Is forever enough?: March 2012

Shortly after returning home from our Great Wolf Lodge baycation, Mitch and I made plans for a spring trip to another water park. We didn't mention anything to Julian about it until about a week before since we knew he'd ask about it 200 times a day until we left. (And he didn't disappoint.)

Taking his piggy bank with all his vacation money into the bank. He saved $91!! (Well, I guess we saved it, technically. I just gave him and Evie my change whenever I had any.)

We went to a smaller park in Frankenmuth, which was nice since it was only two hours away. We had a blast. I think we're becoming seasoned vacation-parents now and know a little more what to expect. Which is to say...anything.

The water park was lots of fun and Julian could go down all the slides. Two even by himself! Evie went down one with Daddy and me a couple of times, but wasn't a huge fan of the big splash at the end. Her favorite attraction was the set of stairs leading into the baby pool. She loved practicing climbing up and down them over and over and over. That, and the barrel of course. Both kids loved that the most. Evie does a great barrel impression now too: "Ding, ding, ding....splash!"

Julian was a little pooped after climbing three flights of stairs up to the big slides about 25 times that day.

The weather was fantastic (upper 80's!) so not only did we get to play at the water park, but we got to venture outside more than we planned. We found a playground, a river walk, ate dinner outside on a patio, and strolled around downtown and found fun shops (toys, fudge, etc.)

Watching the Glockenspiel

So Sweet

.02 seconds later...

"Hey Momma...Can I try yours please?"

Window kitty was a favorite. (We left Julian's face like that for a good ten minutes, just because it made us laugh every time we looked at him.)

In honor of our first vacation, we waited an hour for our dinner here. At least the view was nice.

Julian kept getting confused about vacation vs. hotel. It was like "Who's on first?"...

"Yeah, but I want to go to vacation!"

"Buddy, we're on vacation."

"But there are no rooms here!"

The highlight of the trip for me was our first night when we tried to put the kids to bed at 8:30. We gave it all we had for about an hour, but those children were not going to sleep. Instead of getting frustrated (as we would have on our first trip), Mitch and I just started cracking up and letting the kids out of bed to rough house. Then, as we're laying in the dark laughing about our failed bedtime attempt, Mitch yells "Whooooooo wants ice cream?!"

Julian wanted to "cuddle" in Evie's bed.

So after getting mini-shakes for the kiddos, we drove back to our hotel and suddenly remembered that it's Christmas year-round in Frankenmuth -- there were light displays all around our hotel. So we drove around at 10 pm, windows down, eating ice cream and looking at Christmas lights on a beautiful 70-degree March night. It was downright magical.

We planned on two nights, with a possible third if we were having enough fun. We were! Mitch and I had the bright idea of staying somewhere different for our last night. We ended up at this dusty old tourist trap of a hotel with creepy (and definitely haunted) rooms. But they had five different themed pools and a giant arcade that made it worth it.

Moving Camp

Now, I personally think arcades are a loud, annoying, waste of money. Julian however, begs to differ. If we weren't swimming, he wanted to be in the arcade. We compromised. We spent enough time in them that he got the hang of skee-ball and won a few really valuable prizes before we headed back to the water or out in the sunshine.

It's becoming something of a tradition for us to let the kids stay up late on the last night. Whether it's because we're out of bedtime gumption or just because we know it'll make for a quiet ride home...it just seems to happen. Things got a little wild, but they made it to about 11:30!