Hyatt Lost Pines

Mid-June we took a mini family vacation and spent a few days at Hyatt Lost Pines and had an absolute blast!  This resort is about 30 minutes away from Austin and is the perfect family setup, especially with young children.  They make everything so easy with nice rooms, shallow kid-friendly pools with a sandy beach, several on-site restaurants, laid back organized activities, and a spa and golf course for parents to get away.  We had such wonderful family time that I was begging George to let us stay a few extra nights.  He agreed but the place was already booked solid!

Our kiddos favorite part was, not surprisingly, the pool.  They had a large play area with a sandy beach, a lazy river, a splash pad area, but the biggest hit was the slide.  I was so proud of how brave Ainsley was with the slide.  It was the first thing she wanted to do when we got to the pool and even though she was slightly too short to ride by herself, the lifeguard let her anyway as long as I was at the bottom waiting for her.  She did awesome and wanted to ride again and again.  I didn't get any pictures of her going down by herself but of course since Ainsley was doing it, Bailey wanted to join in the fun as well.  So George ended up going down the slide hundreds of times with the two of them.  You can judge for yourself, but I'm pretty sure he was loving it too.

The popsicles might have been the kid's second favorite part of the pool!  Ainsley loved that they were rainbows and would excitedly announce when she got to a new color, although I don't think either one of them made it all the way through an entire popsicle.

Here is the two of them enjoying the mini splash pad area.

I didn't get any pictures of the hours that they played in the pool's sandy beach.  That was the morning that George went off to play golf so I was solo with the wee ones and a little nervous about watching both of them scramble around in opposite directions so close to the water.  I was thankful to be able to do the full morning by myself in a unfamiliar place with my back (which might sound like a simple thing but its huge in my world) and to have such fun and ease with the kids.  It made me feel so so thankful to be able to give George a morning of actual vacation on our vacation.  Anyway, the kids had a great time playing in the sand and trying to displace as many bucketfuls of water as possible.

The resort also had lots of land to roam around on including butterfly gardens, bike/hiking trails, and these horse pastures.  We didn't do too much of the hiking and stuff but Ainsley became enthralled with the horses and wanted to stand and watch them for a long time.  She is such an animal lover.

On a morning carriage ride around the property...

Another thing that I didn't get a picture of was one afternoon during naps we had our sitter come over so that George and I could enjoy the spa together.  It was sweet to get to have that away time together and was much cherished.  Plus, it was another advantage of still being so close to Austin.

The whole time was such fun and just made me feel so thankful for opportunities like these to make memories with our family of four.  Last summer we took a very similar trip as this and stayed in a very similar resort in San Antonio and it was so difficult for me physically.  That time we took a full-time helper with us and still I remember being in such pain for most of the trip.  Even then, I was still able to enjoy myself and thankful for the change of scenery but it was just such work and it took me several weeks to get to feeling back to my slightly less painful norm.  Arg!  But what a difference a year makes!  It is so encouraging and empowering to look back and to see how far I have come.  It just overwhelms me with gratitude at how much more I am able to do without pain and all while being pregnant!  We are so so blessed!  Praise God for summer and good health!