Danee Made a Friend

Danee made the most of her layover at LAX Friday evening, befriending and completely bewitching a kindly older woman, who scoped us out from across the waiting area, and moved over and asked if she could play with our baby... They were instant best friends!



Danee's new friend was named Samena, and she very quickly learned that our baby girl's hands are faster than the eye... or even the eyeglasses!



Little Babykins had slept about 20 minutes on the flight to LAX, so she was WAY overdue for a nap... Samena had the magic touch, and after several minutes of playtime, it was naptime.



Naptime lasted through the rest of our layover...



...and then we had to put a frighteningly prompt finish to it, when I realized that our tickets were wrong - instead of our flight leaving from gate 71B (where this whole story took place), it was leaving from gate 71A! Thankfully they're next-door-neighbors, but by the time we realized it, our plan was nearly all boarded so we barely made it on! Danee was much happier after her nap and playtime, and Cindy and I were recharged after a break from travel-parenting.

Thanks Samena!!

Our Baby's A Little Fishie!

Day Two of our Lakeside Getaway was also our only full day... And we made the very most out of that day, including taking Little Miss Babykins down to the lake so she could splash around. She loved it from the moment she got into her suit!



The lake was the perfect temperature for swimming, and Danee seemed to agree. She loved it! She kicked and splashed and kicked some more, much to the delight of her mommy, daddy, brothers and sisters!

Lakeside Getaway

I wish I could take credit for this picture, but alas, I wasn't anywhere near the camera when Ellysa took it! Nothing like a happy surprise when going through the memory card at the end of the day!

Anyway, to make up for the complete lack of blog love this week, here's a "Baker's Dozen Plus" from our first day at the Brinkerhoff Lake House Too on beautiful Mason Lake, courtesy of Richard and Dorothy Brinkerhoff, two of our very favorite people in the universe!

The kids had a blast swimming...



That's Zoe jumping into the water. You may remember her from several Puddle Jumper posts... The day care was officially closed this week, but Zoe's such a great helper and all-around-awesome kid that she's really not impacted by such trivial things as daycare schedules... to the extent that she even came with us on our getaway!





Kaylee posing for her closeup...



Andy getting some serious air in his...



...chic pink tube...



Followed closely by Tyler...



Goofin' Off!



More Goofin'



Can't goof off too much when you're on vacation!



This is destined to be Andy's new Facebook pic...



The kids kept swimming well after our side of the lake had fallen into shadows. In fact, they kept swimming well after dark!



With a brief break for dinner...

Meanwhile, Danee got some quality snuggle time in with Grandma and Grandpa - Cindy's parents are up for a visit and couldn't refuse the offer to chill at the lake with us!



So there's your Baker's Dozen (assuming you started counting after the introduction) and here's the Plus!



Spin, Kaylee, Spin!!

Labor Day Road Trip!

Augtober continues to set new levels of disappointment here on the lower wet side. There have been one or two days of great, warm weather, but that has just amplified how horrible the rest of the month has been.

So we're packing up and heading east again! Kennewick, here we come! Yes Mom, we'll hit Pasco too... but we're sleeping in Kennewick so they get top billing.

Looking at the weather forecast, they'll be having strangely cool weather for the end of August, but it's still a good 15-20 degrees warmer than what we've been putting up with, so it will be a very welcome change.

And not only that, but....

Tomorrow Night, Somewhere in the Greater Tri-Cities Area...

Mike & Cindy Brinkerhoff, The Donald and Lisa Sorenson, and anyone else who loves a good song sung badly will hit the mic hard in the ultimate show of labor day weekend goofiness!



I'll be sure to take actual pictures for an actual update after the actual event!

We're looking VERY forward to seeing everyone over on the right side this weekend!

Day Trippin'

This past weekend, I found myself surrounded by girls... We'd originally thought that Cindy and I would be "home alone" but it turned out that it was more like "Mike, Alone in a Sea of Estrogen."

Wanting to show the ladies a good time, we decided to take advantage of the fact that Augtober had vanished and let a couple days of August weather through, and headed for a day trip out to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula.

The Plan: Fun in the Sun! Hit up the beach at Fort Worden State Park and eat some good food along the way.

The first stop for good food in Port Townsend in the Summertime, is a little old fashioned hot dog stand called Dogs A-Foot. This business has been there forever, is open only during the spring and summer, and is THE best place to get a hot dog that I know of. They have a huge variety of sausages that they serve up on lightly toasted buns, with just about every topping you can think up - even bacon!

With pleasantly full tummies, it's off to the beach, right??

No, didn't I mention that I was travelling with four women? Well, those women noticed lots of interesting things (ie: STORES) as we were driving up the main street in town to get to our lunch spot. So the beach would have to wait, there were clothes to peruse!!

Normally, I can find ways to entertain myself in the quirky little clothing shops that girls are so magnetically attracted to. But this one just didn't seem to have anything for a guy to do... Of course, there was another thing calling me OUT of the store, almost as loudly as the girls were called IN.

As we were walking toward the store, a street musician was setting up right outside the door, and something about the way he looked made me want to catch a few songs. He was just starting his first song when I went back outside. And it was great!! I mean, this guy could be one of those success stories you hear about, where the guy toils on the streets for years with no intention of moving up, until being discovered by a bigshot in the music industry. He was really good. And his money jar was an old "Chopped Ocean Clams" can, which just fit the seaside town perfectly. After the first song, I ran back into the store. Cindy was only about 1/3 of the way around the clothing racks, so I figured I had time.

I needed the camera!!

So I ran to the van, grabbed the camera, and as I was walking back up the sidewalk.... Oops! Cindy's looking around for me, thinking I'd abandoned them! She'd also found the cutest shirt ever made, and didn't have her purse... I was needed!

After the purchase, I finally got the pic of the outstanding street musician...



Cindy slipped a dollar into his can for to cover my taking a picture, and I was happy to contribute because he really was great at what he was doing.

One or two (or three or four) stores later, we finally returned to the van so we could head down to the beach!

As we got close, the evidence started to build that yes, there was a beach nearby!



A little further, and we were looking at this:



And finally, THIS:



It didn't take long for the Baywatch Patrol to start up...



Once we got our blankets set up and laid in the sun for a few minutes, Cindy decided that it was hot enough to justify a dip in the sound to cool off. Only thing is, cooling off in Puget Sound is like cooling off in a sub-zero blast freezer. She got in to her thighs, did an about face, and practically walked on the water to get back up to the beach!



I got in about to my ankles. It felt like millions of icy needles shooting through my skin, bones and nerves. That is not what I call fun. Or refreshing. Plus, I really like hot weather, so I stayed dry on the beach, soaking up the sun!



The younger girls, of course, haven't developed their nervous systems enough to know when water is painfully cold, so they swam the afternoon away.

The surprise of the day was Ellysa, who has bragged about swimming in ice water with glacier chunks floating in it, said that yesterday's water was too cold. Her cousin Chelsey did NOT accept that answer.



Always looking for the next big thing, Kaylee explored the fashionable options surrounding fresh seaweed.



Cindy got hot again and decided to brave the arctic chill one more time... which made Kaylee SO happy...



The girls took a (minor) break in the swimming action to dig a Jacuzzi... I don't even WANT to know if there were any bubbles involved... ewwwww...



Then they all conspired to bury Kaylee...



During all the digging and burying, Chelsey found a candidate for dinner.



I thought it looked a little small, and was still kicking, so I threw it into the water to grow some more. Maybe next year we'll meet again, over cocktail sauce. But probably not.

We had dinner at the Pizza Factory, and then headed back to the other end of town. Across the street from Dogs A-Foot, is Elevated Ice Cream.



Homemade and delicious!! And every summer, their feature flavor is Local Raspberry, made from - can you guess? - local raspberries. I had to get a scoop of that, along with their Lemon Custard. Heaven on a Sugar Cone, my friends!



As I told the order-taking-girl at Pizza Factory, it was "A near-perfect day at the beach, followed by pizza - that's about as good as it gets!"

This coming weekend, Cindy and I are taking a parents only camping trip - on the wet side... I am hoping and praying for August instead of Augtober... Either way we're determined to make the most of it!

Great Wolf is Great!

We have returned from our adventure at the Great Wolf Lodge Waterpark, and we all had a great time! Of course, any family vacation should have a moment of review when it's over, and that's even more so when the vacation took place at a location that's only been open for three weeks... So for many - if not most - of you, here's the first hands-on review of the Great Wolf Lodge in good ol' Grand Mound, WA!

First, a little about the structure of the lodge/park. It's not like most waterparks, where you simply show up, pay your admission and get inside. This waterpark is firmly attached to the hotel, and is only open to hotel guests. This has both good and bad aspects:

Bad:

• The hotel ain't cheap. Our room was $348 for one night, plus tax. That did include waterpark access for all six of us though.
• Like I said above, being linked to the hotel makes impulse visits nearly impossible.

Good:

• Since the park is only open to hotel guests, they have a very clear maximum capacity, and they have built the park to accommodate everyone. When we were there, the hotel was completely booked, and yet the waterpark didn't feel overly crowded. We've certainly battled far worse crowds at Wild Waves.
• Although our hotel bill was $348, that included waterpark access for all six of us. Park access runs $30 per person, so that was $180 in access built into our room fee. That brings the base room fee down to a much-more reasonable $168.
• This is a hotel that was designed for families. And not just the "family of four" that most "family" things are geared towards.. Every room in the hotel is a suite that sleeps from 6-8 people.
• Finally, the hotel is very nice. Part of that comes from being brand new, but it's clearly built with quality in mind. Friday night as we went to sleep, I didn't hear ANY noise from either neighboring room, or the floor above. And the showerhead was actually high enough on the wall that I didn't have to stoop down to get under it and take a shower! (it shouldn't be such a big deal, but it seems like most hotel showers were designed for unrealistically short people)

So there is, in my opinion, more good than bad to this arrangement. So on with the review!

We got there at 1:00 pm. Officially, check in isn't until 4, but they let you start using the park at 1 even if your room isn't ready yet. Ours WAS ready though, so we got to go right up, get into our suits, and hit the water! Our 5th floor room had pretty good views. Here's the main thing we saw:

That's the same funnel slide I'd seen from the freeway four months ago, but seeing it from the inside was WAY nicer! Clearly the ground around it has been cleared for some yet-to-be-announced purpose, so I'll let the fact that it's not very pretty slide... for now... Here is another look out of our window:

Between the foreground trees and the background hill there are several lanes of Interstate, and a couple directions of train tracks. But we heard absolutely zero noise from either, another testament to how well built the hotel is.

Okay, so enough of the room - the whole reason you go there, is for the indoor water park!

Here are Ellysa, Kaylee, Tyler and Ellysa's best friend Karisa upon first hitting the waterpark. Behind them is the "fort" that most such parks have, with tons of squirting water everywhere, and a 5,000 gallon bucket on top that dumps every few minutes. Normally, I hate the fort. Despise it. Because I HATE the feeling of getting pelted with ice water, which is what it feels like at Wild Waves. But here, since the temperature in the park is 85 degrees every day, the water was downright pleasant! In fact, it was nice enough that Cindy and I decided to partake in the magic of a 5,000 gallon shower.

There's the bucket being filled...

Here's us happily waiting for our impeding drenching... Notice that Cindy's hair was still dry, so it was her first taste of water that day!

And what a taste! It comes down with so much force that even if you're standing far enough away to not get wet, there's a blast of air that's almost equally stunning.

Now that we were good and wet, I wanted to stand under this cool mushroom/rain thing.. It's a big metal mushroom that has water pouring down around it, but is dry inside.

...hard to see through the wall of water...

Peek-A-Boo!

Lots of fun, but like the hotel, we didn't come here for a watershroom or a fort with a big bucket. We came to slide!!!

The slides are amazing. I'm sorely lacking in action pictures, because I don't have a waterproof camera case. But trust me. Amazing. Truly. That funnel slide you see from outside feels way bigger than it looks, when you're swooshing back and forth, heading for the exit at the bottom. You enter the big end of the funnel from a near-vertical drop that, even when you know it's coming, takes your breath away. At night time, the slide takes on a whole new dynamic because the entire ride is outside, and without the light of the sun, it's VERY similar to the new Space Mountain at Disneyland. Like Wild Waves' "Zooma Falls", the Howlin' Tornado uses the big yellow 4-person raft/tubes. But unlike "Zooma", you don't have to carry your own huge raft up all the stairs. They have this awesome contraption:

The lifeguard at the bottom puts your raft into the raft elevator, which carries it to the top for the next trip. SUCH a good idea! They also have some smaller, 1- or 2-person tube slides, where you do have to carry your own tube up the stairs. One of them was okay, but the other one was worth doing again and again and again. And we did.

They have a play pool with basketball hoops set up, and kids (and grownups too) playing water basketball... And there's a rope net over the pool at one point, with floating lilly pads that you can use to help you cross the bridge. Kaylee and Tyler were both victorious!


There's also a baby area that has its own mini fort (with little one gallon buckets that fill and dump... pretty cute) and small slides with nice warm bath temperature water. Nobody in our family needs that kind of area, so other than passing through on our way to the locker room, I didn't spend much time there.

But the Wave Pool was the best of its kind that I've ever encountered.

That's looking at the wave pool (with the watershroom on the left). Back by the canoe shop in the background, the water gets to be 5'6" deep. Every ten minutes the waves start up, and they are serious waves. On our first encounter, Cindy and I were in a double innertube, and got washed all the way to the shore. On future runs, I got better at beating the waves, but it takes a lot of effort, and it's kinda fun to get swept away. The kids had a blast and spent most of their non-sliding time here.

They keep the pool nice and clean too, clearly spelling out what they don't want you to do:

Finally, how do they enforce the "hotel guests only" policy at the park? Wristbands!

The white ones were simply pool passes. The blue one has an RFID tag, making it our room key, pool pass, "charge to room" device, and all around cool thing. I keep realizing that I left stuff out, like a teen lounge that had a free dance from 8:30-12:30 that Ellysa and Karisa thoroughly enjoyed... the grand lobby of the hotel has a clock tower that performs an audio-animatronic show:

And the buffet restaurant was good, but very expensive. Upon leaving, we decided that on our next visit, we'd drive half a mile down the road to the mom 'n' pop restaurant for dinner.

Final verdict? WIN! Everybody go play! Just don't expect to get off cheap.

If you'd like to see all of our pictures, click here!