The family that had the birthday party this past weekend still had the slide today so they invited us over. Of course, Owen was ALL ABOUT THAT. There were a lot fewer kids there, too, so I just let Katie roam and she had A BLAST. Even in the rain and the mud.
On the way home I asked Owen if, when daddy comes home, he’d rather go to the water park or have a big water slide in our backyard and he wants the water slide. SCORE! That’s much, much cheaper! 🙂
Katie took an epic nap so by the time we arrived almost two hours after the party started, everyone was inside for present opening. Owen had been super patient at home so was SUPER excited about the water slide…and not so much about anything else…so as soon as the birthday girl opened our gift, I took him outside (and a friend took Katie).
It was an overcast, rainy, and disgustingly humid day…but he didn’t care at all. And he went right up like he’s been doing it forever (each slide is a bit different and none of it phases him).
Then Katie got wiggly and wanted to walk around.
And was excited to see Owen!
And seemed very interested in the kiddie pool…
Her first time on a swing by herself.
If you listen closely you can hear her saying “Wheee!” 🙂 The video isn’t too long since I wasn’t able to have a hand on her and though she was pretty steady, she was looking around at everything and not reallyholding on.
His first break two hours in!
He didn’t want to leave, but Katie didn’t want to be held and it was too hot to be chasing her around. There were also too many kids running around in a muddy yard who weren’t exactly paying attention to a little one wandering around…
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
We went to a mommy group water slide play date today and Owen was in heaven (which I was glad to see he wasn’t spoiled by the Great Wolf Lodge experience). He got to play in a new pool and on a new water slide…WITH KIDS! 🙂
There was a bit of drama (with six kids from age 2-6 with three of them being girls) but Owen handled himself pretty well. And then by cake time everyone was happy and getting along again.
And I think Owen was the instigator of the frosting-on-the-face game…but they all were giggling like crazy.
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…
So Owen and I went in the pool when Katie went down for her morning nap. I worked with him on sticking his nose under to blow bubbles…which he eventually did. I really tried to get him to stick his whole face under—even tried getting him to plug his nose to do so—but he was having NONE of it. Okay, fine, I was content with what we had achieved.
Fast forward to Katie going to bed for the night and all three of us get in the pool. I had gotten a new waterproof camera so I wanted to test it out.
I told him to stick his face under—and you can see he barely got his chin and the very tip of his nose.
So then I told him to show daddy what he learned with me today—and imagine my surprise when we witnessed this:
WHAT?! He went under JUST like that! Like he’d been doing it all summer or something. The stinker!
Testing the stop-action setting with splashing!
And Photoshopped to adjust the colors (though it washes out the rest of the picture—I’m sure it could be done better, but I’m NOT a Photoshop wiz):
Photoshop version:
We were invited to a BBQ today…and Owen had a blast since they had not one but TWO waterslides there! He spent the first part of the day on the little slide and was just having a ball running around with the other kids and playing on this slide.
We asked, but he didn’t want anything to do with the big slide…but then when I came back outside after saying goodbye to Tom and Katie (he took her home for a nap) I couldn’t find Owen anywhere. Turns out he was on the big slide!
And he played. And played. And played. And played. We got there at 3 and he went straight to the slide…and he was pretty much going non-stop until we left at 7. (He did take about a 10-minute break to have a snack of graham crackers and milk and then maybe a 5-minute-total break to have a few bites of chocolate cake but that was IT. He didn’t even take a potty break, even though I asked every half hour or so.)
A closer up look at that happy face!
He did take a brief break from the big slide to hit the small pool—which he enjoyed flopping over the edge to make a big splash!
And then it was back to the big slide…with a gun!
And then a few more trips down the little slide before it got put away.
On the ride home, Owen admitted he was tired. We got home and I was exhausted. From simply sitting around at an outdoor party. SITTING. (Well, there was some walking around and eating, but it was mostly sitting.) And it was warm but actually okay in the shade and there was a breeze.
Even though Owen is actually old enough that we could let him run around without actually having to keep an eye on him 100% of the time, I didn’t get to visit with everyone as much as I’d hoped. But it was wonderful being able to just sit and watch him play and have soooo much fun WITHOUT having to worry about watching Katie at the same time.
All in all, a very good day!
STAY TUNED FOR VIDEO UPLOADS.
When we were on vacation, she constantly glommed onto whoever was drinking something from a cup and wanted to drink herself. So when we got home, we let her try on her own. And damn if she didn’t do too badly! Sure, she spilled some and dribbled a bit—but she actually got most of it in her mouth!
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!
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.
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.” 🙂
Her second first birthday onesie!
Her birthday balloon and bib at the hotel for her party!
Making faces with Papa.
Amazingly, she didn’t dive into the cake.
Singing Happy Birthday and big brother helping blow out the candle! (Yes, it’s a little blurry. I have a FAIL every now and again.)
Also amazingly, she didn’t make much of a mess. Yes, SHE got messy, but she ate the whole piece and none hit the floor!
Her new suit and coverup from Grauntie Rose!
Up and out completely on her own!
She would have dove in had Tom let her.
It was impossible to get all three looking at me at the same time.
She kept trying to drink the water!
She loved playing with Papa’s toes!
Drying off with Grandma Marsha.
Waiting to open presents!
A fun game Katie had with some grandparents…
Owen heard the sprinklers going so of course wanted to go out and play in them. However…he didn’t realize that the water temperature is NOT the same as at home in North Carolina so he was a bit shocked at how cold it was. He still managed to get a little wet, though!
We were on our way to the Ramada to go swimming with Papa and Grannie.
Tom (jokingly): We have to follow them—I don’t know where we’re going.
Owen: We’re going to the hotel, silly!
Tom taught him “time out!”
Playground at the hotel:
He climbed up all by himself! Grannie was a nervous wreck…me, not so much. 🙂
Daddy did most of the work but Owen understood the process.
Tom waiting to surprise owen!
In Grannie Lin’s socks to be more slippery for going down the slide!
Then in her sweatshirt so he could more easily go down head first!
Amazingly we started off on schedule—and if you want to be technical about it, we were actually seven minutes early. And we didn’t think of anything we forgot…
The barrette lasted a whole hour—which doesn’t seem like much but her previous record was about three seconds.
Things went pretty well until Katie got a little screechy. But Owen was SO awesome—he’d start talking to her, singing the ABCs, playing peek-a-boo (which usually resulted in giggles), and clapping (at which point she’d clap in return). But then it turned into hunger screeches meaning she wanted her bottle—which sounds easy…but isn’t. She can physically hold the bottle—but can’t understand she has to tip it (she wants it to work like a straw cup). We tried putting her formula in the straw cup…and then she doesn’t really want it. And even though it’s attached to a strap so it can’t end up on the floor…it ends up hanging or upside down…dripping milk. Sigh. At this age, Owen was definitely holding his own bottle—great for road trips.
So I tried giving her a no-spill snack cup…which lasted all of five minutes until she a) figured out how to hold one flap open and tip most of it out and then b) got the entire lid off! Joy.
No-spill snack cup: 0
Katie: 1
So we figured our good little eater would snarf down some mac and cheese for lunch. Nah. Not interested today. REALLY?! Also not really interested in any of our foods, including one of her favorite baby foods. GRRR.
The good thing about lunch is that the owner—after chatting with Tom—comped our meal as a thank you for his service. So a nice shout out to Prissy Polly’s BBQ in Kernersville, NC.
Neither kid napped well. Katie got maybe an hour each before and after lunch and Owen got maybe an hour total with his catnaps.
Then there was a sibling sharing game, played with the lid to the snack container. Owen would hand it to Katie, she’d hand it back, lather rinse repeat. Owen kept saying “We’re sharing! We’re talking turns!” 🙂 He’s such an awesome big brother.
When we finally got to the hotel, Owen helped daddy with the cart (it was too bright for a good picture!).
And Maggie’s bag…which was about half his size.
Katie was having a blast crawling/zooming across the bed. Of course as soon as I tried to record her, she stopped.
Then she learned how to get off the bed. Just like that. (Just like she learned how to slide off the couch.) She’s a smart cookie.
Then it was off to dinner. We ate at the hotel just to make life easy. Katie ate seasoned curly fries, regular fries, and beef brisket (in addition to her cheese slices, green beans, and yogurt). Yes, BBQ beef brisket. Owen? The triple-decker PB&J and yogurt we packed from home.
Then it was FINALLY time for the pool—Owen had been asking most of the day but had really started asking when we got to the hotel. He was VERY excited!
Catching a ride and kicking it with daddy…
Watching daddy and Owen in the pool:
Then I took Katie outside for a stroll since it was REALLY warm in the pool area.
It took a minute to get a smile.
Then it was back to the pool, where daddy nommed some Katie toes.
I love when I get an unexpected shot. 🙂
Back at the room, we turned our backs for a minute…and this happened.
Yes, she opened the drawer AND got in by herself. And she was SO proud! Of course, she got out by herself, too.
Unfortunately, there were a few tiny snafus.
I thought I did really well by packing overnight bags so we didn’t have to haul everyone’s suitcases in…but I apparently forgot obvious stuff like jammies and Katie didn’t have her burp cloth.
I rolled the stroller through something in the hotel (they had some construction areas) and tracked it all over our carpet. It looked like putty, and thankfully it was still wet enough to easily wipe up.
Owen picked a scab and bled all over the white sheets. I had no band-aids…either on me or in our med bag. Tom had to get one from the front desk.
I haven’t had reflux in a month…so of course tonight was the night. And I forgot to take my nightly meds before putting Katie to bed, and I really didn’t want to get up because it took her 25 minutes of SCREAMING to fall asleep and hell if I was going to be the one to wake her up.
Also, the room next door has a bird and a yapping dog. Luckily it didn’t wake Katie up…but it woke me up about 10:30, and them continued to bark randomly until the owners SLAMMED back into their room around midnight.
Oh, we also got the last non-smoking room and it’s…not great. The bathroom smells, the bathroom counter is chipping, the toilet runs, and the sliding bathroom door (handicap accessible) is off the track so it can’t close. But we got a military discount!
Today we went to a friend’s birthday party (the husband of one of the mommy group moms) and they had borrowed a huge inflatable water slide. Owen just wanted to splash in the water…but eventually started going down the slide. And then we couldn’t get him off! He was SO happy! And it was great to watch!
When it was time to go, we asked him how many more times he wanted to go down the slide and he stopped and was really putting some thought into it. His answer? TEN! 🙂
Then on the way home he kept asking about the water slide and saying he wanted to go back to it. I’m sure he’ll get to go on it again since we have play dates at the house that owns it. 🙂
I discovered one of Owen’s play areas today…the “pool” in the half bath sink. He knows to pull up the stopper and turn the water on to make a pool for his little turtle (a bath toy).
Oh my goodness he was SO excited watching Tom get it ready and start filling it up…
I love the feet here.
And the face here.
Tentative first step…
Hey, this is fun!
Posing for mom’s request.
More splashing around.
“Can I take my shorts off?”
“I have to go potty!”
I tried to get a cute shot of his face with his butt blurry in the background…but for as scary smart as he is sometimes, he could NOT grasp that I wanted him to move his legs around. 🙂
Tom working on the walkway.
She LOVED the water and wanted to GO GO GO!
When she first got in, it was pretty shallow so she could kinda crawl/float around…and boy did she scoot quickly!
But since it was filling as we were in it, it obviously kept getting deeper…
…and she started taking on water!
And of course big brother was RIGHT there the whole time. He wanted to play with her SO badly!! And we taught him that if he sees Katie go under, the first thing he has to do is pull her up then scream for us if we’re not right there. 🙂
I sense a very wet summer for me…
On a sidenote, we’re trying a saltwater system
NEW CONTENT:
It was chilly again—note the two coats!
Chasing the birds!
Today was the first day I saw tons of coral washed up along the shore…
My boys! (Notice that Owen’s feet are inside Tom’s jacket warming up!)
Trying to get a cool desktop or Facebook cover photo!
Headed down to the beach to play with his new remote control truck (a belated Christmas present from Aunt Marilyn and Uncle John). He was EXCITED!
Chasing the seagulls!
And then the shorts came off because they were getting wet.
The pool water is pretty dirty—and draining as we sit here—but he was desperate to go in. And since it’s 75 today we figured he might as well get in one last hurrah!
Then he had to get in the tiger. HAD TO! He wanted help but I always have him try things by himself first…and he did it!
After I stopped recording, of course he got cuter—bouncing around saying Howdy pardners!
Owen was in the pool and I was holding Katie because Tom wasn’t home. He kept saying “Mama come in? Mama get your suit?” and of course I couldn’t. Tom got home and Owen kept asking, so I just hopped in—clothes and all—and he was soooo excited! And we had soooo much fun.
He says “I’m Tony!”
Tony? Huh?
“Owen, who’s Tony?”
“IRON MAN!” (For those who don’t know, Tony Stark is Iron Man.)
So I was the Hulk and chased him around the pool. And he reenacted parts of his favorite Avengers movie.
It. Was. Awesome.
He definitely didn’t want kisses and was letting us know…but he was also half laughing. That growl you hear in his voice? That’s what his “tantrums” are like (I know, not bad—I’m not complaining).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJrSvn9n7Mc
He was having a blast in the puddles after it rained. You can hear him babbling, but probably won’t be able to make much of it out because a) the water drainage is louder than I thought and b) he’s hard to understand anyway (I was standing right there and could barely understand).
Accidental modesty. He haz it.
What a wet grin!
