My Dad has a milestone birthday coming up & my mom decided it would be more fun to surprise him with a mini vacation with his grandkids instead of throwing him a big party. She started asking Natalie & I about it at the beginning of the year & it didn't take much to convince us, the hard part was keeping it a secret for so long! Somehow we convinced my dad to drive to the DFW area to return my kids after camp last week & when he got to the restaurant, all of us were there waiting for him:
From there, we took him to:
We went there with Bryan's family when I was pregnant with Sophie & Sadie was about 1 1/2 years old, but it was fun to go again. My mom reserved two rooms & one was:
It was pretty cool & the kids loved it. It had a regular bed for my parents, but it had a whole section just for the kids with a twin bed, bunk beds & tv:
Kason, Sadie & Zoe stayed with Mimi & Doc while the rest of us stayed in a different room down the hall. As soon as we got there, the kids were ready to hit up the water park:
They have a small toddler area that's only about a foot deep with lots of water toys & small slides that all of the kids could utilize, including Sophie. Then there is the tree house, which is the picture above. There were some water fountains down low that Sophie & Max could splash around in, but I was surprised that Sadie & Zoe were tall enough to ride the slides here also. I don't know if you can see it, but there are 2 in the back of the picture (one is green & one is yellow). There were also 4 indoor slides in the back that Kason got to ride with some of the adults & 2 more outdoor slides. We spent a little bit of time outside, but most of the time was spent inside. Every day the kids got measured to see what color band they could get for rides:
One of the best decisions we made was to rent a cabana for our full day there. It is so crowded so it was nice to have a designated space for all of our stuff. And it gave us a place to eat & rest. We literally opened the waterpark at 9:30 that morning & stayed until it closed that night:
Natalie & I brought food for breakfast, lunch & snacks so that made it easier to hang around the resort all day without leaving. She even made home made brownies & brought candles so we could celebrate Doc's birthday:
Ok, so most of the pictures so far were taken by me. I tried to carry my phone most of the time, but Natalie brought her big camera & got some good shots of the kids while they were playing in the water. So hold on, I've got lots of water shots coming up. But first, a couple of random, pre-water photos:
They gave my dad a pair of birthday wolf ears to wear & the kids were so excited that they gave the rest of them a pair too. Surprisingly, Sophie loved wearing them & had them on most of the time!
Ok, on to the fun photos:
We sent Sophie down a few of the smaller slides by herself but I never got a picture because someone would have to walk her to the top & someone else would have to catch her at the bottom. We were all pretty busy since all 5 kids were spread out in different directions. But I did catch a cute sequence of Sadie & Zoe sliding together:
These two thought they were pretty big & went down this slide more times than I can count. And they got kind of crazy & were going down backwards, on their stomach, any way different they could think of.
Bryan got sick & missed the first part of our trip, but he finally made it over our last night. Natalie caught him doing this so he must not have been feeling too bad:
There were lots of other activities going on around the resort, but our children were so happy at the water park that we didn't do much else. They did go to story time the first night:
but we missed it the next night because they didn't want to leave the water. And when we made it back to our room, we celebrated Doc's birthday with gifts:
The little kids crashed but we let the big kids stay up. They thought it was hilarious that we gave Doc a safety vest & safety hat for turning 60 - I don't think they realized all of the messages that went along with the safety gear for an old man, but we thought it was funny & Dad was a good sport wearing it. Later that night, we had one extra surprise - there was a fireworks display over Lake Grapevine & we got to watch them from our room. Sadie & Kason were so excited!
We also went down stairs early one morning for the wolf walk, but I think the kids got kind of bored & were ready to go swim:
In case you haven't figured it out, our kids were obsessed with the water so this was the perfect get away. It was such a fun weekend getting to spend time with family & watching the kids, but we are even more thankful to celebrate my dad. 60 years is a big accomplishment & he obviously has a lot to be proud of:
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