#Romeringaroundthelake

 This is a photo of pure vacation bliss.

Chilled pinot grigio looking out onto to Lake Conroe from our vacation home.

Nick and I decided that every other year, we would do a fun vacation with the kids.

Every year in between, we would vacation just the two of us.

This is, of course, until the kids are old enough to take with us on our adventures.

 Of course travelling with our (almost) 3 year old on an airplane just gives me nightmares thinking about it.

So we opted to do a local vacay with our kids this year.

We rented a lake house on Lake Conroe, invited our neighbors, and a friend of mine in Dallas to share our time with.

We brought all of our kids, and all of our stuff, and just had a great time relaxing by the lake.

We had full unlimited access to the country club just walking distance from our place.

Our first night there, we all headed over to have dinner there.

Mattis making himself comfy...

The view from our lakehouse...so pretty.

When we were stationed at Camp Pendleton, I met a lovely lady who's husband (at the time) was in the same unit as Nick.

Our girls are just a month and a half apart in age, and have not seen each other since they were two (almost three)!

They reunited, and got along as if they had been BFF's for years!

Here they are...Dannika and Piper!

Nick and I are super morning people/early birds.

While the rest of our crew slept in until 11-noon, we were up at 7 to grab breakfast for the kids (who woke up just an hour after us).

I even got in a workout and a run all before 9!

Playing at the pool by the country club!

Walking back from the pool...

The girls swam in the lake for a little bit.

(photo taken right before Piper felt the "slimy sand" between her toes because the water was shallow)

The boys fished pretty much all day, every day the entire time we were there.

They caught absolutely nothing on the first day.

The girls playing Shopkins on the grass while watching Nick and Greg fish.

Nick took Mattis out on the kayak for a bit to fish.

Piper caught a fish!

By the end of the weekend, the boys managed to catch enough fish for us to have a fish fry!

We had so much fun just relaxing and enjoying the company of our friends.

We couldn't have asked for a better vacation to have with both our kids in tow.

 Afterwards, we headed to Houston, dropped the kids off with my parents, and Nick and I got a hotel room for a night away!

We stayed at the Westin inside the Galleria mall, and I have to give the hotel 5 stars and two thumbs up!

My sister and brother in law got us a gift card to a fancy sushi restaurant in Houston called "Uchi".

We decided to go there for our date night.

We split a six course meal together.

It was heavenly...

Check out the photos of what we ordered!

Don't ask me what it was, because I don't remember!

 Post dinner elevator selfie...because we wanted to...

 Because Nick and I are such exciting people, we came straight back to our hotel room after dinner to watch overpriced movies on the hotel's on demand program.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

The next morning, we ordered room service, then went for a quick swim in the hotel pool (in the rain).

I decided I was Katie Ledecky...

"Would Katie Ledecky get out of the pool because of rain?! NO!"

Everything bagel with cream cheese, capers, tomato, smoked salmon, and red onion.

What our kids did while we spent the night away...

My parents took them to a trampoline park!

 We always make a pit stop at the Godiva chocolate store when we are at the Houston Galleria.

I get a few truffles, and Nick gets an truffleata (a truffle milkshake)

With Dannika officially back in school, and classes starting up again for the Fall semester for Nick and me, our mini vacay was perfect for us.

After a long summer of summer school, it was the perfect getaway to get us mentally prepared for Fall! 

Oh, and if you're on Instagram and are my friend, you can look up the hashtag #romeringaroundthelake, and you'll see all of our lake vacation photos!