Trains & Great Wolf Lodge

Trains, trains, TRAINS!

Anyone who knows my dad knows that his affinity for trains has been a lifelong thing. The Drenn Lodge, as I've affectionately always named their home up north, now has a train display where there once was a loft lounge, and they are launching a full scale village to go along with it.

dixie union station! 

Today we met with them at a specialty train shop, where Dad was able to gather ideas for his vision [& let's be honest, Mom too, as she'll be the real civil engineer here..].

Be it the small shop it was, it was certainly packed with all things trains, and quite a bit of history if you looked closely enough.

dixie train station | mason, oh 

dixie train station | mason, oh 

tiiiiiny little people..
... tiiiiiiny little expensive people. 

syd marvelling at the village

cute little houses!

so much detail! 

I had to include these, because I often forget just how Italian my mother really is.. until I see pictures like this. She may or may not have been speaking actual words; she's a seasoned Italian-hand signer.. haha.  

We wrapped up at the train shop once Dad and Mom were armed with material, ideas and determination to get their own village up to speed, and we were off. Sydni had done an exceptional job of being patient for the hour or so that we were in the train shop, despite our frequent instructing of DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING.

Her reward?

a day at gwl! 

Syd went bananas when we stepped foot into Great Wolf Lodge; she knew that although we weren't going to the water park itself, we were going to be there for a while, and the day was now all about Magic Quests, arcade games and ice cream.

And fun :)

welllll hi there! 

these two.... hahaha

Day outings with Nana & Pappy are the BEST. 

We bid adieu [for now] after a long day of trains and play, and headed back home, where the day for Sydni wasn't over yet. We had one more belated Christmas present for her from Nana & Pappy: 

We've read this book three times already tonight; it's super cute.

What an awesome day, amiright?! :D

Love.. love... and more love.
See ya tomorrow!

xo | cmd

Great Wolf Lodge, Pt. II

Day 2, Step 1? DOOF! Spell that backwards and you have our first priority everywhere we go.. hehe.

Don't act surprised. Plus, it was a buffet-style breakfast, which was.... delicious. My daughter eats like a teenager, too, which on an unrelated note is actually pretty impressive ;)

breakfast shenanigans ;)

And after breakfast, we made a pitstop at our room to change and pack up all of our stuff. Sydni spent that time making very important phone calls, first to the local authorities [the cops] to report me for having my shoes on the bed, and then to the fire department, cops and taxi cabs to go and rescue a  kitty in a tree. Ya can't make this stuff up, folks.

Hahahaha. So yeahh... finally we were off on our adventure of day 2 at GWL. There was some more magic questing, and then a beeline straight for the waterpark.

goofin off with  my favorite goofball, ever ♥♥♥

And let me tell you, we had a blast. This little sassafrass had us laughing all afternoon.

silly water monster faces & a lounge in the big kid chair. she looks so tall! :(

My favorite of the day at the waterpark:

like mama, like daughter... ♥!

I didn't think I was going to be able to pull Sydni out of the waterpark, but as soon as I told her we were getting pizza, it was a done deal.

... Sometimes, I actually believe this kid is mine. ;)
Just kidding, of course. I'm the only adopted one here.

Anywho, pizza it was, with Nana, Pappy, and this random giant cupcak-hat-bear-sitting-on-a-cookie statue...

normal stuff.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. Fortunately for us, that only meant bidding farewell to GWL and promising Sydni that we'd all come back sometime. I have absolutely no problem with that.

This is the face of my favorite story-teller, recapping the weekend on the drive home:

she's fabuloso!

Here we are now, back at home, laundry going and a movie in.. and the weekend catching up to us. We're calling this one an early night.

Thanks again to my incredible parents for this weekend!

xo | cmd

Great Wolf Lodge, Pt. I

As with each Saturday morning, today started off with soccer practice. It was one of those "OFF" mornings, though, where Sydni was stubborn and really just not feelin' soccer practice. Even so, she made grumpy look good and I was able to steal a few action shots.

manuevering.

I may have to come to terms with the fact that she's not into soccer.. at least not just yet. I realize that yes, she is only four, and yes, she will probably change her mind at least a billion times between now and when it matters, but we'll see. I mean she did after all tell me today that she wants to play basketball. That's probably the furthest thing from what either myself OR her dad would've ever played or guessed. So yeah. Wiggle room. ;)

AND THEN.........

Post-soccer, it was a quick change and then off to a Great Wolf Lodge! Luckily for me, it's only about 15 minutes from soccer, and really I think it's highly underrated as an attraction right here in Cincinnati. Especially if you have kids. Espeeeecially if you and your kids like splashparks, arcades, spa's, pizza shops, magic treasure hunts, mini golf glo-courses, bowling alleys and mascot woodland creatures who roam the halls creeping out parents while the kiddos think they're cute and/or funny.

No brainer.

So, Syd and I met up with my parents and wasted zero time getting into the magic that just is... GWL.

First stop? FOOD. Like it'd be anything else.. c'mon.. ;)

trying to color but distracted by all the cool stuff everywhere!

After lunch, it was off to the giftshop to pick up a wand.
These things..... aside from being moneymakers for GWL, are actually pretty cool. The entire place is riddled with sensor-activated things that react to the wands. There's a whole Quest series in place, and once you choose a certain quest, then you're off in search of the various elements needed to complete it. That would explain why there were groups of tweens flying around the lodge the entire weekend. It's not just a little kid thing. Haha.

magic wand... presto!

We did that for a little while, chasing Sydni back and forth across the hallways as she darted from treasure chest to magic crystal to talking painting. I have to admit, it's an absolutely genius idea. Even so, we came here specifically because it's an indoor water park. It's complete with four full length waterslides, a lazy river, wave pool, all sorts of places to climb, kiddie pools, a jacuzzi and one of those giant buckets that spills out 1,000 of water every hour or so onto the excited crowd standing under it.

quick peek. there's much more to it than this

We had fun. (: (: (:

pappy & nana with sydni!

My little sassy pants mcswimsuit here.... 

mini model. strike it!

I somehow coerced Sydni into taking a quick nap between waterparking and the rest of the night. She wasn't happy about it, but was even grumpier when we woke her up and told her she had to get dressed again. Yeah, she's mine: grumpy when she wakes up & hates clothes all together.. :p. Sooo, we donned the fairy costume and set off for the Halloween costume parade, story time and animatronics show. 

happy halloween, grumpy girl.. heheh..
[i look like a vampire. that was an accident.]

... Oh, and that arcade here.
We did that after all the Halloween jazz.
Sydni gave my dad a run for his money. And... he loved every bit of it.

pappy & sydni racing cars.

syd challenging pappy again.. on bikes.

To top it off, video proof ;)
Love.

We're back in the room now, after what seemed like one of the longest but jam-packed fun days we've had in a long time. We're doing it all over again tomorrow, so here's to a great first day at GWL!

xo | cmd