The rest of our holiday break.....

Christmas was very low key and quiet.  We actually woke up to about 8 inches of snow.
Then the day after Christmas my mom and I headed with the boys to an indoor waterpark/hotel for 2 days.  I know by southern standards this was nothing, but the boys sure had fun.  We had a few friends come and join us for a bit.

There was all kinds of dripping/spraying water in this corner, which I think was Joseph's favorite.

Joseph realized he was just (like right at 45 inches, if not 44.99 inches) at the height where he could go down the tube slide with an adult.  I attempted this slide earlier in the evening with Jacob and it made me dizzy, so I let Granny go.  Look at the smiles!

The boys crack me up when they wear their masks......

This was the 'funnest' challenge.  To see if you could get across all 4 floating lilly pads without falling in.  I even gave it a go (I dropped because it was bothering my shoulder) but it was harder than it looked.

This kiddo made it all the way across multiple times without using the above rope.  Then I started challenging him to do it with only one arm (which he did) and only one leg (he did not quite complete this one).

This kid had it mastered...and no life jacket.  I consider him officially a swimmer, although he can still freak out and let his legs sink...then he forgets how to recover and start swimming again.

Another mask picture :-)

One day we took a break from the water park and went to a new sporting goods store that was unbelievable.  One corner had a climbing area...

They had a laser gun range that the boys enjoyed shooting at the targets.

They had an amazing animal mount in the middle of the store that you could walk all the way around.  The animals were arranged based on habitat.

There were several photo op spots for kids to 'jump into' the action.

(The shirt Joseph is wearing has been one of my all time favorite shirts and am pretty sure that it has been worn by all of my kids.  It is so true...it says "I tried to be good but I got bored".

There were some sport simulators....Joseph tried his hand at basketball.

There was a life size statue of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln that moved and spoke.  Looked so life like.  (You can see the ferris wheel in the background)

This was a cool photo op, where you held up a particular piece of board.  Then there was a camera of sorts that would 'read' the label on the board and the animal would then appear in the photo.  You obviously could not take an actual picture, so you could email to yourself from within the store.  (The more I think of it, what a creative way for the store to get your email address....)

I loved all of the mountain lion photos....

This was a 16 chair ferris wheel, that the entire store was built around.

We spent 4 hours in the store!  The boys really enjoyed it.  We even ate in the cafeteria, where we had italian gelato for the first time.

For New Years Eve we met up with 4 other families at 6:30pm for some outdoor ice skating.  We took our fire pit and marshmallows and several other families brought snacks.  It was a lot of fun, except that the temperature was zero.  None of us knew how the kids would do, but once they got out there and moving around, they lasted 2 hours.  The adults stayed close to the fire and talked.  Then we rang in the new year quietly watching movies.