Vacation

The James family is on vacation.  School let out yesterday at noon and as soon as we could we loaded up the van and took off.  The kids thought we were going to Copalis Beach off the coast of Washington, but instead we surprised them by going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound first. 
The kids helped us quickly to unload the van and changed into their swim suits.

At one point, Bonnie commented that this would be a great place to hang out with friends.  Little did she know that we had invited our friends, the Townleys, to come out to Great Wolf to play with us since they live just a few minutes away.  They liked the idea so much that they booked a room for themselves.  Now the kids have Brent and Tiffany to hang out with while Todd and I could hang out with their parents, Chris and Michelle.  Just a side note...twenty years ago to the day, Chris stood up with Todd as his best man in our wedding while his wife, Michelle, helped to decorate our car with tissue paper and tin cans. lol 

  The Townleys are heading over to Leavenworth this weekend to dedicate a bench to their dad, Bryce, who passed away last September.  Bryce was the director of the boys ranch where Todd lived when he was thirteen.  Their family has been a big part of Todd's life.  Our kids were really bummed when they heard they were going to miss seeing all of the Townleys so they were especially excited to find that they would have two days with them to enjoy.  Tomorrow we will head over to their house to visit for a little while before heading off to the beach.

 Coming out of the Howling Tornado.  

This was the first ride we went on when we got to the water park.  Little did I realize that it is the scariest of them all.  Guess who ended up going down it backwards?!  Yep, me!  Then you glide straight up the wall until you think you are going to fall out of the tube then down the wall and up the other side.  Back and forth a few times before spiraling down the tubes to the end.  I haven't gotten up the nerve to go down it again, but the kids have been down it lots.

 It took Bryce a couple of times before he finally realized that he is just too tall to walk across the lily pads.

Warming up in the hot tub.

 We have a couple of other surprises in store for the kids.  On our last day of vacation we are planning on driving up the Washington coastline to visit Forks, WA.  Then we will take a drive through the rain forest.  Catch a ferry across Puget Sound and finally head home.