Date Weekend, Snow Weekend, and TobyMac

Along with looking forward to the forecast of brilliant sunshine on the weekend of February 22nd, came the fun activities that that weekend was going to bring for our whole family.  Occurring first, was Mikayla and Nati embarking on their Snow Weekend with the Middle School group.  

Then, Saturday morning, we unloaded Brayden with Andrew and the Meyers family.

And, then, we got a date over-nighter.  When I was at the Harlow Auction, I purchased a "package" that included an overnight stay at a local hotel and dinner and breakfast restaurant certificates.  I felt like with all that we went through in the fall, we could use a little alone time to refuel.  

So, in typical Riley fashion, we embarked on some favorite activities including a movie and shopping.  The movie was "Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit" - EXCELLENT....I'm already looking forward to it in DVD, and then shopping at The Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx.  We found some good stuff.

By late afternoon, we were pulling in to the hotel parking lot to check in to Valley River Inn.  

But, then, the phone rang, and we started to wonder if our plans might go askew.  It was Matt Erdmann on the line - leader of the mid-school group.  That's never a phone call you want to get when your kid is away.  As it turns out, Mikayla was throwing up and they were going to give it some time to see if it was just motion sickness, but wanted us to be prepared for the reality of potentially picking her up.  Oh.  Bummer.

We could only move forward though, and hoped (and prayed) for the best.  This is the interior of this hotel that's been a fixture in Eugene as long as I've been alive.  It's not our typical hotel style or feel, but we were determined to enjoy the experience.

They upgraded our room to one with a river view - again, one of the best days we'd had so far in Eugene.

What Valley River Inn might lack in "newness", it makes up for in location - within walking distance which we took advantage of to get to BJ's Restaurant.  It was an early dinner for us, so we made it back by the time the sun was setting.

 The Instagram Collage picture...

Given we were still waiting to hear from Matt, we thought we'd watch a movie when we returned to the room - knowing we might have to pack up and leave at a moment's notice.  It was literally within five minutes of "The Heat" ending that we got the call that Mikayla wanted to go home.  We were up the mountain and pulling into the Sno-Park to rescue our daughter by 10:30.  I never expected John and I's date to include seeing snow and a spectacular starry sky - but, it did.

Mikayla slept on my lap the whole way home - thankfully, she had emptied her stomach completely before making the 90 minute drive back. 

Here's a couple of pics before she was sick that were taken by Leah.  I'm so thankful Nati was there as a friend, and Leah was present just to stand by her side and comfort her - even riding with her from the lodge to the sno-park late that night to meet us. 

So, we never actually slept in the hotel bed.  Instead, this little girl became my bed mate - through the night and all day Sunday as I stuck by her side. 

It was easy for the guys to stay clear as they were headed to the Rose Quarter in Portland to see TobyMac perform (his opening acts were Mandisa and Brandon Heath).   They stopped by the outlets on the way up (Brayden found a favorite Nike USA hoody) and had Red Robin for dinner. 

As you can tell by the above picture, their seats were amazing.  Unfortunately, though, they were so close to the speaker, that by the time TobyMac finally came on stage, Brayden's head was pounding and they had to leave early.  

So, nothing about this weekend went according to plan.   But, thankfully, outside of Mikayla just feeling physically miserable, we all kept a pretty positive spirit of "going with the flow" through it all.