Dec 11, 2010

A great shot

Here is what happens when Cade gets ahold of the camera.  








so cute!

Dec 8, 2010

Christmas in Grapevine, Texas

 This past weekend we spent in the fabulous city of Grapevine, Texas.  I absolutely love Grapevine! I could move there- TODAY.  It's just this small town with in a semi-BIG city.  It's perfect.  

Our drive up was about 4 hours.  It really went by faster than we expected and we only stopped 2 times.  One out of necessity since we were dropping Lucy off with Travis' dad in Buffalo and the other was to Bucee's since they claim to have the world's cleaniest bathrooms. 


Our visit was packed with FUN things to do.

After we checked in an freshened up a bit we headed over to the Gaylord.  Talk about an impressive hotel.   We parked and went exploring.  You could spend days there and still not see everything!  The first thing we did was find the Charlie Brown ICE exhibit. Before entering the exhibit we watch a short film about how the artisans created the exhibit.  We learned that it took nearly 2 million pounds of ice and over a month to do it.  Once the film was over we headed to the parka counter and then we braced ourselves for the next part...a room set at 17 degrees to be exact.  We literally froze..and I lost feeling in my chin towards the end which was a weird sensation.
It was really neat.  They had a slide made of ICE for kids and adults.  YES, we all went down it.  We ended the tour with a family photo in front of Charlie Brown's tree.  I think you can see just how cold Cade is in this picture.  Next we warmed up a bit with some hot coco and then made our way into the Gaylord's atrium. Let's just say everything is bigger in TEXAS.  We spotted the 52 foot rotating Christmas tree... honestly not a very hard thing to do.  We found the life sized gingerbread house which is also a sweet shope with old fashion candy!  Then we just spent a little time wondering around finding out where everything was.  Around 5 o'clock we headed over to the Rain Forest Cafe.  I thought that would be a fun place to take Cade since we never go out to the one in Houston. It was OK.  We probably won't ever go back but it was fun for Cade to see rain fall from the ceiling and all the animals come to life.  After dinner we headed to Main Street and found our seats on the street to watch the 2nd Largest Parade in the state.  We also had the chance to meet some locals who told us the best places to eat! After the parade we headed back to the room and got some rest!  The next morning we had an amazing breakfast which included Texas shaped waffles... Cade asked if California had California shaped waffles... one can only hope, right?!  That morning we did a stroll down main street and enjoyed all the little holiday displays.  We made it to our 10 o'clock appointment to Vetro Glass Blowers.  We saw them do a quick demo and then we made our own glass ornament.  It was very cool... or should I say hot.  Those furnaces were 1/8 the temperature of the sun.  Afterwards we went on a mission to find a snack at the bakery on Main and then off to Talberts for lunch.  They are known for their chili and their burgers.  It was very tasty!  We headed over to the Bass Pro shop.  We got Cade one of those mini fold up chairs.  He seems to like toting it around better than actually sitting in it.   That evening we dressed our holiday PJs and went on the North Pole Express.  It was such a fun train ride!  Then we jetted over to the Gaylord, grabbed dinner at the "river walk" and then had Milk & Cookies with Mrs Claus.  Cade was loving that!  Although at one point he asked, "why does Santa need a wife?!"  Haha.  Afterwards we headed back to our hotel and called it a day!  Saturday we woke up had breakfast and went to pick up our ornament.  It was very pretty!  Blues and reds and few speckles of yellow!  Then on our way out of town we stopped at the Breadhaus and bought a loaf of honey wheat and sweet treat for the road!  Then it was bye, bye Grapevine!  I definitely want to go back and spend more time on Main Street.   It reminded me a lot of Fredericksburg (althougth not so German) but what I really loved was that just a few blocks past Main Street you run into Target, Marshalls, Starbucks, etc.... all the conveniences of a big town. 






Sorry for the out of order photos...blogger is a pain about that.