Saturday, May 16, 2009

Great Wolf Lodge

Are you ready??  For picture overload???

This past week Jeremy and the girls and I spent two days at the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord. We wanted to do something special with the girls before the baby comes.  What a total blast!!!!  It's an indoor waterpark.


Gracie, Piper, and Ellie smiling in front of the wolf

There are several things to do inside the waterpark.  There is a zero entry little park for young kids, several water slides for adults and big kids, a pool, a wave pool, and a big ole fort.  There's even a pool outside and putt-putt.

These first pictures are from the zero-entry pool.  Kim and I went early on Tuesday and took the kids and the men came that night.  So we spent most of the first day in this pool and in the wave pool.

Gracie girl dug the slides:)

Piper liked them too once she warmed up to it:)
There were these cute little jet skis that shot all kinds of water.  There were water shootin things everywhere!

Silly girls!




The wave pool.  They were some serious waves!  Kim and I were sitting in the shallow part and we had to brace ourselves they were so strong.


Daddy's are the best!


Then there was the other pool....

Piper was totally happy to just float along
They stayed in this pool for probably two straight hours!
This pool had this snake, lily pads, and acorns in it you could climb and sit on

Jeremy and Pipes playing hoops


Then, my friends, there were the water slides.  Oh the water slides!!  Well, you have to be between 42 and 48 inches tall to ride the River Canyon and 48 inches tall to ride the Howlin Tornado.  So Gracie and Ellie rode the River Canyon with us but none of them could ride the tornado.  

Here are the girls waiting on Tim and Kim to come down the tornado
This one is out of order, but it's a slide that I can't remember the name of.  It's a fun easy, smooth ride.
Back to the Howlin Tornado!  I stayed with the girls while Tim, Kim and Jeremy tried it out the first time.  You could hear Kim screaming as they came around the corner.  It was so hilarious, Jeremy and Tim couldn't even stand up straight they were laughing so hard at her!
 
This ride takes you through a slide of twists and turns and then all of a sudden there is a steep drop that sends you into a tornado shaped slide where you go round and round before going back into more twists and turns.  Definitely a crowd favorite!!  I loved it.


Ellie and Gracie were able to ride the River Canyon with us, so here they are!



Poor little Piper was way too short.  She was a little distraught she couldn't ride and I had to break the news to her.  She reached down to her toes and pulled her hands all the way up her body to the top of her head and said, "But mom, I'm this many big!"



Here is the big fort.  Every few minutes you hear a beep and then the barrel at the top dumps a 1, 000 gallons of water!!
And this is what happens if you stand under it....
Think they enjoyed it?

There were slides on the fort too.  The girls wouldn't go down these until the last hour of our time there.  We were getting ready to leave and they discovered how much they loved them.  They must have gone down 10 times!

Piper wasn't convinced, so she hung out with Daddy for a while....
And dumped buckets
And Gracie had a ball!
Then Piper finally decided she wanted to try it.  Well she started out going frontwards..but ended up backwards at the bottom, which she was none too happy about.  I picked her up out of that water crying:(


Here's the deal, I highly recommend going!  It is expensive but very worth it.  We went during homeschool week with our CC co-op, so it was more affordable.  You do have to spend the night, can't just go for the day.  But you can go at noon on the day you check in and you can stay till the park closes on the day you check out. 

 FUN for all ages, as you can see:)

Such a great time with the girls, before we become a family of five:)

Monday, May 11, 2009

Pipey

   Please pray for our little Piper.  She has two busted ear drums again!    We have tried to stay away from getting tubes put in for as long as possible, but we can't avoid it any longer.  She's had at least five ear infections this season alone.  And she is on an antibiotic right now and they still ruptured!  Crazy.  So she will go in next Thurs, the 21st for tubes.  Please pray that the infection is gone.  The Dr. can't do the surgery if it's not gone.  He switched her antibiotic today in hopes that that will help.

  Piper also has a good deal of scar tissue in both ears and that is a concern for hearing loss.  Putting the tubes in should clear up the scar tissue.

  I am interested to see how not hurting all the time affects Pipes.  She has been a real trooper.  I asked the Dr. why she wasn't in agonizing pain over this and he said if it had been me or him, we would be.  She's tough I guess!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Big Day...

For my littlest sister:)  She graduated today with her Master's!!  Congrats Abbie, we are thrilled for you!

Jeremy, the girls, and I headed to Boone to watch Ab graduate from Appalachian State University.
Here she is getting her hood!  How exciting!!
Shaking the chancellor's hand
Meemaw, Abbie, and Eric
Mimi, Abbie, and Eric.  Eric is Abbie's new boyfriend:)
Mom, Dad and Ab
Her biggest fans:)  Piper, Gracie and Tristen
And we really love her too!  Lauren and I with Abbie
Huge congrats Sis!!!  We are so very proud of you and the gifts the Lord has given you.  Abbie got her masters in education and she is currently teaching kindergarten.

Love you!

Girls on the Beach