For Richer or Awesome...r

Like the Good Book says, "There comes a time in every young man (and woman)'s life where he (or she), must stay in a ridiculously large hotel room." For us, that was this weekend :D Walking into the "room" where the girls would be staying, my first reaction was "Holy Crap!" followed by an equally giddy "Ho-ly Crap!" and ended with a moment of speechlessness (but with an implied, third "Holy Crap"). To say this room was large would be an understatement, for, nay, this was not even a room. This was a Hotel Apartment...in a five-star hotel!

Now, I don't want you to judge us, lest ye be judged; so allow me to explain the circumstances surrounding our grand fortune. About a month or more ago, we found out that the weekend of the 28th of March, a Workers Encouragement retreat was to take place close to the center of our (hopefully once spring arrives) beautiful city. Our good friends asked if we wouldn't mind volunteering our services to the childcare department aka: Be the childcare department. We were more than happy to offer our services, and were told to have some activities prepared for the weekend.

Arriving at the hotel, we noted how very grand this little American chain hotel was, when we were informed that this was not the hotel we would be staying in. Intrigued, we followed our friend around the corner, past a starbucks (can I get a halleluia!?), to our home for the weekend. Greeted by five, friendly-looking stars next to the hotel name, we knew we were in for a treat. Margaret had gone ahead of me and Judit and was already freaking out about the room, so we rushed upstairs, discovering along the way how very underdressed we were haha, and entered the girls' 12th floor apartment.

Specs: 2 Master Bedrooms; 2 Master bathrooms, each with a bathtub; an extra guest bathroom; washing/drying machine; kitchen, complete with oven, microwave, refrigerator/freezer, sink, glassware, plates, cutlery, and a knife set; a living room that doubled the size of the place; numerous walk-in closets; and three televisions.

So enough about the room (more to come later ;D), let's talk about what we actually did there. The first night, we thought we'd get the kids split into teams, with Margaret and Chad leading each team, and Judit and I being the official "Judges" for the weekend. With the Teams Judah and Gideon formed, we began the weekend friday night with a Scavenger Hunt! After a good hour of feeding clues and asking questions of the teams, we ended our time that night with a good ol' dessert party.

We were really excited about the kids we had. They were very well behaved (for the most part) and gave us a lot of respect. And because of that, we were able to have two tons of fun, it was awesome! We watched movies, went swimming/hot tubbing, played giant dutch blitz, and the whole time, each team was earning points from me and Judit based on a number of different and very...official criterium... The incentive for getting points was that at the end of the weekend, the winning team leader would get to pie the other leader in the face! Trust me, that was more than enough to get our group of 6-17 year olds motivated. In addition to all the fun and games, Margaret and Chad were able to have a couple of really good "sessions" with some of the older kids. A lot of good talks came out of those times, as Margaret will be the first to tell you.



By the end of the weekend, we were exhausted shells of our former selves. The kids were awesome, but with our bodies lacking sleep and/or caffeine, we were ready to be done. We said goodbye to our young'ens, got some phone numbers, made threats if we weren't visited or called, and sent them off, knowing we had been a blessing to the parents in helping them to enjoy and take full advantage of their weekend. We felt really blessed, ourselves and had an amazing experience throughout it all. It was a good feeling, to say the least. As Mister Rogers used to say....
It's such a good felling, to know your alive
It's such a happy feeling, you're growing inside
And when you wake up, ready to say
"I think I'll make a snappy new day!" (snap sna...okay, yeah you get it)

side note: The breakfasts at this hotel were amazing! Holy Shazbot! There were lines of food, like bacon and eggs, japanese pork steak, sushi, au gratin potatoes, sausages, an omlette bar with a chef who made whatever kind of eggs you wanted with like 12 different toppings! There was fresh fruit, breads, CHEESES, croissants, yogurts, juices, coffee. And here it is, the holy virgin grail of all the splendor of this breakfast:
There...were...cereals........!!!!!!!!! And Milk!!! Good lord, people, you have no idea how much you miss cereal until you have gone four months without it. Advice to everyone reading this: Appreciate your cereal, love it, never take it for granted, hold on to it and never let it go...until its empty...but just remember, there are many little things in life that, while they seem little to us when we have them, tend to leave an awfully big hole once we are deprived of them.

We miss all you guys!!!