Happy Birthday, Paul!

Paul turned 34 this year!  He's a very difficult person to buy gifts for.  He never wants anything, and pretty much has everything he *needs*, and then some.  I always rack my brain, try to listen for weeks ahead at things he mentions, scour the internet, and to add to the pressure, I've got two mothers begging me for suggestions as well. : )

This year, I decided to make it easy on all of us.  We would take a trip.  So I asked everyone to chip in a bit, and for Paul's birthday, we took a little getaway to a place right outside of our city called The Treehouse Resort!

The rooms were little wooden boxes built up in the trees.  They had tree branches running through them. 

The kids thought this was awesome. : )

They had all kinds of activities, like archery.  This was one of our favorite things to do.

In the evenings, they offered camel cart rides through the Rajasthani wilderness. 

They had bikes you could take on a ride.

Considering it was over 100 degrees, we only did this once. : )

They had a small, five hole golf course.  We only did this once too, but everyone really enjoyed it!

Brothers sitting to sweetly while on a jeep tour of the property. 

They also had domesticated turkeys, rabbits, and guinea fowl wandering around the property.  These turkeys followed us everywhere.  After breakfast each morning, we'd walk around the forest, find the swing, and chase the guinea fowl.  These turkeys were so creepy, and would always find us and try to get as close to us as they could.  I don't think I'd ever been around turkeys before.  Seriously creepsters. 

Of course, we spent most of our time at the awesome swimming pool!  Twice a day we went there when it was really sunny and hot, and would spend hours swimming.  Meryn became fearless and would want to kick off on her own in the floatie, and eventually, even in just arm floaties.  Levi conquered his fear of the water while we were there as well.  Before coming here, Levi would not even get in a swimming pool.  But while we were there, he got in, eventually got brave enough for us to carry him away from the steps into the water. On the last day, Levi surprised us all by deciding to get in a floatie for the first time, and independently kick around the pool! We were so proud of him! But, he still wouldn't let us put him under water. : ) One thing at a time...

Thanks to both our parents for this wonderful vacation!  It was full of memories we will enjoy for a long time.  : )