231/365 The rest of the day...

As you know the morning started out really early with the Dryer/Laundry Room fire.  We were so tired but headed down to the water park around 9:45 to swim.  We swam from then to about 2 and then the kids went into full melt down mode so we left the GWL and went to lunch and then came and checked into our other hotel.  You have to check out of the GWL at 11 but they will let you swim until 9pm when the park closes.  We decided that swimming all day and going to another hotel was the best choice for us since the GWL costs so much.  The hotel we went to was the Hyatt DFW which is where Jacob and I first met 12 years ago this month.  Almost everything has changed so much that you can't recognize it but when we headed down to the ballroom area it all came back to us.  Jacob and I were standing in the same area the kids are standing in when we first met.  It was kind of neat to go back to where it all started and take the kids there.  (Although I don't think they really cared.)

After resting up a bit we headed back to the GWL at around 6.  We swam from 6-9 and then headed to the big clock for the nightly pajama story time.

The kids really enjoyed it!

After story time we headed back to our hotel and got a great nights sleep. 

(Thankfully there were no fires!)

231/365

5am...Laying in bed I hear an annoying beeping sound followed by some man talking.  I roll over and think it is our annoying neighbors who kept us up until all hours of the night.  It continues and then I make out the words there is a FIRE Emergency.  Jacob catches it at the same moment I do and we hop up and start gathering our things and dressing kids. 

Jaci and Tyler are screaming. 

 

Jackson is panicking.

Jacob and I are kind of taking our time because we think it is just a false alarm. 

When Jackson looks out the window and sees everyone outside he flips out because we aren't out there yet.

We make our way to the stairwell with the kids, their silkies and animals and the diaper bag, purse and laptop.   It's packed.  Jaci is still crying.  Tyler is upset because he is being pushed and is having a hard time carrying his 2 silkies and 2 animals.  Jackson is still panicked.  We are all still calm until we reach the second floor and are hit by the strong smell of smoke.  Everyone in the stairs starts moving a little faster.

We make it outside with everyone else and wait.

We watch the firetrucks continually come down the road.

We watch the sun rise over the Great Wolf Lodge.

We get tired of waiting and head out for breakfast.

16 Fire trucks and 3 hours later we made it back into the room.

Jacob and I are wiped out...The kids are ready to go.

It could be a very long day but we are going to make the most of it.

I probably won't have internet service tonight (and let's face it...I will probably be too tired to post!), so this will likely be my post for the day.

230/365

3 Hours in the car...

$300 per night...

3,000 stairs walked up...

3 little kids who are BEAMING with EXCITEMENT!

I will admit that I was kind of dreading this trip to the Great Wolf Lodge.  I am NOT a water park person.  Not at all.  They kind of gross me out.

Not to mention how hard it is trying to keep up with 3 kids in a busy water park.

BUT...Today (after we got past the first hour of crying by Miss Thing) we had a great time!  It was SO much easier to bring the kids this time around.  Last time they were just too young and it was just so hard and stressful.  Today we could all ride the rides together.  We could sit and watch the kids play in the little kid areas.  It was FUN...and Relaxing...well...as relaxing as a water park where you climb up hundreds of stairs multiple times through out the day can be!  

It was so wonderful to see the kids excitement!

And tonight I have 3 little kids who are snuggling with 3 new stuffed wolves who are totally exhausted from all of the fun we had today.

And we get to do it all again tomorrow!

Days like this are PRICELESS!

229/365

I had a brief moment of panic tonight while tucking in the kids and talking to them about all of the excitement coming up tomorrow.  As I turned off the lights and headed back to my to do list I started checking things off and came to cameras.  I quickly grabbed my camera and ran in and snapped pictures of the kids in bed and got back to work.

I am still amazed that after all this time I can still forget to take my pictures.  It's just been a CRAZY busy day!

We met up with our builder's realtor tonight and she walked in with good news about our lot.  She had just come from meeting with the man selling the land and finally had a price.  The bad news is that he had a long list of demands he wants from us and them (would have been nice if he had told us all of this a few weeks ago!) before he will sign a contract with us, so it will take a little more time to get all of it together.  It is at least some progress.  When I looked at the survey of the lots and the letters from the surveyor describing the lots it was dated July 22.  He had been telling us that all this time he was waiting on the surveyor but clearly the date shows otherwise.  Nothing we can do about it, but it is still so frustrating dealing with him!

I still have some more work to get done so I better go!

228/365

Today we started working on getting ready to go to the Great Wolf Lodge.  The kids are so excited to go but I have so much to do before then.

This is going to be a welcome vacation for us all.

Tomorrow should be another busy day as well.  We are meeting with our builder's realtor to go over our contract and the final numbers on the house.  From there Jacob and I will decide how much of the work we are going to do ourselves.  We are going to try to do as much as we reasonably can do so that we can save some money.  I am excited to finally see the final numbers.  I love trying to figure out how to come in under budget and look forward to the challenge of doing it with this house while still building our dream home.  Now if only we could get a lot to build it on...

227/365

Today we got out of the house and headed to Abilene.  We went and had some yummy Red Lobster for our anniversary and then headed out to do a little shopping.

We didn't really buy much until we headed to Lowe's.  I LOVE Lowe's.  I love going into a store where there are so many possibilities and so much inspiration.  I seriously can just to into Lowe's and kill a couple of hours looking around.  It is really fun now going in there and getting ideas for our new house.  Seriously, Lowe's is my Happy Place right now.

Today Lowe's made me especially happy.  While Jacob and the boys were playing on the John Deere Tractors I headed off to the patio furniture section.  I designed our house so that we would have porches extending the entire length of the front and back of the house and have planned to have porch swings and rocking chairs on the porches.  I have been looking but not buying...until today.  Our Lowe's had a weekend managers special going on today where all in stock patio furniture was HALF OFF!  I yelled at Jacob  (because you know...there were people all around and I just knew they would snatch up everything I wanted) and he came quickly with a big flat bed wagon.  We loaded up 2 rocking chairs, 2 porch swings and a little table that goes with the rocking chairs.  I am seriously giddy right now over my bargain finds!  I had planned on buying all of these things for the house but figured we would have to wait awhile to get them.  At 1/2 off I declared it was a happy early birthday present to myself and just bought them.  (I think Jacob was really happy to get them as well and get them at such a good bargain!)  Whoo hoo...I Love Lowe's!

226/365

Today is our 11 year wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe it has been 11 years.  We were hoping to go back to the place we got married for supper but instead we did absolutely nothing.  This house building process is just taking over our lives.  All of the things were were hoping to get taken care of today didn't happen.  Maybe Monday.

It is just hot and miserable here and it is putting us all in a bad mood.

I'm off to watch a movie.  Not in much of a blogging mood tonight.