One of the bonuses of staying at the lodge was a free Shutterfly photobook to commemorate the experience! After a few trials and tribulations it turned out pretty well (long story short, I couldn’t use the Great Wolf Lodge themed pages if I wanted to do a Custom Path book (what I usually use), so I had to use their VERY limited Simple Path solution). You can flip through it here!
Click here to view this photo book larger
Both kids slept well (no random nighttime Katie screaming is always good) and our day started off with donuts from the Dunkin Donuts inside the resort.
The park didn’t open until 9, so we just lazed around and hung out.
Owen tried climbing the ladder again…but only got this far again. 🙂
Being at the park when it first opens is AMAZING. There’s no hunting for a table and chairs, there are no lines, there are no throngs of people…and it’s calm and almost quiet. Tom and I took advantage of the no-lines and tested the River Canyon Run family ride in the hopes that Owen might go down that one (it’s a huge inner tube that didn’t look that precarious). HOWEVER. The ride down was quite wild and we knew instantly Owen would NOT do well on it. As it was, it actually made Tom a little dizzy (though he blames the sinus stuff he had going on!).
So we let him enjoy his slides…
In the adults-only hot tub…we only spent about 15 minutes there. It was nice…but we were missing watching Owen have fun!
In the wave pool waiting for the waves. Owen didn’t want anything to do with this pool yesterday but today he was all about the waves!
Underwater Owen!
Pruney baby feet!
He wouldn’t even go under the water with Tom…
Watching and waiting for the dump bucket…he always appeared VERY concerned.
We kept trying to get him to come under and he never would.
I even tried to get him to come with me under the bucket…NO GO.
Owen doing the crazy robot:
Tom took Owen to the outdoor pool and frog slide one more time while us girls went up to the room to start getting ready to leave. Of course I had to get a picture!
Owen had seen all the kids running around with wands (you can buy an expensive wand and they can play games) but he was too young for that…so when we saw this light-up sword in the gift shop, we had to get it for him. It was his treat for being such an awesome kid on the trip. He LOVED it!
I highly recommend late check out—even with the additional fee—because it was great being able to go back to your room to check out instead of having to check out then haul everything to the car and take a bag to the park.
I think Katie was out by the time we left the parking lot and Owen lasted about 20 minutes…
I had been planning on heading to Great Wolf Lodge when Tom returned from Afghanistan…but he suggested we go beforehand. So he took two days off work and we headed up this morning. I had the brilliant (if I do say so myself) idea of taking our babysitter, Virginia, along for an extra pair of hands and eyes…and as it turned out, it was completely AMAZING—it was great being able to pay more attention to Owen (who will remember it) and be able to take tons of pictures (though Virginia is in most of the pics with Katie!). But seriously, Virginia was awesome with Katie the whole time—even when we weren’t actually at the water park.
So without further ado, the pictures.
Proof we were actually here, LOL—though this picture was taken as we were checking out. 🙂
We splurged and got a Kid Cabin suite—complete with log cabin bunk beds and a day bed (and their own TV which we never even used). Owen was excited about his own room/bed and testing out the bunk bed steps. He didn’t make it to the top because he was too scared. 🙂
The view of the outdoor pool area from our third-floor balcony.
Katie was (of course) intrigued by the new annoying band on her ankle.
Sneaking one of my fries. Tom ran to get us Chick-Fil-A while we got settled and into suits. We figured we’d be eating at the hotel enough (and spending enough money on overpriced food) that fast food was acceptable for our first lunch.
Waiting in her 2T suit. We had brought her 12m suit (that Grauntie Rose got her for her birthday) and I actually put it on her but it was really too tight.
Ready to go with Miss Virginia!
She SEEMS to be interested in the bubblers, but unfortunately it only lasted about seven seconds (if that). She just wanted to MOVE. This is where Virginia came in really handy.
Owen liked them quite a bit, however.
Of course, she was more entranced with the hole that had no water coming out of it…
This is how Owen watched the 1,000-gallon dump bucket—far away from the action on the sidelines…
…in the bubblers. 🙂
One of the few things Katie could reach and was semi interested in.
Miss Virginia on constant vigil—keeping Katie’s face out of the water as she tried to drink it.
FEETS!
This is where she liked to crawl.
Making sure I actually get in a photo!
She LOVED the lazy river (Owen hates it with a passion—he has some strange fear about inner tubes).
The outside frog slide that he loved!
Just hanging out. I cropped the pic so he appears closer than he really was. He was pretty far out. I love that he’s old enough we can let him do that and not worry or freak out.
It was about this time that Tom and I decided to splurge on drinks from the bar…since it was right there and all…and it was HOT outside. Yeah, we only had one drink because while they were certainly tasty, they were NOT worth the price. But, as a bonus, while we were standing there waiting for the drinks and Tom was holding Katie, she peed on him. (She had a swim diaper on, but they can only hold so much.) 🙂
I then had Virginia take a family shot—and she only took three and one of them came out really well!
This is how Katie crawled most of the time—her knees were sore (yours would be, too, if you were crawling on cement!) so she would kind of drag one leg while actually putting the other foot down (if you look closely you can see the foot prints on the right side).
Owen having fun in the pool with the water toys.
Virginia spent a lot of time walking Katie around. Again, brilliant idea.
Owen on his favorite indoor slides. It was terribly hard to get good pictures of this due to timing and the new camera that I wasn’t totally familiar with the best settings to get the best shot. So lots of the future shots might look a little off. I did the best I could. 🙂
The other area Katie liked—the waterfall station (well, it was more like a sheet of water). It was somewhat interactive because the water did crazy things when you stuck your hand in it.
Tired boy…and we had only been there 2.5 hours at that point!
Climbing in the ropes with dad. They headed to the top to attempt the waterslide…but once Owen got to the top he said NO WAY (even though the one he went on in Kalkaska was about the same).
Back at the room for dinner. This is where Katie loved to crawl.
Miss Virginia taking a break.
Owen and daddy taking a break.
Virginia stayed in the room with Katie while I took my real (i.e. non-waterproof camera) down to try and get some better pictures of Owen.
Owen liked the sheet of water, too.
This is him doing his robot through the falls.
Back up at the room on the balcony with Virginia and Katie. Katie liked to push the furniture around and stick her feet out the slats.
Completely THRILLED that she got the remote and we didn’t take it away from her!
Owen in his own bed!
Katie had only slept about an hour in the car and then didn’t get an afternoon nap at all…so we were hoping it would help her fall asleep quickly. And it did…she only screeched for about four minutes before she was out cold. I’m sure Owen wasn’t too far behind, and Virginia even put away her laptop and went to bed about 9:20. Tom and I turned our phones off about 10:30 as we were exhausted, too. However, I didn’t have a great night’s sleep…I tossed and turned and it felt like I had slept a loooong time but when I looked at the clock it was 1am. Ugh. The cycling of the A/C pretty much kept me up/woke me up—when it was running, it was COLD and you needed to be under the covers…and when it was off, it was WARM and you didn’t want the covers on. Plus my back hurt (as usual) from the car ride and what carrying of Katie I did (though Virginia did most of it). Plus it was only a Queen bed. So I knew I’d be exhausted the next morning…
Road trips are best when the kids look like this:
Thankfully it’s only a four-hour drive to Williamsburg, Virginia…and Great Wolf Lodge—our last-minute family fun overnight trip before Tom deploys!
So, when we were home on our recent vacation, we got out some old slides. I wanted to show them to Tom and Owen…but I was also hoping to find pictures of me in some of the outfits of mine that I’ve been putting on Katie. And we struck gold twice.
Green and floral shirt, circa about 1975-76.
And from October 18, 2012 (see original post here).
I’m thinking the shirt HAD to have shrunk, as I was obviously about 2 or 3 years old when I was wearing it…and Katie was 3 months old. I guess I’ll keep it around and try again when Katie is older, just for laughs. 🙂
And no, mom, I don’t think she looks like me. But I’m digging your plaid pants. 🙂
The second outfit is a blue jumper, seen here on me about early 1974 (unless I was sitting at three months by December 1973) with a doll in almost the same outfit.
And on Katie on November 11, 2012 (see original post here).
There is NO way that we look even remotely close in these pictures…in fact, I think I look a little like my older cousin Greg and Katie looks like, well, Katie. 🙂
Stay tuned for more old slides…
This month there were more pictures than normal since we took a two-week trip to Michigan and did lots of fun things.
The only good thing about driving too far the first day is that the second day is a lot shorter. BUT…the day started too early with Katie screaming good morning about 6:15. 😐 But it meant we were on the road at 7:30 again.
As usual, we stopped at our favorite park near Raleigh and Owen had a blast.
He’s getting SO much older. Now, he just takes off across the park without telling us…so we had a few chats about that. 🙂
And here’s how packed in things are—including Maggie! And it’s missing the last outside row that we had to take out at the park (the stroller, backpack, Maggie’s bag, etc.).
Look at that pathetic face. But don’t let her fool you…she’s perfectly happy. We had to literally DRAG her out when we stopped at the park.
Also, does Katie want her bottle at the park, when it’s convenient to do so? Of course not. She wants it 10 minutes later as soon as we’re back on the highway. Babies are annoying. But at least it put her to sleep so both kids thankfully napped almost the last two hours home…
Owen summed up the day nicely about 10 hours in: I am not happy. No more road trips.
Best case scenario it’s a long day but it was made even longer since we decided to push the mileage to get to our favorite hotel…and then it was full so we had to go an hour farther. 🙁
And I tried to make Katie a bottle of formula…with apple juice. Because I just wasn’t thinking and thought I had filled one of Owen’s cups with water. WRONG! So Katie was REALLY not happy the last hour, though I tried to keep the snacks coming her way.
Then I tried to check in to the wrong hotel. I just saw the Q and assumed it was La Quinta. Nope, Quality Inn. It’s a good thing Tom didn’t get anything unloaded…
Then we had horrible take-out Chinese food (Mongolian Beef and General Tso’s Chicken are hard to screw up, but they did) which just added to the day.
Owen perked up once he got to play in the pool.
But since we arrived late, dinner was late and Owen getting to and back from the pool was late…which meant a super tired Katie—who should have gone to bed early at 8—couldn’t go to bed until they were back in the room and ready for bed…about 9:15. At least she only screamed for 10 minutes before falling asleep!
This is Owen’s new response to just about everything…even when he sometimes knows the answer.
Me: Owen, do you know how to unzip Maggie’s crate?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: Who gave you those Legos?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: Owen, where’s your B?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: What did I just tell you?
Owen: I got no idea.
Owen: It says pbskids.com.
Grandma Jean: Do you know what that is?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: Owen, if you’re a good boy tonight and don’t cry when Katie cries and you’re quiet and stay in bed, we’ll give you a Lego tomorrow. Okay?
Owen: Shakes head in agreement.
Me: What did I say?
Owen: I got no idea.
Owen: [Playing on the iPad.] I spelled cake!
Me: How do you spell it?
Owen: I got no idea.
Owen: What do you want for a treat tonight?
Owen: I got no idea.
Of course, after two weeks of bad (to us) movies (Hangover 3 and Fast & Furious 6) at our local theater, now that we’re headed home they are playing two shows we’d want to see (Epic and The Internship). GRRR! It would have been really cool to take Owen to his first real movie at the same theater where I saw my first movie (AND where Tom and I saw our first movie together)!
Doug and Marie added a day to their vacation to be able to stop by before we had to leave. It was great seeing them—and the kids loved each other!—but the visit wasn’t nearly long enough. 🙁
For comparison, July 17, 2009 (with Izzy and Anna, minus Katie of course):
In the past month or two, Owen has taken to whole chicken butt thing (Guess what? Chicken butt!) but also morphs it into chicken
Owen: Dad, guess what?
Tom: What?
Owen: Chicken butt! [Laughter]
Tom: Oh you!
Owen: Dad, guess what?
Tom: What?
Owen: I’m a chicken butter!
Katie still has diarreah…and this morning was a bit worse than normal with three full diapers before her morning nap (it’s been maybe once per day up until now). This, of course, necessitated two outfit changes as well.
Then.
THEN.
I was standing in the kitchen talking to my mom when I look up to see Owen in the hallway just standing there but looking kinda…strange…and quiet. It didn’t register. Then he threw up as only Owen could do—basically just opened his mouth and it comes spewing out. That’s when I noticed the PILES of puke in the living room. Ugh.
Well, I immediately pulled him onto the linoleum, knowing that he likely wasn’t done because when he pukes, it’s not just once or twice—it’s usually at least 3-4 times. And if you try to move him, he’ll puke the entire way and you’ll have a bigger area to clean up. And yep, he puked three more times.
Luckily Katie was down for her nap.
Unluckily Tom was out getting his hair cut.
Luckily my mom was there.
Unluckily she wasn’t feeling well, either.
I stripped Owen and gave him a quick bath then started the cleanup. During which I discovered he also puked on the couch and iPad.
😐
At least we had brought carpet and upholstery cleaner with us (something I’ve learned to do with two kids and a dog). So I was on my hands and knees scrubbing for 20 minutes and of course Tom walked in right as I was finishing. 🙂 Them I had to change clothes because I had puke splatter plus wet knees from cleaning the carpet.
As usual, Owen didn’t appear to be sick (before or after)…so who knows why he puked.
Then when Katie got up from her nap, she was sitting in my lap…and let’s just say I had to change clothes again. 😐
Then at dinner, Owen was eating too fast while simultaneously eating like a horse and not chewing well enough and he started coughing HARD…which—yep, you guessed it—leads to vomiting! At least he puked onto his plate and we had nothing to clean.
It’s rare he pukes at all, so to have him do it twice in one day? We wondered if he really might be sick (both Tom and my mom had a day of the icks) but he had no other symptoms and we knew the second time was from coughing. I think everything was just a big coincidence.
Tom bought some little firework-type stuff to show Owen…and also to hopefully desensitize him to those noises.
The poppers bothered him at first, but then he got right into it and loved it!
Then it was time for the snakes! He thought they were cool, too…and called them fire snakes and poop snakes (since they really quite look like poop when they’re done). And then of course he was being a ham.
And then more poppers with Uncle Rob…
So we knew that Katie was getting some new teeth (see last teething post from a few days ago: Katie’s Teeth) but imagine my complete shock and surprise when I happened to take this picture…
…and looked at it later, blown up:
HOLY CRAP! That’s a molar coming in! That’s ahead of schedule…and no wonder she wasn’t eating and was fussier than normal! Poor kid! So these are the two new teeth breaking through on vacation:
Grandma Marsha bought Owen some Captain America missiles so Uncle Rob and daddy took him out to play before dinner. Grandma and Katie came out to watch.
A one-in-a-million photo: Grandma Marsha looking at the camera with her eyes open and nothing blocking her face! And as a bonus, Katie is ALSO looking at the camera with her eyes open! 🙂
Owen, to Uncle Rob: You see that? It’s a cherry ring pop. [Points to the ring] It’s a jewel!
A friend of the family invited us out to their place at the lake to go swimming since her granddaughter (about the same age as Owen) was going to be there, too. We’d been wanting to take Owen to the lake, so it was the perfect opportunity.
Amazingly, Katie stayed in my lap the entire two hours. I think she was just tired enough to be content—I wanted her to fall asleep for just a little bit but it just didn’t happen (she’s not the type to fall asleep outside her bed so I didn’t have much hope). But I really enjoyed the calm cuddles that I NEVER get.
Venturing out with daddy, Alice, and our friend Terri.
He and Alice got along smashingly.
Owen managed to play in the sand without getting dirty:
Daddy found a crawfish…and a HUGE snapping turtle:
I felt REALLY old because Alice (who is just a few months older than Owen) is the daughter of someone I used to babysit. Egads. But as the mom said, it’s cool that 30 years later our kids are playing together.
Then we saw the rain approaching from across the lake so we quickly packed up and headed home.
I took Grandma Jean to Dairy Queen tonight after we dropped off a Redbox movie at Walgreens. I was keeping my fingers crossed that they would be able to make my all-time favorite blizzard that no one can make anymore…that I grew up eating at this exact DQ.
So what is this magical flavor? Peanut Butter Crunch. It used to be on the menu everywhere like 20-25 years ago—it’s just peanut butter sauce and cookie crunch but not every place carries the crunch.
I started my spiel like I always do: “I’m hoping you can make a Blizzard for me that used to be on the menu. It has peanut butter sauce and cookie crunch.” She barely batted an eyelash and said sure.
Be still my heart.
Then I asked the next most important thing: “Can you please make sure to mix it really, really well? Most places where we live mix the top half and leave the bottom all vanilla.” Of course, she said.
Oh my.
I splurged and ordered a Large (I typically only order a Small because it’s some waaaay-distant-second-place-flavor like Mint Oreo).
And it was HEAVEN.
Owen was using one of Katie’s blocks as a pretend camera and then wanted us to use it taking pictures of him. So I asked if I could use my real camera. YES! So I’d say “1-2-3-Pose!” and he’d pose. These are the best two.
I’ve been meaning to post her chart like I did for Owen…and am just now finally getting around to it. She’s had the red Xs for awhile now, but both green Xs are about halfway in.
So all my life, our address has been N. Roberts Road. As time passed, we learned that our road was actually made up of North AND South Roberts Road but no one really knew were the dividing line was (though my grandma’s house about 1/4 mile away was a South address).
To make matters more confusing, there is a completely different North Roberts Road in a neighboring city (well, I guess technically it’s a continuation of the road I live on, but there’s a gap in it which creates the confusion, and for those of us who live here, we consider it a completely different road since it’s technically a different city).
Stay with me, I’m going somewhere with all this. 🙂
Well, the county commission put up new street signs on our corner…that say S Roberts Road. Which drove my mom nuts because it’s NOT S Roberts Road. Calls were made and they tried to explain to the county but the county disagreed for whatever reason (I guess their mapping systems claim it’s South)…so my mom took it upon herself to fix it.
I LOVE IT.
And it doesn’t surprise me at all.
Grandpa, daddy, Owen, and Maggie were all outside before dinner (they were grilling). Katie really wanted to be outside, too.
We took Owen over to Traverse City to one of the museums because they were having a Lego Carnival! When we asked him what he saw, he said “LEGO HEADS!”
A carnival sounds quite a but more exciting than it really was—basically just a few rooms of big pre-constructed Lego buildings and then a play area—but he enjoyed it. The hardest part for him was not being able to touch the minifigs that were with the buildings…especially the one that had fallen over. 🙂
But then there was the big Lego tunnel with daddy…
And then he got to the big Lego building area…and his running commentary was about like this: “Awesome. Awesome. This is amazing. Lets get going. Holy mackerel. Wow!”
Yes, I realize that the last picture should be the first picture, but I didn’t feel like redoing the whole collage.
And his final product!!
Then it was off to build cars! We got the base ready for him and then he did the rest. Daddy also built one!
Then it was time to send them down the slide to see if they survived (both did!).
Then he just wanted to play with his cars.
Then it was back to the Lego building tables to rearrange his car pieces.
Then we told him it was almost time to go and asked how many more minutes he wanted to stay. We never know what we’re going to get when we ask him open-ended questions (How many M&Ms do you want? is a typical one) so we all had a big laugh when he said “Five hours.” I don’t think he knows time that well yet but who knows. So we said 15 minutes and set a timer and when it went off, he just asked to run his cars down the ramp one more time so we did:
Then it was off to lunch at North Peak Brewery. Owen decided he wanted to eat outside and us three adults all looked at each other like “Ugh—it’s too warm” but we did it anyway…and it ended up to be REALLY nice as it was mostly overcast and there was a nice breeze! Owen passed the time putting together a new Lego set that Grandma Marsha had bought him for being such a good boy! (I helped him but he did most of it!)
On the way home, we were thinking about stopping for ice cream but thought we could go either way…so we let Owen be the deciding factor.
Tom: Owen, would you like a treat?
Owen: No thanks.
Me: Don’t you want to know what it is?
Owen: Okay.
Me: Ice cream.
Owen: No thanks. Legos were my treat. [Remember, Grandma Marsha bought him the Legos earlier as a treat.]
This isn’t normal for a 4yo, right? To give up ice cream?! He constantly surprises us. 🙂
Tom took Owen to stay at Grandma Marsha’s overnight and they went to the Kaliseum. Why does Kalkaska have something like this and Jacksonville doesn’t?!
Owen was having fun playing with the other kids and then even went down this big waterside by himself!! Twice!!
He had a blast there! He called it a hotel, though… 🙂
They all went to Big Boy for dinner, where Owen ordered his own hot dog dinner!
During dinner…
Owen: Guess what?
Uncle Rob: What?
Owen: Not you, I am asking your mother!
And then had ice cream back at Grandma’s.
And Uncle Rob tried to sleep with Owen, but Owen told him “No, Uncle Rob, this bed is my size.” 🙂
Grauntie Marge took Katie for a walk and they both enjoyed it!
She also brought Katie some animal crackers…
…but she was more interested in feeding them to Maggie.
