Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Hot and Cold Running Fun

We may have packed more fun into this past weekend than is allowed by law.

For the third year in a row we headed for a weekend at a water park hotel. This year we headed back to Six Flags Great Escape Lodge.

After check-in, we headed for the water park. It was interesting to see how braver the girls were this year. They both hightailed it to the kiddie pool and conquered the slide that had challenged them last year.

The river ride that had made them a bit nervous last year was no sweat to newly-brave Stella. She not only floated down the river... she did it this year with no inner tube to cling to. She propelled herself down the river so fast that, at times, daddy was left far behind. Marni, on the other hand, was still a bit timid.

Also new this year was the girls' willingness to take on the big water slides. Both girls went down the slides with mommy and daddy; and Stella even went down the slides by herself!

The final conquest was the Avalanche Family Raft Ride. Lisa and I had screwed up enough courage to take on that ride last year... sans kids. This year we took the offspring along for the ride. Stella was all for it, but Marni was reluctant until we got to the front of the line. We all got in the large raft, and away we went down a pitch black tube at breakneck speed.

Lisa and I had a very firm grasp on Marni as we rocketed down the tube. Lisa also had a hand on Stella. Luckily, when we reached the bottom, there were still four of us in the raft. And... we were all smiling!

Marni allowed us to do the same raft ride again the next day, but she put her foot down when we tried to do it a third time. Maybe next year.

This year our visit to the Lake George area coincided with the Winter Carnival. At Lisa's insistence, we headed to the carnival Sunday morning. After playing with some ice sculptures, we walked down to the frozen lake where the three ladies took a real-live dog-sled ride around the lake. And, because that wasn't fun enough, Stella and I took a helicopter tour of the Lake George area. That was fantastic!

Before we left the lake, the girls got in a couple of strings of ice bowling. But instead of a ball, they tried to knock over the pins with frozen chickens.

We headed back to Brooklyn on Monday which also happened to be Valentine's Day. And in keeping with the romantic theme of the day, we stopped off at Canfield Casino where Lisa and I got married eight years ago. The girls were very excited to see where the event of the century took place.

Who knew that we would have two wonderful cutie-pies when we walked down the aisle that June day?


Attempting to stay seated on their ice sofa.

Dog sled ride.

Stella ice-bowling with a frozen chicken.

Marni ice-bowling with a frozen chicken.

Stella and daddy on their Stellicopter ride.

The girls visit our wedding location.

Marni playing the "jump across the beds" game.








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Saturday, February 5, 2011

Top of the Pops

For whatever reason, I've always had a fondness in my heart for little girls singing along to pop tunes on the radio. So, when Stella was finally bitten by the pop-bug late last year, I was thrilled.

It started in the car. If I had a top-40 station on the radio, I began to hear faint voices signing along to the songs. Even though many of the words were wrong, it was still adorable.  Stella started first, and (as always) Marni picked it up a short time later.

Where they originally heard the pop songs, I am not sure. We rarely listened to top-40 in the car. But there's no stopping it now.

The words are still wrong.
The pitch is way off.
But I love it!





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