Final Christmas Celebrations 2015

The day after Christmas included a lot of family time. We started by having brunch with my family.

Cooper was quite excited to open his new Imaginext Power Rangers tower. He loves these toys and is a big fan of Power Rangers, though we never really let him watch the show.

Aunt Sassy bought Caitlin the box of Disney Princess Barbies. She immediately asked to open them.

The kids also both got new bikes to keep at Nana's house. They were both thrilled with them!

If only Caitlin could figure out how to ride her bike.

That evening, Jason's family came in and we celebrated again.

Caitlin got the cutest waffle maker for her kitchen! I'm pretty sure Cooper & I were more excited about it than she was.

Cooper got a set of Lincoln Logs and a table top baseball game that caused a lot of fights between him & his sister.

Gaylord Texan ICE

Jason was able to visit Green Bay this year for the Cowboys vs Packers game. Since he would be gone for the weekend, I wanted to do something fun with the kids. Somehow, Nana and I decided the Gaylord Texan would be "fun."

We invited my aunts and Cooper's cousins to go along with us for the trip. While I did have fun on the trip, I'm still traumatized a bit. Saturday started much earlier than planned when Caitlin woke up crying. Her crying woke up Cooper, who was very excited and way too excited to go back to sleep.

Our first stop of the morning was Buc-ee's for breakfast. Cooper went to his own stall in the bathroom and we quickly realized the door knob was broken. Buc-ee's is known for their clean bathrooms and the fantastic feature that the doors go almost to the ground. Which means little kids can't crawl under them. I quickly grabbed a manager who tried to open the door. Soon, half of the bathroom was closed and there were 6 employees trying to rescue Cooper.

After 5 minutes, I asked for a hammer. After 20 minutes I insisted they start using the hammer to break the door knob off of the door or I would be finding my own sledgehammer and I would be happy to do it myself. It was right about that time I walked out to call Jason and one of the employees DID actually beat the door knob off of the door. Strike two for the morning.

We managed to finally gather our breakfast at Buc-ee's and make our way to meet the rest of the crew. Thankfully, the remainder of the drive went well and I made it to the hotel without any detours.

We spent the afternoon exploring the resort and putting the kids down for a nap. We tried to cut the naps short, but Aly & Caitlin were not really fans of that. After waking them up, it took a while to convince the two of them that dinner was a good choice. But, they finally agreed.

We finished dinner and walked around the hotel a bit more. Cooper would only get this close to Santa.

 

Cooper wanted to do the Elf on the Shelf Scavenger Hunt, and I promised that if he napped we would do it together. After dinner, we went to explore the ICE area and pick up our Scavenger Hunt book. With dinner in her belly, Caitlin was finally in a better mood.

 

Getting a photo of these 4 was going to be impossible.

 

We finally made our way back to the room so that the girls could take a bath and get ready for bed. Cooper and I headed out to find the Elf's around the hotel and figure out their names. I have to say, that was one of my most favorite times of the weekend. 

 

Once back in the room, the kids finished watched their movie and started to wind down. I found myself really happy the Gaylord has upgraded to the new Marriott TVs that are equipped with Netflix. We were able to find a kids movie for them to watch with ease.

 

The next morning, we started with breakfast and a quick photo shoot.

The aunts took Brielle to stand in line for ICE while we grabbed some pics of the kids. And realized it was much harder than it was worth.

This is what Caitlin wanted to do most:

Santa went on a break to the North Pole, so we took the opportunity to borrow his chair.

 

Then, Caitlin decided to run for a touchdown.

 We finally gave up and made our way toward ICE.

 

I'm pretty sure Cooper had just taken Brielle's paci away from her.

 The sisters tried to take a photo together without the kids, but the girls were NOT having that.

 

After what seemed like a really long morning, we were finally able to make our way into ICE. Everyone bundled up in our parkas, and we were off. 

 

It was cold. Somewhere along the way, Caitlin's mittens went missing. I worried the entire time about her hands being cold. The kids mostly seemed to enjoy the ice slide. Cooper was off on his own, going down again & again without hesitation. Caitlin was supposed to only go down the kids slide, but kept going past the workers to make her way down the slide for bigger kids. I laughed at the workers trying to get her to go back, only to finally send her down the slide anyway.

 

This was the point where Caitlin realized she was cold and she stomped her feet, yelling "I WANT MY NANA." The. End.

We exited the ICE Exhibit and rested in the activity room. Nana had promised Cooper he could snow tube. He loved it!

After all of the fun, we finally headed back home. The trip home wasn't the best - apparently it rained quite a bit Saturday night and flooded some roads in Dallas, causing a detour. Then, about an hour and a half from home, Caitlin had a "stomach ache" and we had to pull over so that I could completely change her clothes. That was pretty well the icing on the cake. The adults were laughing to the point of tears, Cooper was crying real tears because of the awful smell, and Adalynn was the most unhelpful flashlight holder ever who seemed to not care at all that Caitlin was covered in...gross. Trying to change a diaper through tears is hard.

Overall, ICE was fun and I enjoyed spending time with the family, but I am not sure how much fun I had. I can say I won't go again on a Saturday - it was insanely crowded at the hotel and crowds with little kids is stressful. I'd love to go when it was less crowded.

Aggie Girls

Jason & Cooper went to the first Aggie game of the season. While they tailgated and cheered the Aggies on to a win, Bridget and I decided to take a few photos of our Aggie girls.

Caitlin has started doing the "cheese face." I am not a fan, but she's still cute.

Out of all of the photos I took, this was my favorite. I just love her smiles.

August Beach Vacation 2015

This summer we decided to join most of my family in Port Aransas for the annual beach trip. After seeing how much Caitlin loved the beach in June, I was very excited to see the kids playing with their cousins.

All of the kids enjoyed building sand castles and playing in the mud. Caitlin most enjoyed knocking them down. I'm sure she did that just to make Cooper mad.

Jason had one request for our trip - to take Cooper to see the U.S.S. Lexington located in Corpus Christi. Cooper was very excited to see the ship!

Their marketing team must have children. The first airplane as you walk in the door looks just like the Skipper from Planes. Not only did Cooper recognize him, but I heard several kids yell out that it was Skipper and that's Dusty's friend.

The whole experience is very hands-on, with many things for the kids to climb in & on. Caitlin was right behind Cooper, doing whatever he did.

The top deck of the ship has many airplanes to see and even sit in.

Both kids loved seeing everything on the ship, though neither spent much time listening to stories or reading about the ship.