Catching Up - Fall Break

Originally I planned to stay at home and relax for Fall Break, mostly because OU does not have a Fall Break, so I have to keep plugging away while the girls get to play.  Then we received an invitation from a friend to join her family on a trip to the nearby Great Wolf Lodge since they had gotten a great deal that included passes for seven people.  After some consideration we decided to join them, although I did not join the girls in staying at the hotel, since we decided to bring Oreo along instead of boarding her.

First step was just to get there!  We bought a seat belt harness for Oreo, and got her installed in the car:

 She was a very good traveler, looking out the window if we were stopped, and curling up and napping while we were on the go.  We made several stops, including one at our traditional highway rest stop.  I swear, we have so many of these photos, we can use it as a growth chart.  The challenge was getting the kids to stand up straight!

We probably made too many stops, as it was a bit of a hassle getting the dog in and out of the car, and she never used the opportunity to do anything except sniff around!  Finally we made it to the Lodge: 

I got the girls situated and headed through the rush-hour mid-cities traffic out to Dad and Terri's, where Oreo thought she had died and gone to heaven.  Lots of running room, and goats to chase!

The next morning I headed back to Grapevine for a full day of play.  We spent the morning at the water park, riding all the water slides.  Of course, I had my camera, but kept it safely stowed in that wet, wet environment.  At the end, on the way to the dressing rooms, I took some shots of Gracie waiting for the big water bucket to drop.  I wish I could speed up this slide show, but I think you'll get the general idea - Gracie is the kid in the orange swimsuit towards the right center of the photograph.




After lunch the girls were eager to show me their favorite part of their stay - the MagiQuest!  To play the game you have a magic wand, and you follow clues throughout the hotel to solve quests.  When you point the wand at the correct item (picture, treasure chest, statue, etc.) it give you the next clue.  The hotel was 8 stories tall, and it was often times easier to use the stairs rather than the elevators, but Oh, My, Gosh - we got a workout!  This place is definitely not a place to go if you want to get rest - there is something to do every minute of every day!  In addition to the MagiQuest, our package included glitter tattoos, coloring, ice cream, build-a-bear-ish activity, and a photo.  We were wore out by the time the day was over.  We headed to dinner at the mall with our friends to say thanks and the girls managed to eek out enough energy to ride the merry go round.  I tried to get some fun pictures, but mostly got blurs - the ride was over before I remembered how to set the camera settings to get what I wanted - typical!

Before we headed back home we had some lessons from Nana on how to show goats.  She's hosting a goat show next month, and the girls are going to help show her goats, since she'll be busy with running the show.  Luckily there's a weekend in between now and the show, because I need a break from my break!