Day Out With Thomas - April 2013

Our Day Out with Thomas!

Finally!  

Two weekends ago, Tate and I headed up to Dallas with this motley cast of characters:

L-his BFF from daycare

C-L's mom

A-his female BFF from daycare; if L is not around Tate is all about A.  And they play really well together; we've done a few other activities outside of daycare with A and her sweet mom.

S-A's mom

C dropped L around 7:15 that Friday morning, so she could go in to work for a bit.  The boys played (what a godsend!!) while I finished packing everything up for Tate and me for the weekend.  I am an extreme overpacker.  Extreme.

Tate, L and I headed out at 9am for Tate's swim lesson.  Tate was more than happy to show his swim prowess off to L, who was a great little companion for me in the observation room.  After Tate's lesson, we got him changed and both boys enjoyed a snack as we headed back to our house.

I've never seen two happier boys!!

C arrived from work, so we started loading up her Expedition with all our stuff!!  S and A arrived and the kids went mad crazy.  We sent them into the house to play while we organized the car.  I had the most stuff, BY FAR!! :)  I then went on into the house to start the potty rounds and get Tate's food packed in the cooler.  I came upon 3 happy 3 1/2 year olds quietly playing with....

PLAYDOH.

On my carpet, while the cat looked on.  As I rounded the stairs I swear Vincent smirked at me.

Sigh.

I got the play-doh out of pants and shirts and shooed the kids to clean up the rest of their mess, while I picked up as much as I could.  (There are still many stained spots today, but eh...I'm getting rid of this area rug when we move)

We made our ways through the potty and loaded everyone up.  C and S in the front, A and L in the middle, Tate and me ensconced in the back and we were off on our adventure!!

First stop...Bucee's in Madisonville, about 90 miles north of Houston.  Tate made me extremely happy by taking a nap as soon as he finished with his new train sticker book and woke up just as we arrived.

We utilized the cleanest restrooms on the road, got lunch and snacks and made our way north.

Four hours later we pulled into the parking lot of the Great Wolf Lodge!!

What a fantastically fun place this is!!!!!  We jumped out and got some initial pics of the kiddos!  Got our keys, our stuff and checked in!

Hugs for A.

After getting into our room and getting a lay of the land we opted to head on down to the waterpark!!  But I have to say our room was fabulous!!  The kids were sooooo excited to see their little part of the room (and surprising they all slept there for the majority of both nights).  We stayed in the Kid Cabin Suite.

The water park was amazing!!  The kids had a blast, and I have to say so did we three moms.  Tate and I most loved the Slap Tail Pond.  They all enjoyed the Whooping Hollow with all the festive slides and such.

Tate is on the right!  L on the left!

We played in the waterpark for about an hour, then ran upstairs to get changed and headed back downstairs for some dinner.  With the exception of Tate, we all downed some pizza;  I made Tate a cheese quesadilla.  It's much easier to make him his own food in part because of his food allergies (strangely some pizza is made with egg, some not) and because he's a picky little guy.  Our room had a fridge and a microwave, so it was easy.  Before we came up, C, S and I decided to bring food for breakfast, so we could eat in the room thereby saving some money and not having to waste time in a dining room.  Tate and I headed back up to the room as it was almost 8pm, and he had woken from his nap around 12:30 (and it was only 45 minutes).  I know my kid, and I knew no matter what time he went to sleep he would be up at the crack of dawn.  Plus I knew if he had to fall asleep with the other 2 in the room it would be really difficult for him.  

We went on back upstairs, got him bathed and into bed.  Turned on his humidifier and lullaby music (see how I pack!!??) and I had to rock him on the little toddler bed in their little alcove.  He didn't want to sleep in the bunkbed, which worked because the other 2 did.  He finally fell asleep around 855.  Everyone else trekked back in around 915 and surprisingly amidst all their noise he stayed asleep.  The rest of us crawled into bed around 10:15.

Around 2:30 Tate woke up hysterical.  I think he had a nightmare or night terror.  Nothing I did or said could calm him down.  So, now the whole room was disturbed.  Sigh.  I took him into the bathroom to turn the light on, and he was just beside himself.  Poor baby.  Overtired, new place and scared.  I crawled into bed with him.  In that teeny tiny toddler bed and he went back to sleep finally (almost an hour later) and I tossed and turned all night. 

He was up happy as a clam around 6:00am.  As was L.  Sigh.

But we wanted to leave the hotel by 7:45, so I suppose God had a plan.  We drove down Main Street and immediately saw this guy...

Lots of shrieks and yelling from the 3 short people!

We clambered out of the car and made our way to see Thomas the Tank Engine!!  The kids were practically bursting with excitement!! Their jumping up and down kept them warm I'm sure as it was quite cool this early morning!

First stop...saying good morning to Thomas!

Trying to show off the Thomas watch,
Ms. C gave him!!

We then located our tickets and got in line for our 9am ride!!

Fun on the train with Mommy!!

Once back at the station we let the kids explore.  There was lots for the kids to do.  There was an area set up with several train tables complete with trains and tracks.  Now that was a bit hard...none of the kids wanted to share and there were lots of kids and not nearly enough little trains for the grabby little hands, but we made do!  There was a large tent set up with model trains that Tate of course fell in love with.  He saw one that looked like his beloved Polar Express and he could have watched that train go around the tracks all day if I had let him!

We found the 'tattoo artists' and the kids got their arms adorned.

Then who should we see, but Thomas returning from another voyage!!

Apparently no visit to this little part of the island of Sodor is complete without stopping by the petting zoo...

This was the first time as an older child that Tate has had so much fun petting animals.  He loved it as a young young toddler (10-11 months), but not nearly as much by the time he was 18 months.  We'll have to make a stop next time at the Houston Zoo to their petting zoo which I usually don't even bother with in deference to our train ride :)

Then, the man himself, Sir Topham Hatt put in an appearance (he is L's favorite character!).  Of course we had to go meet him!!

Tate wanted a hug, but wasn't sure if he
 should run back and get one :)

We then traipsed over to the Story/Movie time area where the kids sat down for a minute to get some rest, after all they were up at the crack of dawn!

We left the storytime area and as we were walking to the gift shop we looked across the street and saw some ponies!  This is Texas' version of the island of Sodor ya know!

A quick trip to the gift shop garnered Tate some Thomas flip flops and a new Gordon train (and a CD for his birthday) and a cool scrapbook kit for me!

We headed back to the hotel for some lunch and naps!!!!

When we walked in we ran into these guys...

We got some lunch and then we mommies insisted on some naps for EVERYONE.  All 3 of us girls crawled into those teeny tiny toddler beds with our kiddos...C and S in the bunk beds!!!  We were all asleep within minutes, even my little sleep fighter.  

He did of course awaken first, but he slept for almost 90 minutes.  We crept out of the room and went downstairs to the arcade room for quite a while, then played in the Cub Club where Tate painted a ceramic ice cream piggy bank that they 'dried' while we played some more.  And um their drying was placing our piggy bank in a bucket with a hair dryer on it!  LOL!

The rest of the gang napped about 3 hours total.  They made their way down to the arcade to join us, but Tate wanted nothing more than to return to the room and play with his new train...I opted to indulge him.  Gave me some downtime as well.

We decided to all return to the waterpark after the other 4 returned to the room.  We had a great time again and Tate astounded me!  We opted to ride the Totem Towers!  The kiddos have to go down the slide....by themselves.  So S went first, then A, then T who was a bit unsure.  He was all over it until the 1000 gallons came pouring down on our heads while we waited our turn.  We were completely surprised and soaked.  L had been wanting to do the slide until that happened and he abjectly refused after that.  Tate was shaken, but decided to go ahead.  I walked my little boy to the slide and told him not to lay down (this makes you go even faster) and that Ms. S was waiting for him, and I'd be coming soon.  He balked at first, but a little nudge and off he went.  The lifeguard showed me where to watch him going down and he did just great!  He looked quite scared, but no tears!  I then flew down the slide (oh my goodness...it was sooooo fast!) and there he was smiling!!!

This is what it looks like...we rode the orangish yellow one!

The water comes out of that huge
bucket.  We were right beneath it!
1000 gallons of water!!

This was before getting in the water!!  They still
look a bit tired, don't they?

After a little over an hour of water time, Tate was ready to go back to the room.  C and L had already gone up and changed.  S and A opted to stay in the water a bit longer.  

We did finally all meet up again, and we ran downstairs for some more pizza for dinner.  Oh and I must say the staff here was absolutely fantastic.  The young lady who waited on us was the same as the previous night and remembered us....treated us very well.

I took Tate on up early again, while the other four played at the arcade for quite some time.  He fell asleep a little after 9 and they returned closer to 10.

Ready for bed.  And yes those are
Christmas pajamas!!!

Everyone slept much better this evening.  Tate made it all the way through in his little bed as did L.  A slept with her mommy in the foldout bed.  C and I shared the other bed again.

Tate was up by 6 yet again, much to everyone else's dismay.  I tried to keep him quiet, but it's almost impossible.  

A however can sleep through anything much like Tate who slept through their loud shenanigans the night before that went on for about 30 minutes.  So that definitely helped.

We got the kiddos fed and we all showered in zombie mode.  The kids played, drove one another crazy, watched some Thomas on Leappads and Kindles and had a blast.  C and L were returning to the waterpark for the morning, while I was off to meet my dear friend Julie, who has finished her chemo-Yay!, for breakfast.  S graciously agreed to keep Tate with her and A, so I could spend some quality time with Julie.  I am ever appreciative.  Julie picked me up and we had a lovely brunch together at a yummy Mexican restaurant.  When I returned A and Tate were with S in the Cub Club.  Tate had made some sort of sand decoration while A was painting a shirt.  They had played in the arcade a bit, but had spent the majority of their time in the Cub Club.  

*This was when Tate played CandyLand for the first time.  S said he loved it...they all played 2 games and then when she and A went to color, Tate played a game by himself.*

We met C and L for our last lunch at the hotel.  Everyone was exhausted.  Ok the adults were exhausted.  The kids were still riding high!

Last Great Wolf Lodge meal for a while!

We then loaded up the car and headed back to Houston.  It took us about 5 1/2 hours to return...ugh.  But the kids were absolutely amazing.  A took about a 90 minute nap.  Tate and L...maybe 20 minutes.  How do they keep going?

All in all though I was absolutely exhausted I had a fantastic time.  I do wish I had been able to sit closer to C and S during the ride up and back and talked a bit more, but there was no room.  And having a kid who needs to sleep differently and eats differently makes for an interesting dynamic.  I briefly considered just letting Tate stay up like the others, but I remembered doing that in January when we went up to Dallas.  I specifically told Angela "I'm not going to worry about Tate's sleeping while we're here.  I'm gonna let him hang with Olivia and Sophia as long as he wants.  Please help me relax about this."  It totally backfired on me and it was a disaster for Tate.  He may not sleep alot, but he needs the sleep he gets.  I have learned that at least for now I have to take care of him and not care what anyone else thinks or does.  It works for us, most importantly for him.  

I'm so very glad we went.  I'm so enjoying spending time with C and S.  Of all the moms at Tate's school we really connect and are committed to at least trying to foster our kids' friendships outside of the school because once they finish next year all 3 kids will be going to elementary school somewhere else.  None of them together.  Makes me so very sad.  Right now there are only 5 of them in their class, so they are really a tight knit little group.  

That's one of things that I didn't expect to enjoy so much as a mom...watching my sweet boy make friends and seeing how much he loves and cares about them.  It's pretty cool.  I'm raising a young boy who cares about others and who makes connections.  I value my friendships so very much;  it's something I really want him to do as well.  Surprisingly I don't think he would start so young.  It is just lovely.