Griswold Adventures

A chronicle of our journey becoming a family of 4 and enjoying every moment!

[griswoldadventures]

Riley: Quarantine in Pictures

We’ve been spending nearly all of our time at home the past few months. Riley is living life to her fullest, dressing in fun costumes and always looking to be silly. Here’s a sampling:

Batman footie pajamas

Goofy faces at dinner

Sitting in the doorway in the basement, with a blanket on, listening to music from Frozen II. 

Police officer top, ballerina skirt, and fancy heels

Full unicorn ballerina costume “working at home”

Ski jacket, with hood, while reading a book to her baby doll (sleeping under the Finding Nemo towel)

Taking a nap on the floor with her mermaid blanket

Trying on daddy’s new helmet

Gotta love this girl!

[griswoldadventures]

Quarantine 2020 - COVID-19

In late January 2020, a new virus that was identified in China in December 2019, had spread to other countries, including the US. In February, cases and deaths started to increase and in March, community transmission became a concern and countries started to shutdown borders. WHO declared a global health emergency on January 30 and a national emergency was declared on March 13. Social distancing recommendations were put in place to prevent people from gathering in large groups. There were travel bans and shelter in place orders issued by state governments, issues with insufficient numbers of reliable tests, and conflicting information shared through the media. Businesses closed their doors and those that could were working from home. Throughout the rest of March, April, and May, COVID-19 continued to spread and hospitals became overwhelmed as there were not enough beds, PPE, and ventilators to support all of the infected patients. 

From the end of March through the end of May, I was part of the International Task Force at CDC, coordinating the global response to COVID-19. Working very long hours, but from my makeshift office upstairs, we were supporting 40+ countries that were struggling to develop adequate surveillance and an understanding of what was going on, to build the necessary capacity to respond and support their people. All while the US government was cutting ties with WHO and conflicting messages from key leaders were being shared. 

On March 7, I went to Costco first thing in the morning to grab a few essentials. This was relatively early in the pandemic, but panic had already started to settle in and for some reason, people began hoarding things like bottled water and toilet paper. I got to Costco just as they were opening and nearly every cart I passed had a package of bottled water and a package of toilet paper. Not because they needed it, but because they were worried it wasn’t going to be available. As a result, our country was out of stock of these essential items (as well as soap and hand sanitizer) for more than two months. This was my last trip to Costco until late May. 

As communities shifted to social distancing and businesses began to close their doors, roads and parking lots were empty, students were turning to distance learning, employees (including me and Marc) were working from home, restaurants were offering curbside pickup and delivery, gas prices plummeted, and companies like Netflix and Disney+ starting offering specials - like Frozen 2 being released on Disney+ 2 months early!

As gyms closed their doors, I started running outdoors, which I normally hate to do, but needed to get out of the house! 

As our time sheltering in place continued, things like getting Jackson a haircut remained impossible, so Marc became a barber for the day and did a pretty decent job!

I actually loved working from home and not having to go into the office. Avoiding the nearly 2 hour roundtrip commute was fantastic and while I had a TON of phone calls throughout the day, and ending up working until midnight some nights, it was much easier to balance time with family when my office was just upstairs. And the kids didn’t seem to mind not going anywhere other than school or home!

When things started to shut down because of COVID-19, Primrose stayed open and Jackson and Riley continued to go to school each day. Marc and I were both working at home, but our schedules were crazy and it was going to be impossible to keep them both home while still meeting our work obligations. So, we sent them to school each day and their school implemented new guidelines - curbside drop off, temperature checks every 2 hours, limited class sizes, no movement throughout the day, etc. It wasn’t the best situation, but we were as comfortable as we could be and trusted the school and the teachers. The kids also appreciated the normalcy in their routine. 

One of the best parts of this whole ordeal was the spring weather. We spent much more time outdoors than we normally would, or at least on our own schedule because there weren’t as many planned activities that we had to get to. And with the exception of about 2 weeks of bad pollen, the weather was gorgeous for most of April-June, not too hot, rainy, or buggy. We loved playing outside - riding bikes/cars, going on walks, playing with chalk, etc.

Jackson also successfully learned how to ride a 2-wheeler with no training wheels!

And as it got warmer, we spent every opportunity possible in the pool!

And on rainy days, we introduced the kids to Xbox and they had fun playing racing games with daddy in the movie theater!

By June, businesses started opening up again. Social distancing measures were still encouraged, including wearing cloth masks in public. For the most part, we continued to stay home, especially as the number of cases/deaths were not declining and there was an expectation that they would start going up again once people started gathering in larger groups. All things considered, we managed things pretty well. It was definitely challenging at times, but we had it much better than a lot of other people. Don’t forget to wear your mask!

[griswoldadventures]

Colorado Ski Trip

We had a lot of trips in 2019 and were all happy to have spent some time at home in December, but we had one more trip planned. We decided that the kids were at a great age to try out skiing for the first time, so we planned a ski trip to Colorado. We opted to travel west because the snow in New England is always unpredictable and we all wanted a trip with as much real snow as possible, on a bigger mountain. We have some friends that are living in Colorado now, so we worked out dates with them and made the trip in January. Our hope was that we’d have good weather, and hopefully avoid some crowds. We booked the trip as a long weekend, arriving on Thursday and returning home on Tuesday. 

We had three free plane tickets to use, and we flew into Denver and then booked a shuttle to take us to Winter Park. The kids did great on the plane. It helps that as they get older they can sit still longer, and are happy to play games and watch videos on their Kindles, using their headphones most of the time. 

We ultimately decided on Winter Park after doing a lot of research on different ski mountains. Our friends were living just outside of Aspen and just outside of Denver, so we wanted to be somewhere in the middle. We also wanted somewhere that catered to families and had activities for kids, and somewhere that we could stay slope-side. Winter Park rose to the top of our list. As we were looking into lodging options, we wanted at least 2 bedrooms and a kitchen, but also wanted to be as close to the lifts as possible, since we knew it’d be tough to transport all of our stuff and we weren’t planning to have a car. 

We got a good deal on a 2-bedroom unit at the Zephyr Mountain Lodge. The unit was a bit smaller than we might have wanted, but we sacrificed space for location, which I think was a smart decision. The unit had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a small living room with a fireplace, and a small, but well-equipped kitchen. 

We initially planned on the kids sharing a bed in the 2nd bedroom, but it didn’t really work well the first night - they woke each other up a couple of times and clearly weren’t excited about having another person in their bed. So, we got a pack and play for the rest of the time and put it in the bathroom for Riley. We transitioned Riley to a big girl bed in November, so we weren’t sure if she’d actually stay in the pack and play, but it ended up working pretty well. She was happy to sleep there and didn’t mind the bathroom at all. Phew! 

Our unit also had a balcony and a great view of the mountain and the gondola, which was right next door!

The best part of staying at Zephyr was the location. It was perfect for everything that we needed. The Village at Winter Park was literally right outside our door, giving us easy access to several restaurants, shopping, and kids activities. 

Winter Park, like more and more ski resorts, offers a wagon service for families, something that made a huge difference for us! Each morning, we found a wagon, usually just outside our building, loaded the kids and all of their stuff (as well as some of our stuff) and were on our way. 

We didn’t really have to leave the Winter Park village area at all during our stay. There was a small general store that was well stocked with things like breakfast foods, milk, cheese, bread, mac & cheese, soup, and snacks, so while the prices were a little high, we could easily get everything that we needed. There were also several restaurants, including a good takeaway pizza option that also offered several local craft beers. 

There were also fun things for the kids - an ice skating rink (that we didn’t actually use), musical instrument stations, a Coca-Cola polar bear to climb on, a candy store, and a fun wooden train playground. 

There was also a cabriolet lift that was used to transport people to one of the overflow parking lots. While we didn’t need to go to the parking lot, the lift was fun for the kids to ride on!

We had 4 full days in Winter Park, and opted for 3 days of skiing - a 1/2 day on Friday afternoon, and then a full day on Saturday and Monday. After a full day of traveling and 3 hour time change on Thursday, we took things slow on Friday morning before getting our gear on and heading over to lessons just after lunch. The kids were very excited to get their skis and meet their instructor. We dropped them off inside the ski school building each day, where they put their things in a cubby, and usually sat down and colored. They were able to stay together the whole time, which I think definitely helped things. 

They ended up having a different instructor each day, but had so much fun and were eager to back each time! By the end of the third day, they had both mastered the pizza wedge stop and Jackson was starting some pretty strong turns. Riley’s focus was still on maintaining her balance and not falling over.

Their lessons were a lot of work and they were pretty beat at the end of each day! But, they were troopers and really did great - especially because they didn’t have any real down time/naps and we ended up eating late dinners and not getting to bed on time. 

On our last day, after picking them up from lessons, we took them up the gondola. The mountain was very quiet and we were able to ride the gondola alone and enjoy the views on the way up. 

We got out and walked around a bit at the top of the mountain and watched some skiiers and snowboarders as we made our way back down again. 

While 3 days of lessons for the kids was not a cheap option, we knew that they’d do better with someone other than us teaching them, and we were also excited about the opportunity to spend some time on the mountain alone. While Marc had been snowboarding a couple of times in the past few years, I hadn’t been in over 5 years, since before Jackson was born. Since we were going to have the kids on skis and it’d been so long, I opted to try out skis this trip. I hadn’t been skiing in about 20 years, so I wasn’t really sure how it would go, or if I’d need a refresher lesson, but I threw the skis on and up the lift we went!

Surprisingly, it went pretty well and things came back to me pretty quickly. I was still a bit hesitant to get too much speed (mainly because I didn’t want to have to get up if I fell!), but was linking turns before too long and definitely didn’t miss the snowboard when I was on the chair lift or the catwalks. And there were a lot of catwalks!

While we weren’t allowed to go into the ski school area of the mountain, we could see the kids down below as we were making our way down the mountain. They had fun on the magic carpet and on their last day they took a snowmobile to another area of the mountain where they could start practicing their turns. They couldn’t stop talking about it!

We really lucked out with the weather on this trip. It was cold, but not unbearably cold, and it actually snowed a bit every day. And on Friday and Monday things were very quiet and it seemed like hardly anyone was there - no lift lines and no crowds on the mountain at all. 

One of the reasons we picked Winter Park was to meet up with our friends from Mozambique that were now living in Colorado - the Colborns and the Quinns. We last saw them before Riley was born when we traveled to Breckenridge, so we were excited to get together. The Colborns came out on Friday and we ran into them while we were skiing and then had après ski snacks/drinks and dinner. On Saturday, Marc got up early to go out with James and his cousin and then we dropped the kids off at ski school. Marc enjoyed some time exploring other areas of the mountain and not having to wait up for me. Though, while it was nice that it was snowing, visibility wasn’t that great unfortunately. 

After a fun day skiing, we met up with the Quinns and made plans to order some pizza and head over to the Colborns Airbnb for dinner. The kids had fun playing with each other and quickly became good friends. 

The next day, we took a day off from skiing and met up with everyone at Hideaway Park to do some sledding. We took the bus into town and enjoyed some time on the great sledding hill, complete with free sleds that everyone could use.

After everyone else left to head home, the kids played on the playground at Hideaway Park for a bit.

We walked down the street a bit to Fraser Valley Hot Dog for lunch. They had a full menu of gourmet hot dogs and we all thoroughly enjoyed our lunch, which also included local beers from the Hideaway Park Brewery next door. 

There was no seating inside, so we were thankful for the sun and not-so-cold temps while we sat outside and ate our lunch. 

After lunch, we walked around for a bit and then hopped back on the bus to head back to Winter Park, do some shopping, and play on the train playground. 

We all had a great final day of skiing on Monday and a pretty quiet morning on Tuesday before we caught our shuttle to take us back to the Denver airport. We arrived in time to get some snacks in the lounge and get some food to bring with us for dinner on the plane. 

Everyone did great on the flight home and went right to bed when we got home around 11pm (which felt like normal bedtime thanks to the time change). The kids had a great sleep that night and were ready to go back to school in the morning! 

We all had such a great time on this trip and are already looking forward to when we’ll all get back on skis again. It’s one of the more difficult sports to enjoy in the South, but there are a few decent places in North Carolina, and we’re thinking that we might try Vermont next year. 

[griswoldadventures]

Camping Trip

We’ve been spending a lot of time having fun at home, but as the weather has been so nice lately, we thought it’d be a good idea to go on a camping trip...especially before it gets too hot! Marc has been spending a lot of time working on his Land Rover Defender (well, his and Brett’s) and while Marc, Ross, and Jackson went on a camping trip last year, we hadn’t taken a trip as a family yet. 

So, we booked a campsite within a couple hours drive and started getting things ready! 

Camping seemed like a good option to be able to get out while still maintaining social distancing and not worrying about running into too many other people. As things in Georgia started opening up again, parks and campsites were booking up pretty quickly. There were still some restrictions on amenities/activities, but most of the parks allowed camping and had regularly cleaned bathrooms and common areas. We picked Vogel State Park, in a nice area in the Chattahoochee National Forest. We decided to just do a one-night trip (just in case it went horribly and no one slept) on a Sunday night, hoping things might be a bit less crowded. 

We packed everything up -- a LOT of stuff for only one night and were on our way!

Temps had been a bit warmer in the week or so leading up to our trip, but about 10 degrees cooler in the mountains, so things were looking pretty good for our trip. However, we were a bit worried when we saw the rain clouds in the forecast! We had a nice drive up, but it started raining when we were about 20 minutes away. Of course! Thankfully, the rain subsided as approached our site and while things were a little wet, we were able to get things setup without any additional rain. Things did get pretty cold though and temps were in the low 70s and into the 50s overnight, which was great!

We bought our rooftop tent when we were in Mozambique and it has treated us very well over the past several years. It definitely made camping with kids easier - having the comfortable mattress to allow them to sleep a bit better. It was a little challenging getting them up and down the ladder, especially in the dark, but they did well.

The rooftop tent could probably have fit all of us, but the kids move around a lot, so Steph slept on top with the kids and Marc slept in the tent on the bottom on a nice, comfortable ground pad. 

The kids were a bit impatient as we were unpacking and getting things setup, but they played with a soccer ball, did some coloring, and ate lots of snacks. At one point, we just let them sit in their chairs with their kindles so we could get a few things done and start on dinner. 

After dinner, everyone was excited for roasting marshmallows and making s’mores!

One of the other exciting parts of camping was peeing in the woods. There were very clean, nice bathrooms just around the corner, but the kids definitely preferred to pee in the woods. It was easy enough for Jackson, but I’m glad that we decided to bring the training potty for Riley. It also came in handy at 4am when she woke up and had to pee. 

The kids were excited to stay up late on this trip, so we didn’t really start getting them into bed until around 9pm, about 2 hours later than normal. We got them settled in the tent and they were chatting until close to 10pm, but finally went to sleep. At 4am, I woke up to Riley sitting up in the tent and looking out the window. Jackson woke up shortly after that and everyone decided they had to go potty. I had a gatorade bottle that I was planning to let Jackson use and Riley had a pull-up on, but I had to go to the bathroom too, so we all got up and made our way out of the tent. Jackson fell back to sleep pretty quickly, but it took Riley a bit. I was hoping that this would mean they’d sleep in a bit later, but they were both wide awake at 6:30am as the sun was starting to get brighter. They played in the tent for a bit and then we climbed down and had breakfast. 

We didn’t have to be out of our campsite until noon, so the kids played for a bit and then we went for a walk, throwing rocks and sticks in the nearby creek, checking out some of the RVs, and we found a playground. The playground was open and no other kids were on it, so they played for a bit. As we were driving out, we stopped by the lake, and then started our drive home. It started raining maybe 20 minutes after we left the park, so we definitely lucked out on the weather! We took a slightly longer, more scenic drive home and thankfully Riley got a short nap in!

All in all, everyone did great. But, it was a lot of work (mostly for Marc) to get everything setup for only one night, so I think we’ll try for at least 2-nights next time and hope that the kids can do a better job sleeping on the 2nd night, when the novelty has worn off. 

[griswoldadventures]

New Playscape

As we approached the end of our 2nd month following social distancing guidelines, with all playgrounds closed, we decided it was a good time to get a playscape for our backyard. We were hoping to find a nice used set, but not much was available, so we started looking at new ones. Of course, they were all quite expensive, so after some research, we realized our best option was Costco. After calling our 3 nearby Costco stores, only one of them had new stock expected this year, but they couldn’t give us an exact date. So, I called daily in the morning and on day 3, we learned that 3 new sets had arrived. Of course, they couldn’t put them on hold, so we finished up what we were doing and headed over. We successfully grabbed the last set, paid for it, and then Marc and Brett returned later in the evening to pick it up. 

We were initially planning to put it together ourselves, despite the fact that the instructions manual says it takes up to 20 hours. But, we received a call the next day from a guy that works for Costco and has a side business assembling playscapes and gazebos. He had actually meant to call one of the other families that bought a playscape the day before, but we got to talking and decided to pay him (well, his son and a couple of his friends) to assemble ours in the next couple of weeks. BEST. DECISION. EVER. It took the three of them nearly 10 hours to assemble everything and they’ve been doing this for years, having assembled thousands of these. The kids were SO excited to see it put together and they’ve been having a blast playing on it. It’s in a perfectly shady spot in our backyard, so we’re expecting it will get a lot of use this summer!

[griswoldadventures]

Pre-K Graduation

Congratulations Jackson! After an interesting final couple of months, Jackson officially graduated from Pre-K! Jackson’s final two months of Pre-K were a bit different -- a very small class, a new teacher, and an adjusted curriculum. But, they all made it through and we’re so happy the school organized a great drive through graduation! 

All of the cars lined up outside of school, many of which were decorated with signs and balloons. 

Then we had a parade through the parking lot, where we stopped at a few different stations - 1st was getting a graduation cap from Ms. Haley.

Next, they received their diploma and a graduation t-shirt and class picture from Ms. Melissa. And finally, a special treat from Ms. Gennasee. 

We then turned around and once everyone was done, we parked our cars and got out to take some photos and play with friends for a bit....while trying to maintain social distancing. 

Some kids passed out treats/small gifts to their classmates (and their siblings). Riley wanted to dress up for the occasion, so she decided to wear her Elsa dress!

And we all received an adorable yard sign that I plan to keep for high school graduation!

Look how much he grew since August!

We’re so proud of Jackson and so thankful to Primrose and his wonderful teachers. I honestly don’t know what we would have done without them over the past couple of months! Kindergarten, here we come!

[griswoldadventures]

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Jackson wants to be an Engineer like his daddy and Riley initially wanted to be Anna from Frozen, but changed her mind and decided on a doctor!

[griswoldadventures]

Jackson’s 5th Birthday!

Jackson is 5!!! It’s so crazy to believe that time has flown by and our little guy is already 5 years old! This birthday was definitely an interesting one. We were originally planning to forego a birthday party with friends this year and instead take a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. But, with COVID-19 and the quarantine requirements, our trip was cancelled and we instead had a fun day at home with the family. 

Steph has been working crazy hours at work lately, but we all managed to take the day off and have a fun day!

We started the morning with a scavenger hunt. Jackson followed 6 clues and at the end, he found his first present - a new Bakugan!

After special confetti pancakes for breakfast, Jackson opened his presents throughout the day - lots of Legos, Bakugans, and Beyblades. He enjoyed playing with his new toys and having a quiet morning at home. 

For lunch, Jackie, Cody, and Emily came by with a birthday sign, McDonald’s for lunch, and some cupcakes! As well as some more presents. It was great to see them!

For Jackson’s pick for dinner, we ordered pizza and had some Zoom calls with family who wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday!

Jackson requested a race car cake with racetrack and a ramp, so after spending some time on Pinterest, I came up with a pretty decent cake that seemed to meet his expectations!

While this was definitely not how we were expecting to celebrate his birthday, we all had such a fun day. Happy 5th Birthday, Jackson!!

[griswoldadventures]

Easter 2020

We had a nice, quiet Easter at home this year thanks to COVID-19. The Easter Bunny came and left baskets for the kids and hid some eggs in the family room since it was raining outside. Grandparents also sent some gifts for the kids, so there were lots of sweets and fun new toys to play with. 

They also had an Easter Egg Hunt at school, with baskets that they made themselves from old cereal boxes. 

Happy Easter!

[griswoldadventures]

Monster Jam

Daddy and Jackson went to Monster Jam! Jackson loves all things trucks, so we thought he’d enjoy an afternoon downtown with dad to see some real monster trucks in action. They took MARTA downtown and walked to the Mercedes Benz arena. 

We bought tickets the day before, and were able to get pretty decent seats. Of course, the same tickets were like $20 cheaper the day before - so lesson learned on the disadvantages of last minute planning!

Jackson had a great time watching the competition, even though it was just a bit loud! 

While they were gone, Riley got her 2nd haircut, complete with an Elsa braid!

[griswoldadventures]

Riley’s 1st Movie Theater Visit

We finally saw Frozen 2! And Riley enjoyed her first visit to a movie theater, dressed up in her Elsa costume, of course! After watching Frozen more times than we can count over the past couple of months, and enjoying music videos from Frozen 2, Riley was ready to see Elsa & Anna on the big screen. And because she had watched a bunch of YouTube videos, she knew the words to some of the songs and I think that helped keep her attention. Aside from one trip to the bathroom, she sat through the whole thing and loved every minute of it!

[griswoldadventures]

Snow in Georgia!

On February 8, it snowed in Georgia! Snow isn’t very common here, so as soon as we saw the snow was starting to stick, we put our jackets and boots on and went outside!

We built a tiny snowman in the backyard and then went inside to warm up a bit.

But as we were sitting inside, the snow didn’t stop and actually started to pick up a bit and continued to stick. Before long, there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground, so we put our snow pants on and went back outside to play. Had we not gone skiing last month, the kids wouldn’t have any snow pants, so we were thankful for that!

This time, we made a much bigger snowman!

It snowed until 2pm or so. Just enough time for all evening activities to be cancelled, including Parents Night Out at the kids’ school. So, we couldn’t go out as planned, but we had a nice evening in and ordered some take out instead. 

The snow was pretty much completely melted away by the next day. 

[griswoldadventures]

Merry Christmas 2019!

We started getting into the Christmas spirit a bit early this year - our tree and all of our Christmas decorations were up by November 10 and we visited Santa the Saturday after Thanksgiving! This was honestly the smartest thing we’ve done all year! With Steph’s travel schedule for work and other weekend plans, it would have been tough to fit everything into December, so we started early and were able to spread things out and enjoy the holidays a bit more, without as much stress.

Continuing our now 3-year tradition, we made our way to Bass Pro Shops again to visit Santa. They really do have such a great setup - lots of things for the kids to do, wonderful decorations, and a free photo. We got there relatively early and had no wait to see Santa

Riley was happy to talk to Santa this year and accept a candy cane, but she had zero desire to hop up on his lap for a photo! She was very proud of herself for doing it by herself though and mommy was happy that she didn’t have to be in the picture this year!

After pictures, the kids enjoyed some of the free activities - carousel, blocks, Lincoln Logs, and playing in the kinetic sand with monster trucks. Grandma and Grandpa came into town for Thanksgiving, so they got to play with them as well. 

Our Christmas celebration continued with Jackson’s Pre-K holiday performance. He and his friends sang a few different Christmas carols for all of the parents and then did some cookie decorating. 

Jackson made a cute snowman gift for us at school this year. The snowman is as tall as he is. We can’t wait to bring it out each year to see how much he’s grown!

Since we traveled up to Connecticut for the holidays last year and already had a pretty busy couple of months, we decided to stay at home this year. While we missed seeing everyone, it was so nice to stay home and have a relatively quiet holiday. 

We delivered some treats to our neighbors and sprinkled out some reindeer food for Santa’s reindeer. 

Before we moved overseas, Marc and I had a tradition of seeing a movie and eating at Waffle House on Christmas Eve. We’re not ready for late night family movies yet, so an early dinner at Waffle House was a good place to start. It was surprisingly VERY busy - lots of families coming from church. We all enjoyed our waffles and some special gifts from our waitress before we headed home to get ready for Santa.

We had made cookies earlier, so we set those out for Santa, along with some milk. This year, Riley had a special present for Santa - her binkies! After sleeping with at least 3-4 binkies in her bed for the past 3 years, Riley agreed that she was getting big enough to not need them anymore. So, we put them in a cute bag and left them out for Santa to take and give to some babies who needed them. 

The kids were both incredibly excited for Santa to come this year. They both helped build their own Christmas lists and knew exactly what they were hoping for. And, thankfully they’ve both been doing really well lately - playing nicely together, and not driving each other (or us) completely crazy. 

Santa visited overnight and was very nice to all of us this year! The big highlights were the Paw Patrol Mighty Pups Lookout Tower and Hot Wheels garage for Jackson and princess crowns and a big girl princess bike for Riley!

After playing with their new toys, we got dressed and headed over to Jackie and Andy’s for a yummy Christmas dinner!

The kids got some more gifts too, including a remote control car with race track that glows in the dark that they both loved. Riley couldn’t stop playing with it!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

[griswoldadventures]

Great Wolf Lodge

The kids have really been enjoying their swimming lessons and we’ve missed spending time in our pool, so we decided that December was the perfect time to book a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge! It took us just under two hours to get there, and we were able to check right in, get changed, and make our way to the water park. The resort was pretty busy, and there were a lot of different things going on at the same time -- restaurants, shopping, kids activities, mini golf, bowling, rock climbing, ropes course, an arcade, Build a Bear...plus the huge water park! It was honestly a bit overwhelming. But, we were only there one night and the kids were too young for most of the other things, so we focused on the water park. 

There was a nice area for toddlers with a shallow pool, a few small slides and other things to play on. We spent a lot of our time over here, especially as the kids warmed up to the other bigger slides. But, once they got the confidence to go on the big slides, we couldn’t keep them off! 

Neither of them were too excited about the bigger tube slides. We went down once as a family one the one slide that they were both tall enough to ride on and they were both pretty nervous and had no desire to go back on. 

They did really enjoy the lazy river though - and falling in an out of the tubes as we swam around. 

As dinnertime was approaching, we went back up to our room to shower and change. 

Before dinner though, we got in line to meet Santa. There were a lot of people lined up, but it moved pretty quickly once Santa arrived. The kids both gave him a big hug, though Riley was still not keen on sitting on his lap!

Next, we headed to have some dinner. We made a reservation at the sit down restaurant, but in retrospect, it would have been much easier (and faster, and cheaper) to get a pizza or order food at one of the fast-food style restaurants in the food court. The most exciting part of dinner for the kids was watching all of waiters/waitresses sing “Happy Birthday” to what seemed like 10+ people throughout the night. There were definitely a lot of people celebrating their birthday with a special treat and set of birthday ears. By the time dinner was over, it was pretty late and everyone was tired, so the kids went right to bed in their bunk beds. 

The next morning, we were ready to go to the water park a 2nd time and were there as the doors were opening so we could swim for a couple of hours before we had to check out. It was not nearly as busy, which was great. We spent some time in the wave pool because it wasn’t as crowded as the day before. Jackson really enjoyed the waves. 

We then checked out and headed home, stopping at Ponce City Market in Atlanta on our way back to grab some lunch and break up the ride a bit. Santa and the Grinch were on a lunch break, so we missed them, but enjoyed some food and checking out the holiday decorations. 

Jackson has already requested that we book a 2nd trip to come back for his birthday, so we’re looking forward to that!

[griswoldadventures]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Jackson!

[griswoldadventures]

Fall Soccer

In the fall, Jackson played his third season of soccer and was lucky enough to be on Coach Patton’s team again! He’s learning to control the ball, dribble, and score. He still gets a little frustrated when some of the more aggressive kids steal the ball from him, but he’s been having fun!

And Riley has been a trooper during the games. It helps when there are other little sisters to play with!

[griswoldadventures]

Happy 3rd Birthday, Riley!

Riley is three!! We had a fun weekend celebrating Riley’s third birthday, which was all things Frozen. Frozen 2 is coming out in theaters later this month, so everything is Frozen-themed right now. Riley is starting to become obsessed with Frozen, so we’ll wait for the crowds to die down in the theaters and then take her. In the meantime, she loved all of her new toys, balloons, decorations, and her Frozen ice cream cake!

Her birthday was on a Monday this year, so we celebrated with cake and family on Sunday. Jackie & Andy and Ross & Kay came over and Brett and Mike were here working on Brett’s truck. 

Riley got two sets of Anna/Elsa dolls and was very excited to immediately open them both. 

(And yes, that is our Christmas tree, fully decorated on Nov 10. Steph had a work trip to Vietnam in November, so we opted to decorate the house early this year. Best decision ever!!)

Jackson picked out a present for his sister as well - a set of Disney princess figures. She was so grateful!

For her actual birthday, Riley played hooky. Since Steph has Nov 11 off for Veteran’s Day, Riley spent the day out of school. But, we did catch this adorable message when we dropped off Jackson in the morning. 

After dropping off Jackson, Riley had 2 requests - donuts and Target! She didn’t have to pull my arm. Other than the fact that it was 8am, it was a great way to start the day. 

Target had just opened so it was pretty empty and we just spent time doing whatever Riley wanted to do. First up was riding the Sven toy at the front of the store. 

Next, she decided to pose with some mannequins. She stood up there on her own, grabbed their hands, and asked me to take a picture!

And she wanted a picture with the Bullseye, the Target mascot next. 

Then we tried on hats and explored the toy section.

We played outside for a bit and then drove down to meet daddy for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. After nap, Riley watched TV with her new Anna/Elsa dolls and then we picked up Jackson. 

After dinner, Riley opened some more presents and we sang Happy Birthday again with the leftover cake. Happy Birthday sweet Riley! We love you so much!!