Where to start...

This past week was one in which I got to glimpse a few years into the future and see the scheduling nightmare parents with "activity aged" kids get to navigate. All fun, all good, but where to put it all? In the past five days, we've spent approximately 15 hours at VBS, 29 hours on vacation, 5 hours shopping for a super secret event, and 5 hours cleaning my sorely neglected hacienda. That's a busy week for us Reeds, especially in these lazy days of summer. By bedtime last night, we were pretty much whipped.

I thought about blogging about everything at once, but really, it's just too much. So I decided to start with our super-short, super-short-notice, super-fun mini-vacation. About a month ago, some great friends of ours decided to head up to Grapevine and spend the night at the Great Wolf Lodge. At the time, we weren't sure if we could go because of Kevin's work. Then, we were sure we couldn't go because of Kevin's work (he was about to start a new project, and in this job market you don't exactly take two days off during the first three days of a new project). Then on Monday morning, luckily for us, his project got postponed for another week. So we made reservations Monday afternoon and headed out Tuesday morning.

If you haven't heard of GWL, go here (I will tell you now the website doesn't do them justice). If you have, you probably know they have this huge indoor water park and incredibly annoying commercial (annoying because if you hear it once, you will be involuntarily singing it all day long...so, annoying, but effective.). The thing is, that's only about 1/8 of the cool, kid-friendly things to do there.

We arrived around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, and although check-in wasn't until 4:00, our room was ready. From the moment you walk through the front doors, you know this place was created for families. Jackson was in awe. So much to see! Trees in the lobby, wolves over the humongous fireplace, a tree house on the stairway. His eyes got even wider as we entered our room, the "Kid Kamp" suite, which included a "tent" sleeping area for the kids.

(I was pretty impressed by the fact that the room key is included in your water park bracelet. You can also scan the bracelet at various spots within the hotel to charge things to your room. Makes it convenient to go to and from the pool area. Another plus--our kids' bracelets did not have this ability.)

Of course, the primary purpose for going to Great Wolf was the water park, so we swim suited up and headed down to meet our friends. I don't have pictures of the water park because now that I have a (another) new camera, I'm a little paranoid taking and leaving it places (especially places with big pools of water that cameras could easily fall into)...and well, a camera does very little good in a locker. So. You're not going to see our little daredevil daughter going down the big yellow kiddie slide (I'm pretty sure she was the youngest one doing it), or our not so daredevil son playing it safe on the teeny tiny baby slide (and feeling pretty proud of himself doing it). But trust me, they both had a great time. This place does a great job appealing to the younger set. There's a huge kids' play area with water guns and sprinklers and none of it is deeper than 1.5 feet. If your kids are older, there's plenty of big kid stuff too. Trust me. Kevin and I even tested the big slides ourselves just so I could say that.

After a couple of hours in the water, Sadie and Jackson were both ready to rest for a while. After they recharged, we ventured out into Grapevine for a visit to Bass Pro Shops and dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. Jackson and Sadie had a great time "driving" the boats and ATVs and looking at the fish at Bass Pro. The Rain Forest Cafe exceeded our expectations as far as our kids went. We knew Jackson would love it, but Sadie was just as fascinated with all the animals. Our table was under a jaguar that occasionally wagged its tail, but they had a great view of the elephants and gorillas, and Jackson couldn't wait for them to start "singing." Sadie also exerted her independent side and insisted--loudly--that she be allowed to eat her applesauce all by herself. With a spoon. And her fingers. She was, um, not entirely successful, but by golly she gave it a good try. And she stopped screaming. That was nice. That should explain the dark spots all over her shirt.

When we arrived back at the hotel, it was getting close to 9:00. We got ice cream and went back to the lobby to settle in for the clock tower show and story time. The hotel does this every night for the kids. They encourage them to come to the lobby in their pajamas and get comfy to hear one of the staff members teach them the Great Wolf howl and read them a book. We skipped the PJ part, but settled in with our ice cream and enjoyed the show.

When the show was over, we headed back to our room to settle down. Except Jackson and his buddy Reed weren't quite ready to settle down (they are the ones looking out of his "tent" window), and Sadie talked Jackson out of his ice cream cone. And since she was already a sticky mess from the apple sauce incident, who was I to stop her?

The next morning was filled with playing games at the arcade, coloring souvenir t-shirts at Cub Club, stuffing pink poodles at the Animal Station (all of which is included in a Paw Pass at a discounted rate. I highly recommend it.), and more swimming. The game room was one of Jackson's favorite places, probably because it reminded him a lot of his other favorite place, Chuck E. Cheese. I was pleasantly surprised to find most of the activities for kids his size were 2 tokens, not 4 or 5, and the games that distributed tickets were really generous with them. The Cub Club is a great place for kids slightly older than Jackson, but he still had a great time coloring his shirt. Sadie helped uncap the paint pens.

After a last visit to the water park, we ate lunch and headed home. The kids were asleep before we hit got to Dallas, and slept the entire way home. It was a great trip.

Blessed Summertime

When we decided four years ago to build a house in the country, I had reservations. I grew up in the country. I knew the pros and, more importantly, the cons. I knew that my kids would grow up on a road that would make learning to ride a bike tricky to say the least. (I still remember being five years old and having my brother decide it was time for me to learn to ride without training wheels. He got me started down our driveway--a very bumpy, pothole-filled oil top road--and about two seconds later I hit a bump and landed in a patch of thistles. Good times.) I knew there would never be a store, restaurant or movie theater within walking distance. I knew my kids would not be able to walk down the street to a friend's house, and that sometimes, they would be bored and lonely. I knew they would sometimes wish they lived in a neighborhood with an ice cream truck, cable, smooth roads and ...oh wait, that was me thirty years ago.

What I didn't count on was how much bigger the pros would be now. First, there are more than five channels on TV (although as long as "The Wonder Pets" and "Max and Ruby" are in our dvr, we could have five or five thousand channels and it wouldn't matter). And there's pizza delivery, which is almost as good as an ice cream truck. And while the road isn't much smoother than my childhood, the ditches are thistle free and there is at least a 200 foot patch of pothole free asphalt. But the best parts of country life are the things you tend to overlook when you're five.

Almost every afternoon, about an hour before sunset, the kids and I go outside and hangout. This is my favorite time of day. We play in the "rock sandbox" (think all rock, no sand)...

We swing...

We water plants, and enjoy the end of the day. We play baseball. We hear the bullfrogs on the lake and wait for the fireflies to make their appearance. Sometimes we go fishing,

and other times we just watch the fish jump at some unseen unfortunate bug on the water. We hear the Canadian geese honk their arrival (or departure), and we squint to see if their babies are with them. Jackson will ask me questions that begin with, "when you were a baby..." or tell me about an adventure he's yet to take. He checks the cows or rides in the jeep with his daddy. We take walks just to find bigger rocks to throw in bigger puddles. We see if our garden has any new veggies for us. We look for the first star in the sky, and wait for its friends to join it. We watch for rabbits who frequent our yard and we talk about how rabbits, as a rule, don't enjoy being chased by screaming children.

Lots of pros.

What cons?

It's a sweet, sweet life.