Thursday, December 31, 2009

Great Wolf Lodge

From the Gaylord we headed over to the Great Wolf Lodge. We were all so excited to go swimming in the indoor waterpark in December! When we got there, we looked around the lobby before eating lunch.

Entrance to the hotel

There were huge trees in the lobby!

Everything had a "log cabin" look to it

If you look closely you can see Matt, Beau, & Bailey in the treehouse

There were huge windows that overlooked the waterpark from the lobby. The kids were so excited and couldn't wait to go swimming!


But first we had to check out our rooms. The girls stayed with Nonnie and Bubba because their room had a bunk bed!!!

Checking out the top bunk

Bailey & Beau on the top bunk

Campbell wanted up there too!

We finally made it to the waterpark. I didn't take many pictures because we were busy having fun. And I didn't want to mess up my new camera. (Remember, my camera died on Christmas Day.)

Bailey coming down the slide - the girls loved the slides!


While we were swimming inside, it was SNOWING outside!
How cool is that? This was the snow outside of our room.

My boys

Mom and Cam

After swimming, we cleaned up for dinner. The hotel has a Pizza Hut Express so we ate pizza before going to storytime! Here are all three girls crammed into the crowd. Bailey was the only one who stayed there the whole time.

Before storytime, the Indian and animals poked out of the clock and sang a Christmas song.

Storytime

Bed time - Bailey and Beau started out on the top bunk and Charlie was on the bottom bunk. Beau ended up sleeping with Charlie on the bottom and Bailey slept on the top by herself. She wasn't scared at all! (She was probably so tired it didn't matter!)

The next morning we hit the water park one more time.

Bailey going down a little slide

Campbell on the same slide

Beau & Bailey in the Lazy River

the wave pool

Bailey in front of the wave pool

The kiddie area - our kids loved the slides on the right side.
Campbell liked the yellow ones and Bailey liked the blue one.

Thank you so much, Nonnie and Bubba,
for such a wonderful and memorable trip!

ICE

On Tuesday after Christmas, we headed to Grapevine with Nonnie, Bubba and the Englands. Our first stop was the Gaylord Texan to see ICE! It was an ice exhibit of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." I have to admit that I had never read the Dr. Seuss book or seen the movie until this year. Since the Grinch was a negative character, I never really cared to see or read it. Bailey has the book and wanted to read it so she and I read it quite a few times during the month of December and I actually liked the story! Then we watched the movie together and loved that too. We enjoyed seeing the story come to life in ICE! It was amazing that everything was made out of ice and was in color! It was a frigid 9 degrees, but we bundled up in the huge blue parkas they gave us and had a good time.

Our crew



Even Cam had a parka - it was huge on him!

Bailey & Beau - silly girls





Nonnie coming down the ice slide!

Bailey on the ice slide!





At the end of the Grinch exhibit, they had a beautiful nativity.

close up of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus

beautiful angel

Campbell was d-o-n-e!

Afterward, we spent some time walking around the Gaylord.
There were lots of photo ops. The Gaylord is quite an impressive place!


Aunt Jenn and Charlie

Judd with Charlie and Campbell

All four cousins - we're looking forward
to the fifth's arrival in January!

The girls - Beau, Charlie, & Bailey

checking out all the sights

You really want me to wear this hat?

"Alamo"