Great Wolf Lodge (and Snow!)

A couple weeks ago, we took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge, as promised on Christmas!  It was funny going again so many years later, because the first time we went, Bentley and Kendra had a BLAST, while Colton and Camille were really kind of young to enjoy it (and, quite honestly, were a big pain because we had to make sure they didn't drown the whole time).  This time around, Bentley wasn't even here for it {sniff, sniff} and as we walked into the water park, Kendra commented, "I'm kinda old for this place, huh?" and we agreed that she definitely was.  But she still had a great time (as did C&C so many years ago!), so I guess it all balances out, doesn't it?  The real winner here is Ryder who just loved every minute of it BOTH times!

Anyway, we had to do a lot of recreating old pictures, so bear with me as I share oodles of pictures from both trips!

When we arrived, we could go right to our room, so that was nice!  Also, the rooms now have wood (pergo) floors, which is a HUGE upgrade from that nasty carpet!  That made me happy!

Howling, because we're wolves now!

An old shot:

and a recreation:

We threw all our stuff into the room, got into our swimsuits and headed straight to the water park!  Kendra was very nice about the fact that our swimsuits match...

Another recreation:

Last time Ryder HATED the hot tub

😂

He was actually a big fan this time-- partially because he wasn't feeling great.  But honestly, hot tubs are just the best!

And, like Bentley last time, the kids are now very good at the obstacle course:

And, again like last time, Craig got pictures of the huge bucket dumping water on everyone:

(We might not be good parents...) (But really, they're having a blast!)

Okay, I think those were all the shots that lined up with our previous trip-- time for a little more narrating...

I have to admit-- when we first arrived, I wasn't terribly excited to do any of the water park stuff.  It just seemed like a pain.  But fortunately I realized (pretty quickly) that I was just being a lame-o stick in the mud, and I wasn't going to have any fun at all unless I decided to actually TRY to have fun.  So I dutifully followed everyone around as we did the lazy river and the slides and it turns out I was just forgetting how much I love all that stuff!  Before I knew it, I was having a blast right alongside my family.  Which was the whole point.  Whew.

Anyway, that first day, we arrived, hit the water park, had a great time, and then retired to our room with Papa Johns Pizza and watched the Super Bowl.  Since it was also Camille's birthday, Craig ordered some desserts along with our pizza (brownies and a pazookie), which we stuck candles in and urged her to blow out before we could set off the smoke alarm.  

I mostly read my book and then glanced up at the TV if there were interesting commercials.  I didn't particularly care who won, but it did seem like it would have been more interesting if the Chiefs had actually tried to play the game.  Just my two cents!

The next morning we let the kids head off to the water park as soon as it opened, and I followed behind them a few minutes later.  We did all the same stuff, and when it looked like there was a chance of getting bored, Craig suggested we head into Colonial Williamsburg for a change of scenery.  We also promised them ice cream, which was all we needed to get everyone excited!  We grabbed lunch at Taco Bell and Craig hurried the kids to the musket demonstration while I found us some free parking.

Camille, Craig, Kendra, and Colton all sat up being judges at the courthouse

The weather was chilly, but not terrible.  But it always felt nice once you could duck into a building and away from the breeze.  Ryder had said he wasn't feeling well, so we gave him a ton of ibuprofen and told him he was fine.  Between that and the promise of ice cream, he was managed all right.

Here they are looking sorry for their sins

Camille looks WAY too happy to be here!

The apothecary was a big hit!

Finally it was late enough that all the colonial stuff was closing.  Time to find that ice cream!  Of course, that's when we discovered that most of the shops and restaurants were closed because it was Monday!  Before Ryder could despair, I assured him that SOMEWHERE there was ice cream and we would FOR SURE find it.  And we did-- there was a Kilwin's open just a block or two away, and it was perfect: when we walked in, we were offered free samples of fudge.  And then as we finished our ice cream, the same guy who gave us fudge was making caramel corn, so he let us watch while he explained everything he was doing and gave us samples of that, too!  He was so friendly, the kids just loved him.  

So everyone was happy!  We got dinner at the Cheese Steak shop (mostly Craig and I got dinner and the kids ate fries) and then headed back to our hotel to spend a few more hours at the water park!  It was pretty empty by then, so everyone enjoyed getting to do everything without having to wait in line!  So Ryder finally got to do the Flo-Rider, which he is pretty good at!

We went to bed that night and I...  tossed and turned and felt terrible.  It was really weird, because I didn't have any of the usual symptoms-- no coughing, no runny nose, no sore throat.  I just felt awful.  Everything hurt.

Once everyone else finally got up, I sent them to the water park for their final morning and I stayed in bed hurting.  Eventually I took some medicine and that got me feeling good enough to at least pack up my stuff and help load the car once they came back.  They'd had a great time again, even if I wasn't there!

This video is in slow motion, so it's way longer than it needs to be.  But if you skip ahead to the 45 second mark, you can see Ryder twist around in a circle and then recover and give the camera THE biggest smile-- what a pro!

Pretending to be Iron Man

Our original plan had been to stay most of the day, but Mother Nature had other ideas and there was a huge snow storm heading towards Charlottesville.  We didn't want to get stuck in that, so we headed out when we had to check out of our room, right as the snow was beginning to fall at Great Wolf Lodge.  As we got closer to home, there was more and more snow sticking to the trees all around.  It was very pretty, if a wee bit stressful.  We got home just as it started sticking to the roads and right as my meds wore off.  I started one load of laundry and stayed in bed the rest of the day.  I honestly felt so bad knowing that I'd made Ryder wander all around Williamsburg feeling as awful as I felt!!!  But everyone else had a great time playing in the snow!

I think Kendra made these cute snow hearts?

This is Ichi-snow!

And playing with Sydney and Beth (and Lexi)

I woke up the next morning drenched in sweat, but feeling WAY better.  I rolled over and saw that Craig had gotten himself two extra blankets and correctly deduced that he was now sick.  Except he also managed to get a cold at the same time (which he then passed on to me), so he was even more miserable.  It was a good thing we were all staying home anyway!

Anyway, that was our little mini-February-break!  It sure was nice to get away for a couple days!

A Few More Thoughts About Bentley's Mission Call...

So it's been over a week since Bentley got his call and I am still so excited for him!!!  The best thing was on Sunday when we chatted and he'd had a few days to process things and he was still over the moon about it, too.  Hu-Zzah!

Some of the things I'm most excited about:

-Since it's an American territory, it shouldn't be too hard to mail him stuff!

-He's only one hour off from us, which should make our weekly phone calls MUCH easier to schedule!

-Since he'll go to the MTC in Mexico, he'll still get a little experience that is actually foreign.  (He also needs to get a passport for this, which is sort of a pain, but I'm glad he'll have his passport now!)

(Side story: someone asked him if he was going foreign or not and he didn't know how to answer!  😂)

-He'll have to get to learn Spanish finally.  And he'll get to see how much better you can learn a foreign language when you a) have amazing teachers b) have the Spirit helping you and c) are dropped into that country and are suddenly both highly motivated to figure it out and being fully immersed in that language!

-His mission president was the COO of a company and has his MBA, so he's going to be a nice person for Bentley to begin networking with and learning from, if he's truly going to go into finance some day.

-The missionary couple serving there are friends with the mission president (he basically recruited them), so they're also probably great people to get to know!

-Craig found a video of the Puerto Rican missionaries welcoming new missionaries and singing "Called to Serve" and they were... a bit more raucous than we were on my mission?  But I think Bentley will enjoy this kind of energy.  It's good for him to not take himself too seriously!

-Now we have an excuse to go to the Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC!  (Just kidding-- I've heard about what a nightmare that is-- there is no way we are EVER doing that!)

-I'm happy for him that he'll get to be somewhere warm!  Spending winter months knocking on doors is ROUGH.  I'm sure he'll be complaining about how hot he is and the rainy season will feel terrible.  But that has to be better than riding a bike in the snow!

And, the point I keep coming back to, but I'll say it one more time-- I'm just so pleased that he's excited.  That was really the thing I worried about the most, was that he would get his call and be disappointed by it.  That would have been tough for all of us, but especially for him.  My mama heart is thrilled to see her son so excited for this HUGE next step in his life!

Called to Serve!

Bentley submitted his mission papers last week on Sunday.  The stake person who conducted his final interview told him he would probably get his call on Tuesday in a little over a week, or the Tuesday after that, so we were looking at the 4th or 11th of February.  And so the great wait began!  We were all completely freaking out!

And then, on Friday (Jan. 31st), as Craig and I were about to leave for the temple, Bentley texted us that he had a message from the Church.  He actually sent a screen shot of it with two texts that both read, "AHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" and then the calmer, "this is concerning to say the least"

We then had the following conversation:

I should point out that the previous Sunday when we'd talked on the phone, I'd tried to ask Bentley how he wanted to open his call-- did he just want to go to the temple and open it privately?  Did he just want family on the phone?  Did he want to zoom it and invite everyone?  I didn't really have a strong opinion about what he did, I just wanted him to decide so we could make sure it all went down the way he wanted it to!  I didn't want him to look back and be disappointed with the big moment!  But he was very evasive at the time.  

I'm pretty sure what he wanted was to know ahead of time how excited he'd be about his call, and then the more excited he was, the more people he would invite.  But obviously, there was no way to actually make that happen.  You just can't put that cart before the horse, no matter how hard you try.

But with that email, we were a freaking out mess with absolutely no plan!  So he FaceTimed us and we frantically gathered his siblings to hear and it was...  Just the church informing him that they'd set up an email account for him.  Whew.  It was a bit of a letdown, but we REALLY were not ready for his call to come just yet, so that was actually a good thing.  Craig and I breathed a sigh of relief and headed off to the temple and our date night as planned.

But fortunately, this little episode DID serve the purpose of lighting a bit of a fire under Bentley so he actually decided how to open his call: he wanted people there.  He wanted to do the whole "zoom with everyone" thing.  So Craig set up a link (and spent over an hour patiently explaining to his parents how to zoom), and I made a list of people to invite.  We figured we would be at the church for our Tuesday night activities, so we could just start out by letting all the youth watch him open his call and then move on to our activity.  Easy peasy!

(And, since we'll be driving home from Great Wolf Lodge the following Tuesday night, we really hoped it didn't come then!)

I had heard that the fact that his email was set up was a good sign that he'd probably be getting his call.  We were getting close!

So, naturally, on Monday evening as I was just leaving for choir, and my phone was packed away where I couldn't hear it, Craig came running out to catch me yelling, "HE GOT THE CALL!"  Apparently I'd been missing the following texts:

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!  I quickly sent out the email I'd started with the zoom link to everyone I could think of (apparently I missed TWO of my four sisters, though, so I did a terrible job!  If YOU wanted to see it and didn't get an email from me, I am SO SORRY).  We decided he'd open it in about an hour and just hoped that people would see the email in time.  Then I rushed to choir and explained to Michael before we began that I would need to duck out for a few minutes.  The 25 minutes I waited until it was time to step out were AGONY-- who can focus on warmups in a time like this???  I don't even know how Bentley stood it!

The minutes dragged by and finally it was time.  I stood out in the parking lot (thankful that it wasn't too cold of an evening) and got to witness the following:

https://zoom.us/rec/play/A0ERcARszGAImY6g3Oz-BN6iuyOQ80ziuXg6F9TP9Pt4fjVXzCwgWSNslzdUJldtZjsVEA3JfXNPvfUz.vmawEWi15CVc9h4S

(If you click on the link, you can see people's comments in the chat!)

The really pertinent information is around the 8:40 mark.  It's pretty hilarious, though, as he gets a minute into the whole thing only to be interrupted by some random person scream-singing in the distance (???) and when he looks back to his phone, he accidentally glances down and sees where he's going and just can't stop smiling.  

I didn't really care where Bentley went on his mission, but I desperately wanted HIM to be happy and excited about it.  In our ward, the last five missionaries we've sent out have served in: Fresno CA (Spanish speaking), Provo, UT (Spanish speaking), Provo, UT (English speaking), Layton, UT (English speaking) and Oklahoma City, OK (Spanish speaking).  And Bentley really didn't want to go to Utah, but the recent trends certainly seem to be to state-side missions.  Clearly, all of us Virginians need to show those Utahns how the Church is supposed to be done!   But yeah, he was really trying hard to manage his expectations.  

So, yes, you can see it in the video: when he finally saw where he was going-- Puerto Rico, Spanish speaking!!!-- he cannot stop grinning.  He's so happy and excited.  And I am therefore so happy and excited, too!  Also, now that there's no more surprise to not ruin, I should point out that CRAIG TOTALLY CALLED IT ON THE VIDEO (right at 4:30)!!!  Which is just hilarious because this wasn't something we'd ever talked about, and it had certainly never crossed my mind.  How did he do that?

Goodness.  What a whirlwind this has been!  

I have more thoughts, but I'll save them for my next post.  Give me a little more time to process the joy!

I can't believe my son is going to be a missionary!  In Puerto Rico!!!  I know they've seen a lot of hurricanes there, but they ain't seen NOTHING yet!

This and That, January Version

Compared to December, January was fairly tame.  We still had more going on than I would have liked, because all I really want to do in January is sit wrapped up in blankets by a fire.  Alas, life asks more of that than me.  Right now.  Maybe some day?

So here are the other things we had going on...

We had a youth temple trip, combined with the Spanish Branch!  That went really beautifully, I was so happy with our turnout!

This picture is mostly just the youth

And here we've added in the grown ups!

It was also Colton's first time doing baptisms at the temple, so that was happy!

That was in the late morning.  Tom and Donna had come over to babysit Camille, and we just barely had enough time to grab dinner at Five Guys and say happy birthday to Donna before we had to race to the stake center for Standards Night.  (In our defense, we'd planned our temple trip before we knew that the stake also had plans for us that day!)  Craig was hosting a panel discussion for the parents, and I sat and typed up notes on the whole thing, so we had a lot going on that day.  We were very relieved when we climbed into bed that night!

Our next-door neighbor's house suddenly went up for sale!  I shouldn't have been surprised since all the signs were there-- they'd been throwing away a TON of stuff, and having random cleaning people over (like professional grout and carpet cleaners-- that kind of thing).  Plus, as far as I can tell, they only have one son, and he lives in the Seattle area with his wife and kid, so what they're sticking around here for is anyone's guess.  But having said all that, I was still a little surprised when I saw the For Sale sign on their front lawn!  And what was even more shocking, the house sold in less than a week!  I've only knocked on their door a handful of times, but even from those brief interactions, it was immediately clear that someone in their house is a smoker.  Even with all the carpets and grout cleaned, who would buy that???

Anyway, I did look up their house on Zillow because I'm nosy like that.  Their house is a mirror image of our house, and it's fun to see what's the same and what's different (for example, their basement and bonus room over the garage are both unfinished!  I never knew that!).  It made me laugh as I looked at this birds eye view and realized you can see my big blue van parked next door!  😂

Bentley sent Kendra a song to listen to.  And since Kendra liked it, she looked up the singer on insta-gram and found this picture of her in concert:

and then, because she's a super-sleuth, Kendra looked even closer and spotted Bentley in the audience!

Kendra was also the one to notice that the snow melting on our trampoline looked a LOT like a yin-yang symbol, which I thought was pretty cool!

But speaking of Bentley-- my sister Natalie took her son Samuel out to BYU to audition for the music school, and while they were there, they took Bentley out to dinner!  I always appreciate people looking out for my boy!

And I love how Bentley and Samuel look related, but in a cousins-not-siblings way...  You see it, right?

I decided to see if I can pull off purple lipstick.  The consensus was: kinda?  I don't know that it's the best look on me, but it's fun to change things up every now and then!

Kind of a cross between emo and frostbite.  But not in the worst way...!

The Young Men had a wrestling activity last week and we got some fun pictures from it!  (The Young Women were busy on the other end of the building having a nerf battle, but I didn't think to take any pictures!)

Love this face that Ryder is pulling!  Craig said he actually did pretty well, especially considering he's never tried this before and was going against some kids who have been wrestling for years now!

None of the kids Colton's size showed up that night, so Craig paired himself with Colton.  He didn't trust any of the bigger kids to not hurt him...

And there's Ryder again!

Kendra's Indoor Drumline had a preview night, so we got to see her perform the first half of their show, "Don't Look Back," which is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.  I'll be excited to see the rest in a few weeks!

And the entire 4th grade had a music night where they sang and danced for us, so that was fun!

Craig and I had a date night to the temple (where it was pouring, so we had to take our selfie under cover!) and then on to Chuy's for dinner!  It doesn't get a whole lot better than that!

We also had a really fun pizza night with Adam, his sister Christine, who was visiting from Utah, and the Holbeins!  Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures of that, either, but a wonderful time was had by all-- the pizza, cheesecake, AND focaccia bread were all delicious, Hazel was as cute as ever, Adam's sister was delightful, and I always enjoy a chance to hang out with Brittney.  So life was good!

On the way home, we stopped for a minute to appreciate all the stars you can see when you're a little further away from the bright lights of Charlottesville!  I tried to do this once before, about a year ago, and it turned out they'd been manuring the fields and the kids were too distracted by the smell to appreciate the stars.  This time they enjoyed them a LOT more, and I've gotten a bit more knowledgable thanks to my stargazing app, so I could point out all the planets that we were seeing (Venus, Jupiter, and Mars; Saturn was hiding out near the moon, but it wasn't bright enough to actually see) and all my favorite constellations (the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, and of course Orion's belt with Sirius following behind).  We didn't stand there for too long, but it still made me very happy!

The really bright star here is Jupiter, and the Pleiades are just up and to the right of it!