Great Wolf Lodge

For Tyler's big, gigantic birthday surprise, we took him to the Great Wolf Lodge in Centralia Washington. It's an indoor water park/hotel that's about a 3 hour drive west of Yakima. It was a huge secret and he didn't know where we were going until we actually pulled into the parking lot, but even then he didn't realize what it was until we were inside.

 

We had upgraded to one of the kid cabin rooms that includes bunk beds for the kids. The other half of our room was like any other standard hotel room with a regular bed, couch, television and things like that.

The bunk bed cabin had three beds and its own television. Pretty cool.

Friday morning we headed straight for the water park, which had a wave pool, a kiddie play area, huge tubing slides, an activity pool and more. So much to do!!

Later in the day we played a round of glow in the dark miniature golf.

Played a few rounds of bingo in the main lobby/lounge area. (I just noticed that this picture makes it look like Rick has a stump for a hand...creepy)

Then played a game of Magic Quest. Tyler had a little quest book and a magic wand and he had to search the hotel (mostly in the designated hallways and stairwells) for the objects needed to complete each quest. In the picture he is doing the dazzle rune quest and had found one of the five crystals he was looking for.

Then we hit the arcade.

 

And had birthday cake and opened presents back in our room.

 

In the end Tyler had an awesome few days at the lodge and is already planning to go back for Kyle's birthday this summer. They had so much to do that we couldn't even fit it all in and they provide everything so you have no real reason to set foot off the property. I left to pick up an ice cream cake at Baskin Robbins, just to find out that they have Dairy Queen cakes available on the second floor in the ice cream shop.

Coolest. Place. Ever.

Classroom Party

Tyler had his classroom birthday party today since he won't be at school tomorrow. He'll be cutting class and having a ton of fun. It conference week this week and the kids are released right around noon, so he'll only be missing a measly 3 hours of class anyway.

 

Tyler: age 7 and 364 days (as he would let you know).

For snack I brought Chocolate Marbled Banana Bread and some sliced strawberries.

Afterwards the kids played Four Corners and Heads Up 7 Up.

It was a fun time, but now that school is out....the real party begins. Operation: Surprise the daylights out of Tyler begins now....

Indoor water park, anyone?

Jump Rope for Heart

Today was Tyler's Jump Rope for Heart jump-a-thon. It's a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. The kids spent the last two weeks raising money and then spent a 2-hour block after school today jumping rope.

 

Kyle and I got there maybe 30 minutes after they had started and we were just in time to hear a story about one of the kindergartners at school that will be having heart surgery (for the 3rd time) over spring break. Yikes! Let me just be thankful that everyone in our family has a healthy heart!

The event took place in the gym and there were 11 different stations that the kids rotated around. They would jump rope for about 10 minutes and then sit down, a few prizes would be given out and then they'd rotate to the next station.

Tyler did great at the egg beater station where the ropes were situated in an X position. You have to time your entrance and exit just right so you don't get tangled in the rope.

After time was called at the egg beater station, everyone sat down for prizes and (woot) Tyler's name was called. He won a double dutch jump rope and some coupons for some free stuff at McDonald's.

In the end he did a great job. He got a little frustrated when he realized he couldn't do some of the jumping tricks, but it all comes with practice. I'm still amazed at how well he did in the egg beater. He can be proud of that for sure. 

 

OMSI and Mythbusters

On our last day in Portland we went to the OMSI to see the new Mythbusters exhibit and well...just to spend the day having fun.

 

We got to look at some of the actual artifacts/props from the show.

And see the book of blueprints.

Then it was time to try out some of the experiments, like Tablecloth Chaos, where you try to pull a tablecloth off a fully set table.

At Butter Side Up Tyler used the hand mechanism to knock the bread off the table to see how many times he could get it to land butter side up.

At Running in the Rain Tyler walked in the slow lane and Rick ran through the fast lane to see who would get more wet.

 

Under the black light it looks like Rick is more wet, but then Tyler has on a funny color sweater that glows under black light anyway. Hard to tell.

Then they tried out the phone book swing.

And moved on to Change Like a Super Hero. Tyler wasn't really into this one, so Rick grabbed some items of clothing from the bin, ran into the phone booth and changed as fast as he could. You're supposed to press the button by the door to start the clock, but Kyle came along and reset the button, so we never really figured out how long Rick took in there.

But seriously it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. I couldn't stop laughing. A helmet, goggles, a belt, a cape, shin guards, and gloves. It was too much! You would never be able to take Rick seriously if he tried to rescue you in that outfit.

Both Rick and Tyler tried the Killer Card Toss, but neither of them could get their cards to land anywhere near the board. Way harder than it looks.

At the Dodge a Bullet station, Tyler waited for the flashing light and then tried to get out of the way. It took him 8 tenths of a second to move...hate to say it, but I think he got hit.

 

On the Cliffhanger, Tyler was able to hang on for about 20 seconds on the novice ledge and Rick about 40.

In other parts of the museum:

We stayed until the museum closed and they were shooing us out, but that still wasn't enough time. So we didn't get to see all the exhibits, but one thing is for sure...those boys had a great time.

CKC Portland

Over the weekend we went to Portland for the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Convention. I had signed up in advance for the Friday and Saturday night crops as well as a handful of Saturday classes. We arrived in Portland right around 7:00 on Friday night, just as the crop was getting under way, but we still had to get dinner and check into the hotel. So we did that and I left the boys behind and headed off for the convention center, but by the time I got there all the parking garages had already closed for the night. I ended up finding a public parking lot semi-near and walked over, but then had to search the place for the one door that had been left unlocked. Kind of dumb.

 

So Friday night wasn't the best...I could have done without that crop, which I missed half of anyway. Saturday was much better though. We got to the convention center nice and early and didn't have any trouble parking since the garages were actually open at that hour.

 

One of my classes started early, but once that was finished I had plenty of time to check out the booths and do a little shopping.

I didn't go crazy...just bought a few kits and an envelope maker. It was also nice seeing new products. Glitter, glimmer mist and washi tape seem to be all the rage and apparently I need to get on board. Too bad I don't need any of that for Project Life, which is all I really focus on anymore.

While I was shopping the boys hung out on the other half of the room, which was set up with tables for the crop night.

Then it was time for more classes.

One of the classes was called Latest & Greatest, which was probably my least favorite. I took the class in Seattle 2 years ago and this time it seemed to use almost the same exact layouts and techniques, but just swapped out the old paper with new paper.

Here's the kit we got in class to make 4 different layouts...not the cutest papers in my opinion.  I was much happier with the other classes and the other kits that came with those classes. Much more my style. Either way, by the end of the day I had a ton of stuff to work on during the Saturday night crop.

And here's one thing I learned that night: there is definitely a right and a wrong way to woot. You know, you go to these things and they give out door prizes and when they call your name, you're supposed to woot. Well I don't woot...I'm more of a clapper. The problem is that a clap isn't as loud as a woot and is almost never heard in a giant room full of people. So they picked my name out of the bowl and I tried to woot, but what came out of my mouth was similar to the sound of a deaf person trying to talk. It wasn't good. I sounded like I was choking on a frog, so I gave up mid-woot and just stood up and clapped. And my big prize....an old magazine from 6 months ago. I should have just pretended I wasn't there. Rick says I need to get an air horn and I agree.

Ending things on a positive note...I finished a big stack of Christmas cards during the crop, so there is no way I won't get them out on time this year.