Grapevine Vacation!!!!

Last weekend was our family vacation to Grapevine, TX. It's a good 5 hour drive for us from the coast and I was dreading the drive. Long drives drive me crazy!!!!!!!!

LONG post ahead...beware!!!

On Thursday afternoon, we drove an hour to Houston and checked into our hotel for the night since we had plans there that night. We took the children to dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was one of the nicest restaurants our children have ever been to. They behaved PERFECTLY. After dinner, we ran upstairs to change into nicer clothes to go to the symphony.

That's right...we took our boys to the symphony. The Bugs Bunny Symphony to be exact. We had a great time listening to the orchestra play music as the cartoons flashed on the screen.

The next morning, we loaded up bright and early to get on the road. We stopped in Huntsville, home of my husband's college, Sam Houston State University, and visited the Sam Houston Memorial.

This was actually really fun and very educational. The kids posed by a replica of Sam Houston's head....

and we took pictures by the full statue.

The memorial center gave us stickers and lots of really interesting pamphlets we discussed on the next leg of the trip.

By noon, we were checking into our hotel for the next 4 days...GREAT WOLF LODGE!!!!! This place is amazing!!! I highly, HIGHLY recommend it.

We grabbed some pizza while we waited for our room to be ready. This room was awesome!!! It had a separate little log cabin room with bunks and a flat screen for the kids :)

We toured the hotel, mapped out all the places we wanted to visit, and started MagiQuest...a treasure hunt that takes place on all 8 floors of the hotel.

Caleb and Jansen got an activity book with 10 quests, each with riddles to artifacts that had to be found IN ORDER. We learned the "in order" part the hard way after going 5 flights of stairs thinking we had completed the quest.

The boys had to take a brief break from becoming Magi to take a trip to Medieval Times. The hubs and I had never been there and we all agreed that it was our FAVORITE part of the trip. We were transported back to medieval days with crowns and drinks, and led into our Red Knight row. They gave us red flags so that we could cheer on the famous Red Knight. The food was completely delicious and we all had the BEST time.

Saturday morning we got up early to restart MagiQuest until time to head to Lego Land. Really, really fun! Caleb made a Lego race car that won its race, Jansen made a replica of the Great Wolf Lodge, we saw miniatures of Dallas made of Legos, rode the Lego ride and shot at the bad guys, watched the 4D movie and got pelted with icy cold snow, and shopped in the official Lego Store.

Across the street from Lego Land was the Sea Life Aquarium....which we hit up next.

Very disappointing for the adults. They only let in a certain amount of people at a time and you had to go through each exhibit in a line...not so much at your own pace. The kids enjoyed it so that is all that mattered.

We spent the rest of the day at GWL Water Park!!! This place is amazing!!!! We all went down the 3 story twisty slides on inner tubes and had a blast. The hubs had rented a cabana for that day...the first time we had ever been in one. It had a tv, a loaded mini fridge, a table we played cards at, and a fan!

They keep it 84 degrees in the park at all times. The boys were swimming in the lazy river and the wave pool for the rest of the day. Way, way fun!

Sunday morning we woke up, grabbed some breakfast at the buffet,

and headed to the Vintage Railroad for a trip to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

We were in a Victorian train car with an attendant that gave the kids chips and popcorn.

On the way to the stockyards, the train was robbed.

Thank goodness the Sheriff came to make all the children on board deputies.

Once we got to Fort Worth, we shopped and ate some delicious food at Riscky's BBQ.

Once back at the hotel, we continued the MagiQuest, and then swam until the staff had to kick us out. MagiQuest was completed!!!! 89 flights of stairs and 3 days of playing and the kids finally completed the quest and became Master Magi. This is their team...Mario and Sonic...on TV.

They were so proud!

Monday we took our time playing at the hotel

and then took the long drive home. The boys were so good and the hubs and I agreed that this was our most fun, successful family vacation yet! What a blast!!!!