We spent the day inside, watching the parade and football, and decorating the house for Christmas. Normally we decorate the first or second week of November. But with the unseasonably warm weather, illness, and busy schedules, it didn't happen. It worked out fine though as it passed the day very peaceably and kept my hands and mind busy - I was definitely feeling down, homesick for family and bummed about our skiing trip having to be canceled. We found out on Wednesday that John was off on the Friday, and we contemplated driving to Memphis to be with his family, but it just wasn't in the cards. Last weekend we ended up driving to Illinois to see Grandmother and to meet a puppy buyer to sell Mark (click the Brittany blog link in sidebar to read that story!) so we really weren't up for another long road trip.
I have taken some pictures of the house decorated, but want to take some more before uploading on Snapfish. I added and changed a few things around. Other than outside lights, I am done!
Here is a picture of a turkey Allie made in Preschool. Don't ya love the Picasso inspiration? :) Asher said this year he was thankful for family, Allie said toys, John said rain, and I said a warm and beautiful home.
On Friday we decided to drive over to Northern Cincinnati to the Great Wolf Lodge. It is a really cool hotel next to King's Island Amusement Park. They have an indoor waterpark which is included with your stay (not open to public). We loved the entire theme of the lodge, and how kid friendly and family oriented it was. I didn't take pictures of the waterpark of course, didn't want to fool with a camera in there. But they had a kids area, hot tubs, wave pool, lazy river, basketball, a big kids fort, and also 6 massive water slides. Allie wasn't tall enough for most of them, but she could do the Family Raft Ride. You had to climb the stairs to the top, about 4 floors, and then you rode a big circle raft made to fit up to 5 adults down the tube slide. It was AWESOME and we all loved it! Allie showed no fear on any of the slides she went down. Ash of course had no qualms about any of them, and rode as many times as possible, with or without us. We played at the waterpark about 4 hours on Fri, and checked out and played 4 more hours Sat. Part of the draw to there is that you can play 2 days for 1 nights stay. On Fri we also ate there at the lodge and then caught their Clock Tower show and storytime. Then John took Allie back to the room for bed while Asher and I did a live adventure game called MagiQuest. Really fun but wore us out even more running around the lodge looking for the clues! We stayed in a suite called the Wolf Den which had a cave with bunk beds for the kids and their own TV. We all had an amazing time and can't wait to go back!!! It was a big plus to the holiday weekend, especially since our original plans were canceled. I'll be putting the handful of pics I took on Snapfish. Here's two of them though:
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| The Wolf Den |
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| The Wolf Den |
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| The lobby area, where the clock tower is. |
Also, Asher lost his second front (top) tooth tonight! FINALLY!!!
