Great Wolf Lodge 2012

I've been wanting to take the children back to the Great Wolf Lodge (the 2nd happiest place on earth) for a while now but their prices have gone up.  I was so excited to check my email while we were on vacation in Winthrop and see that Living Social was offering a deal where you could have seven people go for the night and get lunch the next day for cheaper than the normal price of a room for four people.  I debated for about 1 minute and clicked purchase.  I thought I had a year to use the coupon but when I went in later and read the fine print, it expired on 12/31/12.

The children have a bunch of early release Wednesdays this year so I planned our visit to coincide with one of those so they only end up missing one day of school.  Dode was able to get time off from work so he's joined us for the first time.  A few days before we were leaving he said, "Do you know what the best part of going to the Great Wolf Lodge is?"  "No, what?"  "Getting to see you running around in a swimsuit for two days."  I guess I'm lucky that after almost 17 years of marriage, he still thinks that seeing me in a swimsuit is a treat!

I'd told Dode that we needed to stop at the scout office on the way down and pick up a merit badge pamphlet for Isaac.  He was looking at the bag I'd packed and said, "Apparently we're also going to See's Candies."  (A gift certificate was on top of our clothes).  I said, "That's just in case."  "Just in case of what?", he asked.  "Well, in case we end up going by a See's."  "How would that happen?"  "I don't know, it just might."  "Oh," he said, the light bulb finally going off in his head, "It's in case we break down across the street from a See's Candies on the way to the Great Wolf Lodge!"  Of course, it makes perfect sense to me!

We arrived at the Great Wolf Lodge around 3:00 pm.  We checked into our room and immediately changed into our swimsuits and headed to the water park.  William begged and begged to go down the Tornado so I finally gave in and let him.  The look on his face when we dropped into the bowl was priceless, pure terror!

outside view of the tornado

inside the tornado, not our family

After spending a few hours in the water park, we headed to the room for some homemade pizza we'd brought along.  

Miriam enjoyed eating her pizza in front of the gas fireplace.

Tucked into her bed in the kid cabin.

Another view of the kid cabin.

We made William a nest to sleep on under the sink.

We were visiting during their Howl-o-ween celebration where they were offering trick or treating each night.  The lines were long, the candy was cheap (pixie sticks and dum dums) but the kids had fun.  They had a scavenger hunt for parents using their smart phones.  I completed the hunt and earned a caramel apple.  Getting something free from the Great Wolf Lodge is about as rare as getting something free at Disneyland, a real treat!

Anastaya looking thrilled to get a Great Wolf Lodge trading card.

Elizabeth getting her trading card.

Taking a break during trick or treating.

The children got to decorate ghost cookies at the end of trick or treating.

Chocolate covered marshmallows were available as well as cookies.

Wow!  Something free from the Great Wolf Lodge.  See the crowd in the background?

LOTS of people were taking advantage of trick or treating.

Then it was time for Magiquest.  We have three wands from previous trips so all we had to buy were new games.  I didn't even have to buy a game for William, I just had them activate it for free.  When he pointed at things, they would interact with him, he just couldn't complete any quests (scavenger hunts).  Keeping up with Miriam and Elizabeth on Magiquest is really hard because they run to each place. 

on her quest

Fighting the dragon.  We needed Isaac's help to win.

Getting instructions at the tree.

After trick or treating and Magiquest, we headed back to the water park.  We stayed until they closed at 9 pm.  Around 8:00 the water park really cleared out and we could walk right up to any slide, including the tornado and river ride which normally have long lines.  

Once the sliding was over, we collapsed into bed and everyone slept in past 8:00 the next morning.  We're cheap so we'd brought cold cereal for breakfast.  I'd been awoken by Dode's phone vibrating in the middle of the night but it wasn't until hours later that I realized that it had been ringing.  I lay in bed worried that Jacob had been hurt in an accident or our house had burned down but  decided that bad news could wait until the morning.  When we checked Dode's phone we saw that Jacob had called at 11:00 pm.  I called him to see what he needed and found out he'd been looking for the kitten food.  Phew, no crisis!  We knew we couldn't back to the room once we left for the water park so we had to pack up and bring things to the van.  Then it was time to let the playing begin for a 2nd day.  

Dode and I had experienced some motion sickness the previous day so when I sent him out to get milk in the morning, he picked up Dramamine for both of us.  It really helped!  I did a lot of water sliding but never got sick.  We spent our day alternating between the water park and Magiquest.  The coupon I'd purchased came with a voucher for 7 lunches in the water park.  They had your standard snack bar foods: hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, everything served with fries and a soda.  The coupon provided us a free lunch that would have cost us $60!

Water sliding was the last thing we did before loading up and getting in the car.  The day we left the water slide lines started getting really long.  That's not always a bad thing when you're a tired out parent and don't mind standing around and waiting a while!  Then, they had a power outage.  The water park was  only dark for a few seconds before the generator kicked in but they weren't able to run the slides.  People started a mass exodus of the park but we sat around to see what would happen.  About 15 minutes later the power came back on and we were able to enjoy our last half hour in the park without any lines.  

Anastaya and Isaac weren't very excited to go to the Great Wolf Lodge but I'd explained that it was their chance to be a hero big sibling for the little ones.  I'm not sure that I fully convinced them but they were pretty good sports.  After water sliding in the morning, they spent most of day 2 sitting on the couch in the lobby, Isaac reading a book and Anastaya doing her homework.  

hanging out in the lobby

Miriam absolutely loved Magiquest.  Everyone else was done water sliding and playing but she dragged Elizabeth around for an extra hour.  They finally showed up when Miriam's feet were hurting so badly she could barely walk.  She made sure to clarify that the wand would save her place in her quest for when she returns someday before finally admitting that she was just too tired to continue playing.

a family photo before we head home

It was really nice to have Dode along this time, our fourth visit.  The trick or treating was pure chaos and another pair of eyes helped.  Then with some children wanting to water slide and others Magiquest, we could split up and accommodate both wants.  With children pulling us in different directions, we didn't get to spend much time together.  This trip was all about the children.  Miriam, William and their mom can't wait to head back.  The teenagers (and Dode) are content to wait a nice long time!  

Life With Kittens

Our kittens are a never ending source of amusement around here.  I've never had two cats before and had no idea how much they would enjoy each other.  I read that cats who have a companion live longer than solitary cats.  After experiencing life with these two siblings, I can't imagine ever having a solitary cat again, it would feel cruel.

Everything they do, they do it together.  Play, eat, sleep, get into mischief.

They seem to believe that everything in the house exists simply for their amusement.  Case in point.  This morning I was getting ready to mop the floor.  As I swept the floor, the kittens loved all the dust bunnies and pieces of cat food that got swept  into little piles for them to scatter.  After getting the floor swept, I got out the mop and my buckets, one filled with soapy water and one empty, ready for the dirty mop water.  I can't carry everything in one trip so I set down my buckets and went to get the mop.  On my return I found one bucket with soapy water and one formerly empty bucket containing a kitten.  She watched me wring the mop out in the soapy water and couldn't resist jumping out of the bucket she'd been in to chase the mop around the room.  I spent the rest of the time hoping she wouldn't jump back into the bucket she thought was empty and leave a mess in the kitchen.  I have a lot of hard floors to mop and I went a bit slower than usual as I tried to avoid a kitten who thought it was great fun to chase the mop.  Kitten footprints on my clean floors are an unavoidable part of life right now.

They will play with anything.  It's a normal thing to walk into the kitchen and see the computer mouse hanging off the counter by it's cord thanks to a kitten.  The shoelaces of shoes left lying around are gnawed on.  They've completely destroyed my Halloween decorations, dismantling my big spider web, playing with the glittery plastic spiders until all their legs are gone and they've sucked off all the glitter!  Any tiny thing like a pencil eraser, a ball of Styrofoam, and an ant are all fair game for getting batted around by a kitten.

Dode sits on the bottom stair each morning to tie his shoes.  Since he wears work boots, his laces are three feet long.  He often has a difficult time getting his shoes tied because each time he flops a lace over, a kitten attacks the end of it.  He has to try to tie his shoe with a kitten hanging from the end of the laces!

They are also crazy for the laser pointer.  They will spin in circles, race like fiends, all in pursuit of the green dot.  If you aren't careful and run the dot up some one's leg, the kittens will follow right along.  Ouch!  What's funny is that although they seem totally wild and crazy when chasing the dot, they are perfect ladies who let each other take turns.  While one is chasing the dot, the other waits patiently and watches until it gets close enough to her that the other kitten gives her a turn.

When they aren't hard at work playing with toys, they spend the bulk of their time playing together.  Big time wrestling has nothing on two kittens.  They each weigh less than five pounds but you can hear them thundering around the house.  They'll run as fast as they can towards each other and launch into the air to collide together and hit the ground,  a ball of legs and tails.  It must be an exciting life when you never know when you'll be pounced on!  One is often hiding in a crouch with tail flicking in anticipation waiting for the other to innocently walk by so they can pounce on them and tumble around.

Katniss goes in for the kill while Jules tries to defend herself from the floor.

The other morning it wasn't just each other they were wrestling with, it was me.  Each time I'd walk down the hall, a kitten would run up and wrap her legs around mine in a hug and playfully bite my leg. She kept her claws sheathed but I wasn't so keen on the teeth!

They have to put up with A LOT around here!  Miriam also dresses them in doll clothes.

Miriam is constantly toting one around.  They're often carried around in a very precarious manner.  William has shut them up in things, like the trundle bed on Miriam's doll crib,  for hours (a behavior we're working hard to stop!)  Then, every time they get used to a nice "quiet" house, Ramirez (my mom's dog) shows up to get them all riled up again! 

This tent is for Miriam's dolls.  The kittens have claimed it as their play house.  You do NOT want to try to pet them when they are inside if you value your skin.

                                             

Kittens play hard and crash.  Their favorite thing to do when they're not playing?  Snuggling together and taking a snooze.

They made complete pests of themselves on produce morning.  We were all out sorting produce into baskets when a kitten showed up.  She was really riled up and it was difficult to catch her but I finally managed to and shut her back in the house.  Pretty soon, she was back again.  There had been some people going in and out the door and I thought maybe they'd snuck out.  After the third time of them showing up and my chasing them around to catch them, I realized I was putting them inside the front door and they were going upstairs and getting outside through the open sliding glass door in my room.  Smart kittens!

 They were wild when we carried them home but now they seem to enjoy being around us.  When we get up in the morning, they wake right up and greet us, blinking their sleepy eyes.  When they  hear someone come home, they also run over to see who it is.  And, you can hardly sit at the computer without having a cat show up on your lap.

Are there drawbacks to kittens?  Training them to use the litter box, cleaning out the litter box now that they've got it down, trying to teach them to not scratch the furniture, trying to keep the younger children from mauling them.  Are there drawbacks to having two kittens?  We put flea medicine on them the other day.  You are supposed to apply it to the base of their skull so they can't lick it.  They're such good friends to each other that they both got right to work, licking the nasty stuff of their sister.  The medicine is very bitter to them and soon I had two kittens who were foaming at the mouth.  I'd read the warnings on the box and knew that although it looks terrible, it is a side affect of them licking the flea medicine.  We stuck them outside with a fresh bowl of water until they could get over their brush with looking like rabid cats.  I hope they learned their lesson.   I don't want them to have to go through that every month!

All of the children are absolutely enamored with the kittens.  There is something strangely relaxing at having a little warm body purring in your lap while you run your hand over their soft fur.  

The kittens have very different personalities.  Jules is the brave kitten who is always investigating new things and is curious about the world.  Katniss is our shy kitten who is hesitant about new things and takes a while to get brave enough to try out a new toy or head outside.  You can even see it in their faces.  Jules looking interested and scheming, Katniss looking hesitant and a bit frightened.  What's funny is that when they're asleep, there personalities are reversed.  Jules always sleeps curled up in a tiny ball while Katniss sleeps stretched out.

Dode says he doesn't see it as that strange.  He says I'm the more outgoing one in our relationship but I sleep curled up and he sleeps stretched out.  I'd never realized that before.  

Here comes the rain!

mud puddles in the driveway, a rare sight of late

Since when is rain in Western Washington something worth writing about?  Well, since we haven't had rain in 82 days!  It hasn't been this dry (.03" of rain in the last 82 days) since 1922!  In 1922, Seattle went 75 days with only .03" of rain.  We've beat that record by another week of dry weather.  What does 82 days of dry look like around here?  The grass is brown and even the weeds have finally stopped growing.  Hooray for not needing to mow!  The shrubs and trees have shriveled up leaves.  Our stream has turned into a small trickle of water.

When the rain was forecasted to be on the way, Dode and I went around and put things away that shouldn't get wet.  We had a lot of stuff to put away.  In fact, we'd never gotten all the day camp bins put away and that was four months ago!  We have had to move it all upstairs in the garage since the carport where we had them stored is prone to flooding.  We decided it was finally time to get that stuff put away!

It's been a wild weather year here in the Northwest.

On January 19th, almost 7 inches of snow fell on parts of the Puget Sound.  We enjoyed the snow.

Spring brought rain, lots of it. Our stream flooded several times after big storms.   After a whole bunch of rain in 24 hours, we even had the road in front of our house closed do to flooding.

After months of grey skies and rain, we couldn't wait for summer to begin.  It was slow to arrive.  In fact, as of July 18th, Seattle had experienced less than 50 minutes of summer (periods of time when it was over 80 degrees).  On June 12th, even Aniak, Alaska had better weather than us!

But, when summer finally arrived, it just didn't want to let us go.

The crazy thing is that although it's been the driest summer in Seattle in 90 years, we still have experienced 4" more rain so far this year than normal due to our record breaking wet Spring!

Yesterday, when it started raining, the kittens were pretty confused about what was going on.  I realized that they aren't old enough to have experienced rain.  Crazy!

With the coming of rain, it's finally time to put away the shorts and Capri pants and bring out the long sleeved shirts and sweaters.  We've burned off the dust on top of the wood stoves and are enjoying the joys of wood heat once again (freezing cold mornings, trying all day to get the house up to temperature, then roasting all evening when it's too warm in the house!)

Portland- Day 4

I woke up on Thursday and knew it was our last day in Portland.  Where did the time go?  Dode left extra early for a meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs but I was trapped in the hotel room until I could call in my produce order.  Once I finished that, I set out exploring.  My first stop was to bring as much as I could carry to the car.  The parking garage under the hotel had closed the night before so we'd had to move our car to another garage a block over.  It was a bit of a hassle carrying a cooler and a bunch of bags down the sidewalk but I managed.

I set off for Voodoo Donuts.  When people visit Seattle, they head to the Pike Place Market.  When people visit Portland, they head to Voodoo Donuts.  I'd read that sometimes the wait for a donut can last an hour.

The sign out front.

Stained glass windows featuring some of their donuts.

The box is a work of art.  It says, "Good things come in pink boxes"

I got there a little after 9:00 am and walked right in.  I'd read their menu offerings online before going so I quickly selected my dozen donuts.  The music was blaring, the employees were tattooed and pierced, it was in interesting place.   We didn't have any donuts until we got home that night.  I had a part of the Memphis Mafia, a banana fritter drizzled with peanut butter, chocolate, peanuts and chocolate chips.

source

                 Warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds, it was really good!

Anastaya liked the voodoo donut, filled with raspberry jelly.  Isaac liked the bacon maple bar.

After buying the donuts, I had to walk the half mile back to the car carrying my heavy box of donuts.  I wondered how many calories I was toting and felt like I was giving my biceps a small workout.  With the donuts safely back in the car, I turned around and headed back the way I'd just come.  Why the backtracking?  I didn't want to carry donuts around all day.  I  headed over to the Lan Su Chinese Garden.

I spent an hour in the garden and would have lingered longer if other adventures weren't calling to me. If I lived in Portland, I would definitely have a yearly membership to this peaceful oasis in the middle of the city.  The garden takes up an entire block and is walled on all sides.  The only way to see it is to pay your $9.50 and head inside.    It was another place that I visited where I thought Elizabeth would be a perfect companion.

vistas beyond vistas

example of a "leak" window

The Chinese are masters at drawing the eye.  Each area of the garden is divided into "rooms" with peek-a-boo views through "leak" windows (windows which allow the view to leak through) into the next room.  You just keep wanting to explore and see what is next. 

All the pathways were works of art

A glimpse  of the city beyond the garden.

I regretfully left the Chinese garden behind and headed for Cacao for a chocolate treat.  I chose their drinking chocolate flight which has three cups of drinking chocolate: dark chocolate, cinnamon dark chocolate and spicy dark chocolate.  The spicy dark chocolate was my favorite.

Three tiny cups of goodness.

I put my debit card and a quarter there so you could get an idea of their size.

We learned a new word in Portland, a "flight".  I had to look it up.  A flight is an assortment of small tastes of the same kind of food item, just different varieties.

 I sat at a window savoring each sip and watched the world go by.  I liked it so much that I had to grab another cup at a satellite store near our hotel later in the day before we left Portland, this time with Dode at my side.  I took a drink and sighed with contentment.  Dode took a drink and said, "Well, you could pay me to drink it, but the price would need to be high."  I didn't feel that way.  To me,  it was happiness in a glass.

After I finished my tasty treat, I walked over to Powell's book store to browse their extensive shelves.  Where usually a store will have a small shelf on a topic, Powell's has an entire section.  They have the used and new books mingled together which I like.  The bookstore takes up an entire block.

I spent most of my time at my favorite area, memoirs.  I'd looked for biographies on the map with at least fifty different categories listed and couldn't find them anywhere.  I asked an employee at one of the many help desks where the biographies are.  I was told they are distributed throughout the store by subject.  I told him I was looking for the ordinary people writing about their lives.  He told me to try the self help section.

a whole section for memoirs!

Powell's was another stop where I would have happily spent more time but the day was passing us by.  Dode finished his conference and met me at Powell's.  He stayed to browse for a while and then we headed over to a food cart "pod" for lunch.  A pod is a grouping of food carts.  The food carts we visited ringed a city block.  We walked all the way around, checking everything out, before deciding what we'd have.  It's at times like this that I wish Dode and I had compatible taste buds so we could each order something and share.  He got fish and chips.  I got Indian food.

so many choices.....

my lunch

Dode's lunch

Once we stuffed ourselves, we headed to the light rail station and did the tourist thing of riding it to the end of the line.  When I was at Washington Park on Monday, I saw that the light rail went under the park.  I saw that train station for the park was directly under the park and learned that the station is the deepest transit station in the US and the 3rd deepest in the world.  I wanted a chance to use that station!  The tunnel the transit passes through under the park is almost three miles long.  The station was worth visiting.  They have a core sample along the wall.  They tell you how old each layer of earth is and what was happening at that time in the earth's history.  They have a unique way of helping you know which train heads east and which heads west.  The trains going east are in the yellow tunnel because the sun rises in the east.  The trains going west were in the red tunnel, into the setting sun.

elevation at Washington Park Train Station

elevation at the surface

Proof that we made it to the end of the line!

After the train, our visit was coming to an end.  We drove away from the downtown area for the last time.  We made a detour to the other side of the river so I could visit Portland's vegan mini mall.  It was underwhelming.  I don't think Dode and I are the target demographic!

Four stores lined up along the street: grocery store, tattoo parlor, clothing store, bakery.  I stopped at the grocery store to see if they carried any vegan tasties I've been missing out on.  I picked up vegan feta and white chocolate peanut butter  (health food, right?).  We got some cookies at the bakery and headed for home, right in the heart of Portland rush hour traffic.   As we were waiting our turn to approach the I-5 onramp, I saw this....

I saw a lot of signs like this around Portland.  (I could have used one at home!  I once crashed my bike going over the train tracks that cross the Centennial Trail.  I banged up my knee pretty well.)   Maybe I should buy one to install and put an "in honor of" plaque underneath it!)  It truly is a bike friendly city.  The downtown streets had more bicycles and transit vehicles than personal vehicles.  Many streets had designated bike lanes.  There were bike racks everywhere.  We saw people biking morning, noon, and night.

We got home around 8:15 pm, just as my mom and Greg (who were helping the children for the evening and getting the house back in order for us) were leaving.  We forced a donut on Greg and came home to lots of hugs and tattling on each other.  The best part of a trip!

Elizabeth made us a welcome home card as big as her heart.  Her message to us, "We missed you so much that we barely could sleep and eat.  We're happy you're home.  PS.  The bigger the card, the greater the love."

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Portland.  It went by too fast!  I loved exploring new area, visiting parks and museums, and being subject to only myself from 8:00 am-5:00 pm.  Portland is a very vegan friendly place and I loved trying different things.  I also indulged in too much non vegan food.  By Wednesday night, I had a very sad tummy which lasted all night and into the next morning.  Some of the vegan food I had was wonderful but everything seemed to be based around grains and protein with a sprinkling of veggies thrown on.  I usually eat about 70-80% vegetables with just a little grains and protein (and then I follow it up with something sweet!).  I started craving veggies in a big way.  I woke up Friday morning in my own bed and my first thought was, "Veggies!"  Good thing the produce co-op is soon so I can replenish my stock.

my lunch, a huge pile of vegetables with homemade balsamic and basil dressing and my new "feta" cheese (looks like feta, tastes like nothing!)