The Great Escape

Our water park adventure at the Great Wolf Lodge was a success. We drove up in the early afternoon on Monday. Fefe napped while the kids watched High School Musical 2. It only took us about 2 hours to get there. Our room wasn’t quite ready when we arrived so we toured the water park while we waited. Loofa was about to die waiting to actually play in the water. Our room was awesome. The separate bedroom had a king size bed and all of the older kids fit on it. Fefe slept in her portacrib in the corner. J and I had a queen size bed in the main area. It was the most comfortable hotel bed I’ve ever slept on. I usually sleep terrible in hotel beds, but I slept great there. It helped that I brought my ear plugs.

Once we were all settled in we headed down to the water park. My first impression was that it was smaller than I expected. Loofa was initially nervous about everything except the little kid pool. The next day he warmed up more and really enjoyed the wave pool and the medium size slides. The first evening I took the kids down the Howling Tornado. It is the biggest and scariest slide. I was facing backwards that first time and nearly freaked when we dropped. Ephant was facing backwards the second time and the look on her face was priceless. I tried to get her to scream, but she was too tense. Brother B was only able to do it the first time because they started enforcing the height restrictions after that. J and I took shifts with the kids while Fefe was napping. I think Ephant and Brother B liked the wave pool best. They wore life jackets the whole time and enjoyed bobbing up and down in the waves. The hot tub was a close second (also the only water Fefe liked, everything else was too cold for out little princess). I think one full day was plenty of time to spend there.

When the kids got tired of the water we started a Magiquest. It is an interactive game at the Lodge. We bought Ephant and Brother B wands that are connected to a computer system. They started out earning runes by going around and waving the wands at various stations around the lodge. Once you have enough runes you can have an adventure. We didn’t have enough time for that, but the games are saved so you can start right back where you left when you return for your next stay. Brother B was pretty disappointed to not do the adventure. He had been really looking forward to fighting the dragon. I’m hoping to go back in a couple years.

Poor Loofa was pretty grumpy the last morning. We did one more hour at the water park and were planning to do the Magiquest adventure after checkout, but Loofa was having major breakdowns. When we got home I took his temperature. It was 103 degrees. Poor kid must have caught what Ephant had last week, although he never threw up. He woke up feeling fine this morning. Thank heavens for short sicknesses. Now I just have to deal with Loofa asking when we are going back.

The Magiquest Wands:

Goggles

Fefe is still amenable to being dressed up. Sorry about all the pictures, I couldn't narrow it down :)

Fashion on a Hot Day

I finally had a chance to pull out this outfit when the thermometer broke 90.

Poor Timing

I got a call from Ephant's teacher today. She was sick and needed to come home. When I picked her up she was pale as a ghost and had just thrown up. She looked pretty terrible. Next week is our trip to the waterpark so I'm really hoping we are not still dealing with this then. I'm sure she'll pass it to the other kids. Fefe is just getting over a double ear infection. I took her into the doctor last week because she was breathing fast, had a fever and was very grumpy.

My toe is still hurting, but I didn't end up going into the doctor for it. I decided it would be a waste of my time. It still looks a little funny, but I'm guessing it will continue to look funny the rest of my life :)

I really really hate shopping. I don't mind spending money though. We spent half of saturday trying to find pants for Ephant and Brother B. I tried on some swimsuits too. Swimsuit shopping is very frustrating, unless you are a super model. I've decided just to bring one of my old swimsuits and ordered a pair of swim shorts since the legs are a little higher cut than I feel like dealing with.

J gave me some pretty cool presents yesterday for Mother's Day. The best was the king size Butterfinger bar (my favorite candy bar). I overindulged and ate the whole thing after lunch. Aunt J made some butterfinger ice cream for dinner too, yummy. J gave me a wok pan too, it'll be fun to try it out.

Jumping on the trampoline at Aunt J's:

Brother B has a new pair of pajama pants, just like Daddy's:

Pray for my Children

That they don't inherit my clutziness. I broke my toe last night while walking through the hallway in the dark. It is ridiculous how many times I've hurt myself due to things like that. I have an appt tomorrow with the podiatrist to get it looked at. They most likely won't do anything, but you never know. Besides, aren't xrays fun? Maybe I'll even score some good drugs out of it.

Why Do I Do This To Myself

I ask myself this question everytime I work on the computer. I thought I had the new computer put together and ready to go on Friday. Saturday I noticed some weird quirks with the operating system. After spending a couple hours on fruitless repairs I realized that I was simply going to have to reinstall the operating system. Problem with that is I don't have a bootable CD rom so first I had to spend another couple hours creating one and backing up my computer. After all was said and done, I spent the whole day (from 8am till midnight) working on the computer. At least the weather was yucky. I do like having everything fresh, it is nice to get rid of all the clutter that we've downloaded over the years.

My whole week was pretty much like yesterday. One thing right after the other, my right eye is even starting to twitch :) Thursday we took the van in to get some stuff looked at since the bumper to bumper warranty is almost past. My whole day was ruined when I had to fight them to not charge us for some of the stuff I thought was covered. I really really hate conflict. It made me feel sick the whole rest of the day. Luckily, that night I was able to visit Jenn in the hospital and see her new baby. What a cutie pie.

Little Fefe has her first fever today. She was quite grumpy and I wasn't sure why, since her fourth tooth popped through yesterday. We went on a walk in the evening because today was beautiful, unlike yesterday. I am so out of shape though, I have got to start exercising. The biggest thing holding me back is my inability to pop out of bed early enough. That didn't used to be such a struggle.

J has a new calling to add on top of Varsity Coach. We don't have many youth in our ward so they've made him the Venture (I think that is what it is called) Coach over the priests since they are combining the teachers and priests. That will add a new layer of work since it is harder to entertain that age. I'm sure he will do great though.

I conducted Relief Society for the first time today. I was surprised how flustered I got especially since I feel plenty comfortable talking to people in the ward normally. I think it was mostly because my notes were a little unorganized. I'll have to work on that next time. Sometimes I think it would be interesting to see video of myself in situations like that. I think how we picture ourselves is probably quite skewed from how other people see us. At least that is what I like to tell myself.

We instituted a new Sunday activity today. Sabbath music time. I've decided it would be good to sing together on Sunday so J gets a chance to play his guitar and the kids can learn songs. I think it will be good to help them be comfortable singing too. I can play the piano for the hymns too. I have got to get back to practicing them though. I never accompanied before and that is a whole different ball game than just playing for pleasure. Ephant enjoyed singing, Loofa enjoyed listening and Brother B tried his hardest to do anything but listen or sing.

Only a couple weeks till our trip and boy do I need it.