scared. I was so proud of her because she decided she was going to do it and did! After that first time there was hardly any stopping her. She swung on the bar for quite a while.

 When Brynne finally ran out of energy, she wanted to still do something else before dinner. We were close to BYU, so we went to the BYU Bean Museum. It's a museum with lots of different animals. They have scavenger hunts for kids to look for and learn various things while they look around. We had a good time there. Brynne stopped to pose in front of the display of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus surrounded by animals.

We ate dinner at Brick Oven, where we were able to use a free kid's meal coupon Brynne had earned at school for being a great student and a great example. We enjoyed our delicious meal and then hurried home to watch The Biggest Loser. Since Lee and Morgan were gone (they were in Arizona visiting Trout, Lee's dad, and Lo), we ended the night with a slumber party in my room.

Talk about a fun-filled 24+ hours! Melissa did great on our trip too, which was a nice blessing. I am so glad to have these fun memories with Brynne!