Thursday, January 2nd - We used some of my bonus for working an extra shift on December 30th to surprise the kids and stay at the Gaylord Rockies. We managed to pack the suitcase and get it in the car without them noticing (except Jenna noticed her swimsuit was missing and she spotted the big bag of snacks that I packed). We told them to get in the car because we needed to go to IKEA (which we did), but Jenna had her suspicions. She wondered why we needed so many snacks to go to IKEA - sure enough, Kellen needed some snacks, but her suspicions were not assuaged. After IKEA, the plan was to eat an early dinner at Torchy's Tacos so once we checked into the hotel, we wouldn't have to take time away from swimming to eat. Another reason why she figured we didn't need so many snacks. She kept a journal of suspicions and clues which she pulled out and read to us when we got to the room. The hotel is near the Denver airport, so when she noticed the suitcase in the back and saw the signs for the airport, she was afraid that we were flying somewhere and that we hadn't packed what she would want packed. And, with her swimsuit missing, she thought we were flying to Texas to swim at the Keyes' house! They were pretty excited when we pulled into the hotel and the surprise was revealed!
After depositing our things in the room, we set out to explore the hotel. An ice rink, ice bumper cars, and ice tubing were set up outside. (We didn't do those this time.)
And inside the convention center there was Mistletoe Village with all kinds of lights and ICE! (More on that later.)
Everything was so beautiful with all the Christmas decorations still up. The big tree was so pretty.
The big orb lights would go up and down in different patterns - really fun!
There was a cool cave area where you could walk behind the waterfall.
And a pretty display in the middle of the revolving door.
After the initial exploring, we headed to the main event - the pool! The kids loved the two big slides. My favorite was the outside pool which was actually warmer than the indoor pool - you just had to survive the cold getting to and from. It was so cool to be swimming outside with steam rising up from the pool.
After almost three hours of swimming, we made use of the snacks I brought, then bundled up and went out to walk through path of lights.
Lots of lights and even some musical features.
The trees were so pretty with their color changing flowers and the present at the end made for a fun picture.
Back inside, we did some more exploring.
The giant screen of TVs, the giant fireplace, and giant stockings were pretty impressive. Kevin got a small pizza and the kids got a smoothie to go with the food I brought - late night snacks before bed - around 9:30pm.
Friday, January 3rd - The pool opened at 8:00 and we were there at 8:30 to soak in as much swimming as we could before check out time at 11:00 - I even tried the red slide a few times! Back to the room for the light breakfast we brought, to get ready, and packed up. But, there was one more surprise - ICE! Scenes from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer carved from more than two million pounds of colorful ice.
EVERYTHING is carved out of ice!
It was fascinating! And cold - 9 degrees!
Even slides made entirely of ice!
This tunnel was really cool!
It was so cold, that the kids' cameras "froze up" and wouldn't turn on. So, I took pictures of Kellen in front of each scene so he could take pictures of my pictures later. We were glad to have the parkas that everyone was required to wear and our hats and gloves that we brought from home!
This big scene was one of my favorites -so big you can't get it all in the picture at one time - Rudolph was cut off!
This last one was amazing too - a giant nativity scene of ice! They were right when they said most people spend only about 30 minutes in the exhibit - brrr! As fun as it was, that's about all we could enjoy as well! I was glad we had a buy one get one free coupon for our tickets because it's too cold to extend your time and get your money's worth!
One great thing about going after Christmas - the ICE! exhibit wasn't crowded at all and everything in the ICE! gift shop was 75% off! So it was easy to say yes to the snow globe souvenirs the kids wanted. We took pictures by the horse sculptures and by then we were hungry for lunch.
One last surprise - Casa Bonita! It was CROWDED and we didn't get seated until nearly 2:00 pm. Based on the food line, we were thinking we'd probably get seated in one of the back rooms, but to our surprise, we were seated right up front with a great view of the dives - probably the best seats we've ever had! I had been wanting to stay at the Gaylord Rockies since Kevin and I explored it a bit, this time last year. And I had heard about the ICE! exhibits at the Gaylord Texan over the past couple years, so when I heard about ICE! coming to the Gaylord Rockies, I had really been wanting to go. I'm so thankful for the bonus from work that allowed us to do this and it was so fun to make it a surprise!
Saturday, January 4th - Back to work for me. Papa and Kevin took Jenna, Madilyn, & Kellen to the ice skating rink in Acacia Park downtown. I was sad to miss out as I've always heard this is fun, but we've never been.
Sunday, January 5th - Church then our last day all together before Kevin started back with teacher days on Monday and Tuesday. We enjoyed a gift card lunch together at Chili's, then some shopping (looking for a few furniture items to complete the basement), then back home to get things ready for the week.
Monday, January 6th - Laundry, putting Christmas decorations away, a few errands, and bedroom cleaning day. Not so much fun in the process, but a great feeling to have things in order. Also, we took Kellen for his 9 year old well check and found out that we haven't taken him to the pediatrician since his 6 year old well check! I knew that his immunizations have been up to date, and December is such a crazy month! I knew that I forgot to take him last year, but didn't realize it had been so long - time flies!
Tuesday, January 7th - Last day before school - Papa, Mima, Jenna, Madilyn, and I went to lunch and then for the last free skating day of the break. Then, Jenna had an orthodondist appointment at 4:00. Kevin met us there and it's right across the street from Chuy's. So, we had to have dinner there for one last fling before school. Back to work and school for all four of us on Wednesday January 8th. We had such a great break!
