At the Gaylord

The first weekend in December we went to the Gaylord hotel for a Christmas weekend. It's really more than a hotel. There's a bunch of restaurants and they had a big kids theme. It's a short ferry ride from Old Town Alexandria, but we never made it over there.

Mima, PoPo, Kelly, Mike, Jack, Kate, Susan, Granny & Gramps Gifford all met us down there where we went through ICE. Rooms and rooms of ice sculptures with the Madagascar cartoon theme. Very cool, but FRIGIDLY cold. They issued us parkas to wear and our teeth were still chattering. Here we all are in our parkas. See how much fun Noah is having??

Poor Noah got stuck on the ice slide. Twice. Aren't I a great mother? He got stuck once (they won't let 2 people go at the same time... even parents with little kids), then I thought I had it figured out and sent him down again. And he got stuck again.

After our ICE adventure, we all had lunch and I shared the BIG NEWS about Baby Cronin coming this summer!

The boys were freaking out over the characters too.

Puss in Boots was their absolute favorite. They both kept running up and hugging him.

"Gingy" was their second favorite.

We had a Shrek Feast one morning!

And we made gingerbread men. And sat on Santa's lap.

We had an amazing kick-start to Christmas! Thank you everyone for coming over and hanging out with us - we love you!!