Other than paying resort prices for food (think $10.99 for a frozen pizza) and having to endure a 90-minute tour/sales pitch for a timeshare at the resort, I am happy to report that despite multiple hiccups and glitches in our well-laid plans, the kids had a fantastic weekend and were pretty much oblivious to said hiccups and glitches.
We spent three hours at the water park, which was Marley's first experience with swimming pools and hot tubs. She loved it! It's hard to believe that this little girl was once so incredibly terrified of the bathtub that she would stand in the bathroom, still fully-clothed and scream at the top of her lungs as soon as I started to fill the tub. I admit to only giving her 2-3 baths the entire two weeks we were in China, and we had to bathe her in an infant tub for the first couple of weeks home. She has come a long way baby! She loved being in the water, and felt comfortable enough to repeatedly push my hands away when I tried to hold onto her as she walked along the seat in the 4 foot deep hot tub. She did have two moments which made her relative inexperience with water apparent--both involved her seeing something interesting on the bottom of the kiddie pool and deciding to take a closer look by just bending over and sticking her whole head under water. A little scary for me, but she came up laughing, so I guess this summer at the pool should be quite interesting. I have to add that she finished the night of swimming with a diaper full of edamame poop (so incredibly gross, I just had to mention it) and a case of hives. She appears to have pretty sensitive skin, which the orphanage director mentioned on the day after we got her. I'm guessing the chlorine and chemicals were too harsh for her skin, but regardless, it all cleared up within an hour or two of being out of the pool. Dave and the boys did all of the big slides and tubes, and went whole hog the whole time, as usual. They are really lucky to have a dad like Dave who never sits on the sidelines, has lots of staying power, and encourages them to make the most of their time. He is perfectly content to be running up the stairs with them and following them down the slides, with his reward being the crazy, insanely happy grins on their faces. Keller has a decent gouge in his knee and a badly bruised shin--evidence of a good day in the life of Keller. Casey was so worn out that he fell asleep on the way back to the condo and I had to carry him (all 42 pounds) up the stairs, during which time he gave me a big sloppy kiss and mumbled "I wuv you." Too cute.
Here are Keller and Casey, being oh-so-patient as they waited for Dave & I to get ready.
Marley had a lot of fun hopping around in these hanging swing contraptions:
I just think this picture is funny because it looks like she is plotting to catch one of the water droplets that is frozen in the picture!
Marley got to try out the adorable monogrammed ladybug cover-up from the Canady family. I swear she's in there . . .
See, there she is!
Keller cheesing it up after swimming
We had three happy, but worn out kiddos (and two very worn out parents) on the way back to our condo
Marley was too small to do any snow tubing. She needed to be 36" tall, and is coming in at around 30-31" right now. Maybe next year? But maybe not, I suppose. She's a peanut. I took Keller & Casey to hit the tube hill for an hour, then Dave brought Marley over and we switched. Keller was in his normal dare-devil, thrill-seeker form and was almost insistent that he would be riding his tube down the snowboard terrain park rather than the tube area. And when it was his turn, he had the friendly guy at the top whip his tube so it spun in circles the whole way down. Casey and I went down with our tubes tied together the first time and it was so cool to look back at him and watch his face while we flew down the hill. There was definitely a bit of apprehension there, but also evidence of a healthy dose of adrenalin.
Casey was sooo excited to go backwards on the tube! I had gone down ahead of him, but before I went, I asked the guy at the top to try to give him a really gentle spin to get him moving in the wrong direction, so to speak.
Waiting for his turn . . .
Flying backwards down the hill. . .
Love it when a plan comes together. . .
Here's what happens when I say "Smile nicely, please" . . .
And here's what happens when I say "I'm serious, guys. Smile NOW."
And here's what happens when I say "Oh nevermind, I guess I just won't have any nice pictures of you guys to look at when I'm old"
(A little guilt never hurt anyone, right?)Marley got to ride around in her fancy new Kelty carrier (we got rid of the old one when "we" were so sure we weren't having any more kids!)
Here's a shot of Keller from today's snow day. Casey was asleep with a raging fever, Marley was napping, and so Keller and I set off into the wild white yonder. I think I may have knocked my brain a tad loose trying to show Keller how to use this snowboard-type sled we bought last year, but it was good for laughs anyway.
I'm off to dive back into my book about the Johnstown Flood. I have never had much interest in history, but am truly fascinated by all that went down before, during, and after the flood. I grew up in the J-town area, but hardly knew anything about the flood until something sparked an interest in me recently. This is the third book I've read on the subject in the past two weeks, and I've ordered the DVD of the PBS documentary on it. I guess that makes me a member of a very small and as yet unnamed club of Johnstown Flood junkies.
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