Summer Vacations Part 1

Kreek had told Nana that he wanted to ride a train this summer. We found the Texas State Railroad train that went from Palestine to Rusk (in east Texas). On Saturdays, it has a Lone Ranger rides again theme show. So Sharon, Kreek, Kaegen and I left on Friday July 31st and arrived in Palestine about 9:00 pm. The kids swam until 11:00 pm and we finally got to bed around midnight. We headed to the train the next morning. We meet lots of "bandits" before boarding the train that departed at 11:00 am. While on the train, they "robbed" it and explained that all the money is donated to charity. Kaegen also became a Texas millionaire, receiving a million dollar bill with one of the bandits pictures in the middle of it. As the train was moving, each "bandit" would walk around and talk to everyone. Then the Lone Ranger and Tonto came through and met everyone also. About halfway to the next depot, the train stopped and they had a shoot out. We stopped at Rusk and ate lunch and then got back on the train and headed back to Palestine. Once we got to Palestine, we got in the car and headed back home. We got in about 1:30 am. It was really neat and we all enjoyed it.

I began this post on Monday and then I had a melt down. I discovered that I had never downloaded the pictures of the train ride onto my computer and I have already deleted them off my camera. So I have no pictures from the train ride and I almost cried.

So, onto the next vacation. We all went to Avery's 1st birthday party in Midland on Sat., August 8th. She is so precious and is growing up fast. Coy, Ashley, Sharon, Kreek, Kaegen and I headed to the Dallas area after her party. We made it to Weatherford and spent the night. After going to Church, we headed to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. For those of you who don't know about it, it is a hotel with an indoor and outdoor waterpark. It was a blast and we all had fun.

This is the outside. It has 600 rooms and is beautiful.



The big 4 person tube rides as they come outside and then you end up back inside.




This is what you see when you walk in the waterpark. The bucket at the top will dump 1000 gallons of water on top of you.

There were 3 single slides on the inside and 2 big slides with 4 person tubes.

Kreek riding a wave in the wave pool.

Kaegen and Aunt Ashley in the wave pool.

In the kiddie pool.

These are 2 outside slides with an outside pool.

Kreek loved the lilly pad obstical course and would jump from one to the next.

This was Kaegen's favorite. The wolf would howl a few times and then water would spray out everywhere. Kaegen is in the pink swimsuit.

This is what Kreek's hands looked like after all day of swimming.

Kaegen went to hear Wiley read a bedtime story to all the kids.

There is soooo much to do at the Great Wolf Lodge and we had a blast. I will post a Summer Vacations Part 2 and post pictures of the next few days we spent in the Dallas Area on another day soon hopefully.