Jonathan, 7, and Anna, 5.
Thank you, Nona Donna! Nona sent us with beach towels, snacks, water bottles, gatorade, and arcade money! Anna won the ring and Jonathan the Whoppee cushion.
Somehow we lucked out and got a Spongebob room! Yay! It was nice since it took them 30 minutes to get us checked in, then our room wasn't ready for a full hour and a half after check in time! I was sort of irritated. But then when the kids saw the room... It was all okay. We had our own room with a door, and then there was a living room with a kitchen area and a bathroom, and the kids had their own bedroom with their own tv. (And that would be called... a suite... riiight?)Anna said, we should just move in here! But then when we got home today, she ran in and started kissing the floor. She was tired of all the walking because the hotel was huge. When we separated, Dave said to Anna, "Help mommy find the way back to the room." I think he was sort of kidding, because I always get lost. Well, she did! I tried to take a whole bunch of wrong turns, and she kept saying, nope, not this way, and walking ahead. She led me all the way through this maze to the correct elevator, then told me which way to turn to get to our room, all the way to the door! I could NOT believe it! She must have gotten the great Dooley direction sense or something.
The kids are looking out from our safe vantage point waiting for the daily mass sliming down by the pool. :)
Anna and her Daddy. You can see Jonathan in the background. I couldn't see anything I was taking a picture of because of the blinding sun so I was just sort of snapping any which way. I love this one, though. :) (The little girl, really close to Dave? We don't know her. This is how the children were at this place... no sense of personal space or boundaries. And apparently... Maybe this is a Southern thing, but when you see something really impressive, it is totally acceptable to exclaim, Holy Hell to your parents and grandparents? Oh, and spitting right on the ground in front of a grownup's feet? That is also permissible. I actually was so startled when one young woman used manners and courtesy when she almost bumped into me that I almost forgot how to reciprocate! When I saw her with her parents, I went up and told them what a nice daughter they had and how proud they should be! :) When you see one shiny thing in a giant mass of poo, you must acknowledge it! Anyways, that was my little rant... sorry. We had a wonderful weekend.)
There was a (very) mini- mini golf course next to the water slides. Jonathan loves to play mini golf and he is pretty good at it. I was quite concerned for my children's safety and all of my family's dental well-being because of one (unsupervised--if I had to sum up the atmosphere of the children at the Nick Hotel in one word, I would say that: unsupervised!) child who did not understand the concept of what to do with the club and was swinging it wildly and causing us all to duck and flinch... We all stopped playing except Jon went ahead and played for a while. Anna used the curbs separating the holes as balance beams and I thanked God that the balls weren't real golf balls but plastic in nature.
This is one of the worst pics of me ever, but I like that you can see how tall Jonathan is next to me, and I love his silly expression, and Anna's funny posture and face. :) She is still into Dora. We went to three short 4-D movies: Spongebob, Speedracer, and Dora and Diego. Jonathan, Dave and I thought Spongebob was the best; Anna preferred Dora. The fourth dimension is where they blow bubbles, spray water, blow air, poke your seat, mist odors that go with the story line like pickles or bananas, etc.
Two children, two very different feelings towards Dora, Dora the Explorer!
The reason this is so cute and not punk is that Jonathan is not normally like this, and let's be honest, you get past the age of five, and Dora loses her big-headed charm. Amen?
Big hotel, lots to do... One of the best things there were the birds. Ducks, ibis, one giant swan, cranes, herons, etc. For 25 cents you could get some bird food to throw at them. Anna is gutsy so she threw some at the swan when it was asleep. It gave us the meanest look you can imagine. We had a lot of fun looking at all the birds together, and all the neat cartoon character sculptures out on the lake: the Rugrats, Patrick from Spongebob, Wild Thornberries, Spongebob...
The kids were doing some air guitar/robotic dance moves here. It was pretty awesome and I don't think this picture or any words can possibly convey it to you.
I always loved these tourist brochure stands as a kid. Jonathan loves them too.
On our last morning, Jonathan got me to go on the slides with him. I was actually really nervous when we got to the top to go down the tallest slide. I told him, I went to Water Mania and stuff like that growing up, I guess it has just been a really long time! He chuckled and said, Mama, are you saying you've turned from a dog into a cat? (I thought this was exceptionally clever!) I did go down the slides. It was really fun although a little indignifying at the bottom... As a teenager, I worried that my top would come off or my bottom would be wedged upwards. I didn't want anyone to see my business. Still, now, I don't want anyone to see my business, but for very different and very similar reasons... :)
Anna and I both got our hair wrapped. This was really fun. We basically got the same colors: dark purple, light purple, aqua, except she got pink and I did not. She got a horse charm with a pink gemstone in the center and I got a sea turtle with an aqua charm in the center. I have always wanted to get my hair wrapped, and I don't think 30 is too late, in spite of what some people from North Carolina might say ;)
Jonathan chose a caricature over an airbrush tattoo. He was totally fascinated with the artist's methods. He watched intently as someone else had their picture made, and then held perfectly still for his own.
On our last morning, Anna didn't feel like going swimming. So we got a spot under the umbrella and she studied some of Jonathan's drawings from the night before.
The kids by the front lobby Spongebob as we checked out. They really got along well on this trip. They both said they thought it was more fun than the cruise... And I might just agree with them a little tiny bit :)
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