Many Faces

Great Wolf Lodge

Tuesday morning, after family worship, Mom and Dad announced that we were going on a surprise vacation for the next two days to Great Wolf Lodge. We were given 90 minutes to get packed and ready to go. My first thoughts were about school - do I have enough of a grip on my school to take two days out of my week? However, Mom assured me she had taken care of that.

Then, as I was feeding Joy Anna breakfast an hour later, Dad came in from loading the car and said, "Danielle, go outside and greet your guest for the trip." I couldn't help but think "What?!"

When I went outside, there was my friend Molly. I was absolutely stoked. Until an hour before, I had absolutely no idea that we were going anywhere, and now we were going to a very fun water park with one of my good friends.

When we got to the water park, we found out some more of our good friends were there too. It turns out, it was home-school day at Great Wolf Lodge, so we saw a bunch of people we recognized.

Another thing we found out was that Dad purposely had us leave early (and get there before anyone else) so we could eat lunch at Five Guys. That would be dad. :-D

At Great Wolf Lodge, there were many different water slides and pools for different ages and heights. I suddenly felt a little nervous, hearing that one of the slides had a drop (!), so I started with the "easy" slides. One of them had double tubes so two people could ride at the same time.

Nathan and Promise coming off the tube water slide

 Nathan tried to encourage Molly and I to try out the "Howlin' Tornado" water slide, the one with the drop, but I decided to build up to it. I wasn't sure how to deal with a drop. Finally, after trying all the other slides, I agreed to ride the Tornado.

In reality, I was so scared, I could scarcely breath. Wild adventure is not usually my thing. The tube for the Tornado held four people, so Nathan, Molly, Grace, and I rode it together. Then the life guard purposely flipped the tube so I rode backwards. Thanks a lot, dude. There were many twists then suddenly the enclosed slide got dark. There was a light up ahead, which I could barely see because I was having to look over my shoulder.

Then suddenly we were dropping. I'd guess the drop was about five feet. I started screaming, "I'm going to die!" When the drop ended, we ended in an open area where the tube flew up the sides. I was certain we were going to fall out so I continued to scream, "I'm going to die!" Then as suddenly as the excitement started, it ended. And I was still alive.

And would you believe it? The Howlin' Tornado became my favorite ride! Though every time I rode it, I still screamed like there was no tomorrow on the drop. The funniest part about the ride was when I rode it with Isaac and his friend Luke. Luke can seems very calm and steady, not the type of person who would scream on a water slide. But I was wrong. The moment the slide started moving, he started screaming like a girl. I was laughing so hard, I almost forgot to scream. :-D

Another funny part was Grace. She didn't have her "ears" on, so she could hear nothing. Whenever we went down a water slide with her, she'd cackle like a maniac. It was hilarious. But she was a big dare devil (surprise, surprise) and her favorite ride was the Tornado also. Actually, she drove the life guards crazy because she wouldn't respond when they blew the whistle at her... Haha!

And now here's some pictures from our mini-vacation.

Decoration on the wall of the hotel room. I thought it was pretty cool.

Some creepy animatronic creatures in the lobby who put on a show...

Stuffed wolf.

I wanted to get a picture of the front of the Lodge, since it was really cool with a wolf on either side, but it was raining so I had to content myself with standing under the portico getting side profiles.

The kiddy fort. Joshua loved it! The bucket on the top would fill with water then dump everywhere. I stood under it once with about five other people, only to be surprised at how hard the water came down. Seriously? They could knock someone out with it! Ok, maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration... :-D

My little friend, Sophie. :-D

Depths of the Soul

Photo Update

Here's a quick photo update from January. It covers my birthday and mom's birthday.

Enjoy!

Staal likes my camera.

The white chocolate peppermint cheesecake we had for my birthday. It was yummy! :-D

Joy Anna's World

Tonight, Joy Anna took her first steps! And they were because she was walking to me. *big grin*

Also, during family devotions, Joshua was laying backwards on the couch so his head was where his feet should have been. Joy Anna got excited to see him, scooted over to where he was, smacked him across the face, laughed, and scooted off saying "Uh oh! Uh oh!" She's an absolute nut.

Yesterday, she discovered the joy of Cheerios. There's no going back now.

Anyway, she's an absolute hoot and everyone absolutely dotes on her. She's going to be one spoiled goose when she gets a little older!

You Know You're a Wilson When...

You Know You're a Wilson when...you can make a loaf of bread without consulting directions, yet have absolutely no idea how to make a pot of coffee.

You Know You're a Wilson when...a kissing scene plays across the TV and everyone looks away and says, "Ew!"

You Know You're a Wilson when...the wheat grinder breaks and all the kids under the age of 10 get excited since that means we get highly processed store bought bread.

You Know You're a Wilson when...you take up a whole row of seats at Church.

You Know You're a Wilson when...your pregnant mom's late in deciding to leave for the hospital and call the midwife.

You Know You're a Wilson when...you buy an ice cream cone and receive a lecture about how with the money you spent on that one dessert, you could have bought an entire quart of ice cream.

You Know You're a Wilson when...your whole family walks almost single-file down a side walk and look like they're a parade.

You Know You're a Wilson when...a lazy Saturday afternoon means working on left over school work instead of mulching or weeding.

You Know You're a Wilson when...you invent new verbs which make people look at you strange (ripsticking, saucing, cheesing, etc).

You Know You're a Wilson when...bats live in your attic.

You Know You're a Wilson when...it's nearly impossible to find a summer dress that will meet all the requirements.

You Know You're a Wilson when...you listen to your parents talk about what a guy must do in order to get Mom and Dad's permission to court you and you start to feel sorry for him...

You Know You're a Wilson when...all the animals in the house are either stupid or neurotic.

About the State of the Union Address

If I were Warren Buffet, I'd fire my secretary when she got home from the State of the Union Address.

You get the pink slip, my dear.

If you don't understand this, then go watch the 2012 State of the Union address. Barf!