Zooooo Lights

Yuka came to visit during a very busy couple of weeks for me with work, so I felt really bad that we didn't do more "fun" stuff with her. But one thing we managed to squeeze in was a trip to Zoo Lights.


I have always thought that the zoo train is excruciatingly boring, but it sure looks pretty in lights. 

We pretty much went there primarily to get an elephant ear. Mission: accomplished.

Cold weather is great for snuggling!

Alder Party

This year's Alder extended family after-Christmas party was the best for two major reasons: 1. They skipped the second-cousins gift exchange (I mean really, these poor kids don't even know each other). 2. The menu? KFC and homemade macaroni and cheese. Yeah.

We picked up Yuka the night before--she is visiting for two weeks on Winter break from University of Alabama where she is attending school this year.

Goodno Family Christmas

After all the excitement at my parents' house, this is how Madelyn ended up before Christmas dinner at Gary's parents' house. I felt kind of bad about that. :( But our schedules didn't easily allow us to enjoy Christmas on separate days this year.

Eventually Madelyn woke up to receive her nice presents and have a yummy dinner with Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Dale. She loves them so much too!

Madelyn's "third grandma" Shirley gave her this Christmas book, too. So thoughtful!

Winkel Family Christmas

The annual Winkel cousins' gift exchange:

Madelyn gives Shelby a Zhu-Zhu pet, with outfit.

Jimmy gives Madelyn awesome Melissa & Doug art supplies.

Here she is putting them to good use already (as her two dinosaurs look on)!

Christmas Morning

First stop: stocking.

Oh yikes, that is what Mom looks like rolling out of bed. Madelyn was pretty darn excited about her two new toothbrushes (Spiderman and Hello Kitty), the candy cane, and traditional orange in her stocking.

Santa surprised Madelyn with her first real bike! 

Other than the bike, her Christmas presents were little: a Zhu-Zhu pet which she only wanted because it's what we bought for her cousin Shelby, some Hello Kitty Band-Aids because she hates the "bumpy" ones we have now (the fabric kind), and a green Stegosaurus Beanie Baby to match her favorite new T-Rex! I was personally so excited about that find...but it turns out Madelyn has paid little attention to it. :( She still brings the T-Rex everywhere though!

Madelyn helped me make rolls to take to our two Christmas dinners later. She's showing off the heart-shaped one.

Christmas Eve

In our new annual tradition, my parents visited our home on Christmas Eve to see the gifts we wrapped for Madelyn using their Christmas-gift money and also receive a few small gifts from us.

Madelyn sure does love her grandparents!

Next, we joined my sister's family next door for a yummy Christmas Eve dinner, followed by a gift exchange in which Randy had invited Madelyn to participate with his 3 boys.
Madelyn got this cute purple penguin from Kaden, and I loved how he snatched it away to explain how you can use this code to create an online world...and Madelyn is like, "um can I have my stuffed animal back?"

She likes it!

There are some great little moments in this clip of Jack opening a gift from Madelyn, starting with her opening line which is partly cut off, "Heeey, that's the box I used last night!"

Such happy kids and happy times.

Cookies for Santa

Madelyn and Daddy made Peanut-M&M cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.

She is always such a great helper, and definitely bought into the idea of leaving a treat for Santa and eight carrots for his reindeer.

We even received this adorable "Cookies for Santa" dish set from Grandma Bonnie (which her sister got for her at Starbuck's).

A little Santa Q&A

And the remaining evidence to be found Christmas morning.

Great Wolf Evening, etc.

Grandpa Winkel with Madelyn and Jack overlooking the Grand Lobby's indoor snowfall.

Two great cousins being goofy.

Uncle Gary read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" to everyone at bedtime.

The next day we did spend some more time at the waterpark, and then when Madelyn had had enough, we checked out the kids club, where Madelyn chose to make this sand art bottle. 

Overall, it was a pretty fun overnight getaway.

Great Wolf Water Park

Okay, so Madelyn was still trying to recover from a little fever the day we went to Great Wolf Lodge. She had no other symptoms besides the temperature, and that went away with a dose of medicine.  But it did ultimately affect Madelyn's enjoyment of the water park.

First of all, this is a very WET water park. You can hardly walk around without being sprayed, splashed, or even deluged with water from some angle.  When we first arrived, everything seemed so much colder than we expected, and we were all shivering as we wandered around trying to figure out what to do. 

I convinced Madelyn to walk through a small waterfall doorway up into this structure to go down a waterslide with me. It has spigots of water shooting in from the sides of the walls, and water pistols mounted where kids can shoot them at each other (as well as innocent bystanders in their path), and small fountains bubbling up out of the floor. It was pretty clear Madelyn was not comfortable, but we continued waiting in line because I hoped that once we were all wet and she tried a fun slide we could really start having fun. Unfortunately, we were standing on the platform directly underneath the giant bucket when it dumped 10,000 gallons of water on the metal roof above us. It was LOUD and it was WET. Madelyn started screaming, an unusual, frightened scream. Poor girl. She calmed down quickly and we reached the front of the line only to learn that we could not slide down together, and Madelyn was in no condition to try it by herself. So we took the walk of shame back down to discuss Plan B with Dad. I believe it involved Gary taking her back to the room for some Tylenol and then returning to the water park when her cousins arrived so they could all have fun together.

And we did have more fun when Jack and his brothers joined us (and Madelyn's fever was medicated).

The spraying Waverunners were Madelyn's favorite part, and also the part of the hot tub that was outside in the freezing cold. I liked that one too.

My parents were both so helpful of course, and us "grown-up kids" got to try out the BIG waterslides a couple of times. 

Journey to Great Wolf Lodge

I've been wanting to check out Great Wolf Lodge since I learned of the indoor waterpark resort a year or two ago. I finally snagged up the best e-mail promotion they've ever sent and since my parents and sister's family came too, we called it a "Curves Meeting," if you catch my drift. :)


Heading north on I-5 was the perfect excuse for another visit to The Grilled Cheese Grill, our love of which we discovered on Gary's birthday. It was fun to introduce my parents to such fine cuisine as well.

Eating in the school bus.

Had to include this picture because it is so typical of my dad to strike up a conversation with the strangers in the next seat over. He has a way of making friends with everyone.

After my mom and I waited in this little check-in line, we were rewarded with delicious cookies.

At 3:30pm they had a cookie decorating activity scheduled in one of the restaurants.

A little rest in our room to recover from traveling (it's only a couple of hours away from home).

And finally we're ready to hit the water park!

Celebrate!

Madelyn really got a kick out of this musical birthday card to her from Katelyn and Margie. Her dancing is pretty awesome, and I love the end.

Two Monkeys and Two Sturgeon

That was the caption Randy gave to this photo he sent me from his phone.

We all got to marvel at these two sturgeon Uncle Randy and his friend caught--they were still moving and trying to breathe! I must admit that sturgeon are among the most hideous creatures I have ever personally seen up close. Their mouths underneath are particularly creepy.

Final Birthday Fun

After the party was all wrapped up, we finalized the birthday festivities with a small celebration just with the 3 of us. We hid Madelyn's few small gifts and she hunted for them to make it extra fun.

At bedtime, Madelyn's clear favorite gift was this T-Rex Beanie Baby from her friend Jayden. I'm writing this post now 3 weeks after her birthday and this little guy is still her favorite toy and comes almost everywhere with us. It's so cute and I was happy to text this picture to Jayden and his mom that night to let them know how much she loved the gift. We also got to read the Dinosaur Train bedtime story from Paloma that night, which can be seen on Madelyn's lap.