Family fun weekend!!

Rather than have a birthday party with her friends, Paige chose to go to Great Wolf Lodge for her birthday.  So obviously just our family. Everyone, myself included, was so excited leading up to the weekend away.  Since the girls had never seen Niagara falls (well, that they remember), we decided to just get up and go to the falls in the morning, rather than waiting at home until we could go to Great Wolf Lodge (you can use the facilities after 1:00).  

We got to the lodge shortly after 1:00 and our room was ready.  The below pictures are out of order.  Blogger still has no quick way to move around photos, so once again I will leave them in a random order, and explain first.  We headed straight to the water park after we unpacked.  After a few hours on the slides and in the wave pool, we got dressed and Mike took the girls to buy their magic wands for Magic Quest (an interactive game), while I stayed back in the room and put Henry down for a later nap before dinner.

All of the photos below are of day 2 of our mini vacation.  The girls woke up early and excited in their wolf den.  There was a small TV in there so I turned it on to keep everyone in bed while we waited for mike and Henry to wake up.

At breakfast the magic wands made a few things react in the restaurant.  Lights, moving objects, etc.  So great that the meals are buffets, which means minimal waiting around with Henry going crazy.  We all just eat ASAP and then leave.

Because Mike had bought a "paw pass", we had lots of activities to do.  Crafts, bowling, arcade, free fudge, etc.  We barely had time for it all, and actually didn't do everything the pass entitled us to.  After breakfast the kids did crafts in the cub club.  After that we went to the arcade and racked up lots of tickets to claim for prizes.

We headed to the watermark after checking out and putting our suitcases in the car.

Rather than get henry wet, I pushed him around until he slept--it was nap time anyway.  The lucky little guy had a nice long sleep in the warm steamy air with white noise surrounding him.  This meant that someone had to sit with him, but I was happy to read my book anyway, and we took turns taking the girls on "Wooly Mammoth"--a family tube waterside..soooo fun.  Rose was scared of it and we knew she would like it so mike tricked her and told her he was taking her on the lazy river.

Daddy lost a shoe on the way up to the chair

The mood was a bit different on the way home.  Pretty mellow compared to the drive up. 

Cool wristbands that doubled as room keys, and had the ability to charge things to the room.  

We can't wait to go back again.  Next time we'll take it a bit easier, and not try to do everything! We could have spent more time on the magic quest and done it properly.  At least the girls have their wands now, and can use them next time.  I was worried about all of us sleeping in the one room, but really the girls went to bed right away, as did Henry.  Mike and I just read on our phones in the dark until we were tired.  Such a great time.  Can't wait till we can do a few more slides at the girls height level too.

Hiding things

Henry has started to hide things.  He doesn't do it on purpose, but he innocently takes important things and puts them in weird places.  One day I couldn't find his shoes.  I looked for 45 minutes, no exaggeration.  It was important as we were meeting people at the park and a kid needs shoes.  I ended up having to squeeze him into his baby Robeez, only to find the shoes immediately after our return at the bottom of the basement stairs.  He had thrown them down there the night before I guess.  The next day I had had a long day and dramatically poured myself a glass of wine and decided to go and watch the Bachelorette.  No remote.  I got into the family room and proceeded to look under every single one of the couch cushions on our massive couch, under the couch, in the bookshelf, in the tupperware drawer, spice drawer, etc.  Nope.  I finally discovered I could change the mode on the television using the cable box.  The next day I happened to glance into my rubber boot which was way over in the mud room and the remote was in there.  Since then the boots have become a preferred  place to hide things, so I always look there.  Also I've noticed him throwing a ton of things down the stairs now, so most things aren't missing for long anymore...

Horse camp

Dusty and messy after a day at camp:

Paige and Bailey:

Paige's only complaint at camp was that she didn't get to ride the horses as much as she would like.  They played super fun camp games and got dirty...and ate massive chocolate bars which I outlawed form her diet on day 3.  I had no idea the money i sent was buying full sized chocolate bars?? Talk about unhealthy!
Paige is going to try riding lessons in the fall.  She is such a huge animal lover.  It'll be good I think.

Paige's 7th birthday!

Seven years!? Grade 2??? What?!

Paige's birthday was on a horse back riding camp day, so we had a pancake breakfast early in the morning, followed by a few presents.  Of course we had more pizza for dinner. The day wasn't very eventful in terms of birthday activities...but we had Great Wolf Lodge to look forward to on the weekend...

A few days before Paige's actually birthday, the family came over to celebrate Paige, James, and my birthdays. We had pizza and cake of course. 

Happy Birthday my happy, smart, fun girl!

Birthday/Anniversary trip to Taboo Resort

Mike went to Taboo Resort for a work function a while ago and mentioned it would be great for us to go there, so we quickly decided to go there for an anniversary celebration.  Grandma and Grandpa were staying at the cottage which is just a bit north of the resort, so they offered to come pick up the girls and keep them for 2 nights.  Of course they would have taken Henry too, it's just not possible yet, so he came along for the weekend, which was pretty cute. The day we left happened to be my birthday as well so it was a bit of a birthday celebration in a way.  I had 2 spa treatments while we were there, and Mike went to the gym a couple of times.  We didn't do too much, but that was the plan.  We had to eat room service though as the restaurant was fancy and Henry was teething.  Breakfast was a buffet which was doable as we could eat quickly. 

The view from our room:

 Henry's "silly face":

The fake coyote decoy that i thought was real from a distance.  (still haunted by my coyote encounter):

 Henry fussy at the restaurant for lunch

 Another meltdown:

At the spa on my birthday

 Just the three of us:

 Ok...that one's a cheat.. Mike wasn't there but Henry was sleeping in his stroller.  I strolled him along to force him to sleep while mike had a small nap. I sat for a bit but forgot my book and was quite annoyed.

 Ordered birthday treats for room service which turned out to be comically pint sized:

To keep baby quite in restaurant, fed fruit loops:

It was really nice to get away to a new place, and the girls had a fabulous time at the cottage.  It'll be fun to look back on the trip and think of how small Henry was, and that we had some alone time with him too.  Oh--It wasn't buggy at all because of the crazy winds which was a good thing.  But, there was certainly a ton of goose poo on the ground--they could do something about that next time...

Preschool year end party time

Rose's preschool party at Lowville park

Rose and her best friend Claire with their teacher Mrs. Sim