"Dear Mom..."

While opening the morning can of peas for Mackenzie I heard, "Dear Mom." I glanced to the table to see Haleigh working hard on writing me a letter on the back of the library receipt. "Thanks for taking me to Great Wolf Lodge. It was exciting and I really love it. PS I can hardly wait to come back there. I really really really love you!"
What strikes me is that we are now reaching almost 2 weeks since our trip and still out of the blue from both big girls we are thanked for the fun. Just this morning Haleigh gave in to taking off her bracelet/ pass to the water park. (She gave in because she was tired of getting the little button caught in her hair during the night.) It has already taken a special place in her jewelry box.
During our trip I got to see such expressions of pure joy, excitement, wonder and thankfulness. One of my favorite pictures is one where Sophie and Haleigh were getting their first look at the water park from an overlook window. The look in their eyes was priceless. Another favorite was the look of pure excitement when we rode down the "River Canyon Run." My big girls would sit on one side of the inter tube and I sat on the other side facing them. The ride was great, but watching their faces was unbeatable, their smiles couldn't have been any bigger if they tried.

Some days Haleigh was able to ride and other days she didn't pass the height requirement. It greatly depended on the onlooking lifeguard. One day we had the traumatic experience of climbing all the way up the stairs, waiting in the line, only to be told she didn't meet the requirement. A supervisor was called to double check her, he said "sorry, I can't let her go." (Did I mention she had already gone on this ride 3 times the day before?) She was so sad and pathetic on the way down the steps that the supervisor couldn't stand to follow us anymore. We passed him again as we found our spot to get "emotional control." He then came over and asked us to come with him to the front of the park where the measuring stick was more accurate. Let me just tell you, a giraffe couldn't stretch its neck any longer than my Haleigh did. The result of water shoes, a ponytail strategically placed on the top of her head, and a giraffe-like stretching neck she received the prized initials of the supervisor on her bracelet, which would signal to all that she was able to ride any and all of the rides that required 42 inches of height!!!

Sophie's "golden prize" of the trip was that she and her daddy worked so hard to defeat the dragon of Magi-Quest. They worked to hard to collect all the needed ruins in the right order, give the bear its jewels, and finally on the third day and several tries at the dragons lair they defeated the dragon and received the title of Master Magi. If truth be known I think Mark was as into it as Enchanted Unicorn (Sophie's Magi-Quest name:)

Mackenzie didn't miss out on too many special moments. She packed in a LOT of one-on-one time with (mostly) Daddy and Mommy as we did the divide and conquer trick that must come with three of all different ages. Mackenzie was trooper about the whole thing. She took 2 hour naps each day right in the middle of all the action. No matter if we were questing or splashing in the water park she would just check out, right there in the midst of it all in the comfort of her stroller with a tray full of peas.

All in all, the trip was a BLAST. At the end of each day the girls were asking if they could go to bed. Mark and I were happy to say yes and see if we were able to stay awake until they were all asleep. As my Grandma would say, "Whoever goes to sleep first whistle." We would have had quite a chorus of whistles :) It was a precious time of packing memories and fun as it was put in the books as our first family vacation with just the 5 of us.