We live in Oro-Medonte. So, when I excitedly told my husband that we were getting to go away to Fern Resort for the weekend with Life With a Baby, he said “you know that’s 15 minutes up the road right?” But I saw the silver lining – long car trips with my 3 kids are TORTURE. So, just as they started to ask “are we there yet?” we were! And that alone was glorious.

We arrived on Friday just in time to drop things off in our room, take a quick walk around a bit of the resort, and then head into the restaurant for dinner. It was so nice to find that our table was already set up just for us, with a comfy highchair for our youngest (11 months). The kid’s buffet had loads of options of picky littles ones (ours are 4 years and 2 years) so no one complained – especially when I led them over to the dessert options! 

Now, we’ve never left our boys with a babysitter that’s not family or a close friend before, but when we heard about PlayVillage, we had to try it out. Fern Resort actually does a 5:30pm kid’s dinner and then you can DROP THEM OFF to be fully supervised and entertained while you go back and have dinner ALONE. And it’s included in your stay. Seriously. We dropped them off and, believe me, I didn’t even feel guilty. We had a quiet dinner together without having to bounce a baby around or negotiate with a toddler. It was amazing. And when we went to pick them up, our oldest started to cry, because he “didn’t want to miss the trampolines!” Luckily the trampolines, and a million other activities, are open all day for free use. So we bounce, then played mini-golf, then had a swim and then finally got everyone to bed for a much needed rest. 

Saturday morning the kids were up at the crack of dawn to explore the resort some more. So ball hockey, shuffleboard and lawn bowling were all fit in before breakfast! While I was in the LWAB conference for the day my hubby was easily able to keep all 3 kids entertained in the pools. What made our day even better was that there were a couple spare “puddle jumpers” to use because of course we forgot ours at home (and didn’t want to make the 15 minute drive back to get them obviously!). Seriously – Fern thinks of everything! Lunch was BBQ style by the pool; endless options of burgers, veggie burgers (my fave), hot dogs, fries, onion rings (YUM), corn on the cob and way, way more. And then we all grabbed a huge bowl of ice cream to finish lunch off right. Back to the conference for me and off to the room for a long nap for the boys! 

It was wonderful getting together with the other women from LWAB – what an inspiring group! I am still brand new at this and I’m just in awe of this incredible organization and the women behind it. So spending the afternoon chatting all things LWAB was a great “jumping in” experience for me! And it made me that much more excited to continue to grow our Barrie chapter!

With the conference portion over, I met up with my boys for dinner (again – PLAYVILLAGE I LOVE YOU!!) and then I finally got to jump in the pool with the boys! It was chilly because of the cool night air but then we warmed up in the hot tub and, to quote my 4 year old, it was “soooooo relaxing”. Once we were all dry and the boys were in their jammies we headed over to “Mary Lou’s” for the magic show! Our older 2 were crazy excited and, until they started to crash, they had a fabulous time! They slept solid the whole night through (no such luck with the baby!) and even “slept in” until 7:30am (FYI that’s NOT my idea of sleeping in). 

Even though Sunday was overcast and a little rainy at some points, we spent a few hours in the pool, played a round of mini-golf and then explored the rock wall and zip line before we had to head home. I LOVED that check out wasn’t until 1pm, it made things so much easier to be able to relax and enjoy the resort for the morning rather than worrying about getting everything packed up. Instead we got to have lunch and really enjoy some family time before we got in the car for the long (LOL) drive home. 

Our oldest asked while we were there “Mom? Can we come back here when it’s summer again next year?” The boys had so much fun, we had so much fun and most importantly, we just really got to relax and enjoy “old-fashioned” family time. Unplugging and getting away – no matter how close or far from home – is good for the soul. And Fern Resort just made things SO easy to enjoy! Honestly could not have been happier with our weekend and I’m already planning to add a couple extra days to our trip next year! ;) 

#SummeratFern #LWAB