We have misplaced a pair and a half of Wesley’s gloves. He didn't want to wear just one glove. Right after I took this picture, he agreed to wear a pink pair of Lydia’s gloves. 
We gave Lydia a tractor but she wasn't interested in it. She just wanted me to hold her. Maybe she was too bundled up. 
Baby Colten was doing some snow plowing of his own. He loved crawling around in the snow!
Once I had both kids situated at the counter, I tried to take some photos. I missed Lydia's mischievous look.
Apparently she wanted a turn at dumping. She dumped the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. That was not how the recipe suggested doing it, but the Peanut Streusel Bread still turned out really yummy (even with substituting cashews for peanuts in the streusel).
Even the fallen trees looked beautiful in the snow.
I took the kids out to walk in the snow. We don't have a sled because it hasn't really snowed here for several years.
We are blessed to get a lot of hand-me-downs from one of my dear friends. Lydia was all set for the snow with snow boots, bibs, and matching jacket. I don't know if it was all the extra clothes or if the snow was really hard for her to walk in but she kept wanting me to carry her. In this photo she is saying, "I need carries Mommy. Don't take my picture. I need carries."
I carried her a little bit and then put her down. Wesley went back to help her and hold her hand. Most of the time he is really sweet.
Lydia wanted me to take her picture without Wesley which resulted in this:
Which finally led to this:
Which led to this:
Did I mention that we went out at naptime? Thankfully she recovered until she fell down again. 
When we got home I gave the kids hot chocolate. First I heated the water in the microwave and then I added the chocolate then I added ice cubes. Yes, I need to improve my technique. 
In addition to the moonbounces and giant slides, there is a toddler room with cool toys, a tunnel, and this fun seesaw.
Lydia fell asleep on the way out there and she took a little while to wake up and get out of a grumpy mood. I had to carry her up the ladders/steps at first but then she discovered a moonbounce that was just like the two we had for our neighborhood parties. This moonbounce has the same type of ladder and slide but it is smaller than the giant slides. She must have remembered the ones from our neighborhood parties; she warmed up to it very quickly and made multiple trips up and down by herself.
After the moonbounce slide, she was ready to climb up another ladder. She worked her way back through the middle of this thing by crawling under the obstacles and then she climbed up the ladder which is behind the slide. 
Here she comes!
After that, she was ready to climb up another big ladder. I am right behind because I didn't realize that she could do it by herself.
I went down first so I could take a picture of her coming down. She did this over and over by herself. At one point, one of my friends commented that the kids looked like little caterpillars climbing the ladder. I said, "That is because Lydia is holding up the line." She is so little that it took her longer to climb up. It was really cute and thankfully the bigger kids just waited behind her.
Before we left, she had several trips up and down the first giant slide. She climbed up the ladder by herself but you can see that she was holding up the line.
I am glad she enjoyed it.
Here is Wesley zooming down. He got several time outs for going down head first. He is such a daredevil. I also didn't get many pictures of him because he was going up and down so fast and I had to keep a closer eye on Lydia.
After being there over an hour and a half, our time was up. Wesley was not happy about the fact that we had to leave. He screamed and cried, "I don't want to leave! I don't want to leave!" the entire time it took us to put on our shoes and get our coats on. Yes, I gave him the warnings - you have three more times to slide, one more time to slide.
Later, Chris did a little bench press workout.
We got there at a little before 1:00 and there was a huge line to check in. We got our wristbands for the water park but we were unable to get into our room until after 4:00. After about two and a half hours at the water park the kids were ready for break. We were pleasantly surprised that we were assigned a room with bunk beds. Lydia refused the pack-n-play and insisted on sleeping in the lower bunk while Wesley had the upper bunk. The bunk beds were kind of a trial run because we plan to get bunk beds for them when Lydia transitions out of the crib.
At the Lodge, you are paying for the water park. The only way you can use the water park is to reserve a hotel room. You can use the water park starting at 1:00 the day you check in and all day the day you are checking out (I think). The rooms aren't the nicest and the place is rather loud, but it did get quiet during quiet hours. If you are a light sleeper like me, pack your earplugs. 
When it was so cold last week, I kept thinking, "It is 84 degrees at Great Wolf!" 
Here are the friends who went with us to Great Wolf - Leslie, Gabriele, and Sofije. Steve and Chris were riding the Howlin' Tornado when I took this photo. Leslie and I had a turn on the Tornado also. It was pretty fast. This is the only waterslide that Wesley didn't ride - he didn't meet the height requirement.
Jody (Chris' coworker) and Melissa and Layton were also there. Wesley and Layton were very excited to see each other. It was Melissa who gave me the idea to go to Great Wolf yesterday.
Lydia and Wesley loved all the waterslides they went on. This is one of the little kid slides.
Here is Wesley going down a body slide by himself. (Lydia didn't do these slides.) Yesterday after Wesley and I climbed up the nets, we got drenched by the big bucket, that dumps out 1,000 gallons of water, as we were waiting in line for this slide. Today, the line was shorter so we didn't have to stand in the danger zone.
After three hours at the waterpark, Lydia fell asleep and slept for about an hour. During her nap, Wesley and I rode the waterslides again so Chris could take photos of us while he held Lydia. We didn't get a chance to take photos of her on the bigger slides. 
Wesley and Lydia both loved the tube waterslides. We rode in figure 8 inner tubes. Wesley sat on my feet and legs because he was too short to sit on the tube and hold onto the handles. Lydia basically rode in Chris' lap. She was the smallest/youngest child we saw on these slides, but she loved it. The first time down, Chris was afraid she was scared but then he heard her say, "Fun!" Wesley also enjoyed these slides when we went a couple of weeks before he turned two. 
They also enjoyed the family raft ride where we all rode in on big round tube. While waiting for this ride you really get blasted with the heat that comes out of the pipes at the ceiling. After you get really good and toasty, the water on the slide is a big shock. The kids didn't complain. 
The kids got some exercise chasing each other through the tunnels and then they sat quietly and "read" books to each other.
Wesley called the teepee a pyramid even though I tried to explain that it was a teepee. 
When Chris got home I asked him how much he paid for this set. It was $30 at the local warehouse store. I think we are getting our money's worth. And it is helping to keep our house sane this weekend. 
Everything seems over-the-top in Vegas. Here is Chris waiting for an elevator at our hotel. The black wall behind him is leather. This set of elevators goes straight to floors 30 -63; there is another set of elevator for floors 5 to 30. Actually there are no floors numbered 40 to 49. When I asked about this I was told, "In Asian cultures the number four is bad luck, especially 44, so their are no floors in the 40s."
This isn't the best picture, but I loved the color scheme in the cafe at the Encore. The curtains and black, white, and green. The seat at the bottom of the photo is hot pink and there was a black and white pillow on it. The chandeliers are a light green color.
This picture was taken in the shopping mall at The Palazzo (the newer resort that is part of the Venetian). It is beautifully decorated.
I always feel like a bit of an imposter when we stay at the nice resorts in Vegas. Only because these places make the bulk of their money from the casinos, thus the rooms aren't as expensive as they would be in other cities, (and then this time the prices were reduced in an attempt to attract more visitors) are we able to afford to stay in such nice hotels. But I am not complaining;I do enjoy staying in those fancy places! 
