Nate's B-day Celebration

" Look how fast I am dude!"
The kiddie pool and playground area

Our b-day BOY!!

The kids love riding the big floating snake.

The Gang is ready to hit the pool!

Nate and his magic wand.
The Snelders family in Washington

Finally--Mom got in the pool!

Great Wolf Lodge Trip:

It has become tradition in our family to do a trip when our kids turn 5. When Britt turned 5 we went to Disneyland. So we have been planning to go again when Nate turned 5 but as his birthday approached he didn't seem too excited to go. So we started thinking of other options and when we showed Nate the pictures on his cousins blog of their trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Washington it didn't take him long to decide. This little boy LOVES swimming and so this was the perfect trip for him. We left early Friday morning and arrived at the hotel at 4:00p.m. We were lucky enough to meet Craig, Julie, and their boys and share a 2 room suite! (Thanks Craig for getting us a deal!) So after a quick dinner the kids couldn't find their swimming suits fast enough! So we got in a couple of hours of swimming before the kids were done and wanted to go to story time in the hotel lobby. After story time, Nate and his cousins used the magic wand we got at the "Magic Quest" store to wander around the hotel and make creatures come to life and open treasure chests. Harry Potter...eat your heart out! It was pretty cool!! After traveling and so much action Nate fell asleep almost before his head touched the pillow. Saturday morning we were back at the pool by 9:30 a.m. and swam until about 3:30 p.m. It was a blast. (Hopefully nobody that works at Great wolf will read this next part of my story) Nate was the only one of the kids that was too short to ride the big waterslides so towards the end of our 2nd day I slipped Britts bracelet off and put it on Nate and we took him down the big slides a few times. (Don't judge me--Nate missed qualifying by 1/2 inch). Can we just say...He LOVED the fast slides and it was totally worth the dishonesty. Britt almost made a scene when I asked her for her bracelet by saying "No Mommy, that's CHEATING!! And then again when I went to take Britt down after she had given her bracelet to Nate, the lifeguard questioned us about her missing bracelet and she looked at me in fear. Luckily she kept her lips sealed and after a quick measurement she was allowed to ride down...and go get a new bracelet. Wheww...that was close. OK, so I'm a bad Mom but if you saw the smile on Nate's face after his 1st time down ANYONE else would have done the same thing. Totally worth it! What a great time we had and a HUGE thank you to Craig & Julie for helping us make it happen!! I don't know if anyone will notice but we hardly ever go anywhere without Craig & Julie...and we are more than OK with that!