A Weekend of Us

We needed it desperately. No schedule. No hosting. No plans.

Friday afternoon we skipped town and headed for Grapevine, Texas, where we would stay at the infamous Gaylord Texan until Sunday.

We started the evening eating dinner at the sports bar inside the hotel. (There are 6 different restaurants inside the hotel.)

Luke was thrilled to have some grilled cheese. (His meal of choice the entire weekend.)

Checking out the numerous choo choo trains. 

This is the inside of the Gaylord. You literally never have to leave the hotel. The windows you see are the
balconies to the rooms that overlook the center of the hotel. 

Checking out the Koi.  

Saturday morning from our balcony. (This is all inside. The balconies overlook the center of the hotel
which is also inside, even though it's massive.)

Addison wanted to pose on every single rock we passed (and they were everywhere!).

Still inside! This is the coolest hotel. 

Loving the water.  

The big tree. 

All of Santa's reindeer make an appearance in the hotel somewhere, and they are all
dressed up and were themed according to their names.  

A real life-size gingerbread house. So cool! 

Saturday morning we got to eat breakfast with the characters from Shrek and Puss and Boots. 

The town crier came to seat us. He made us pledge to eat slugs and eyeballs until our breath was stinking. 

It's Shrek! 

Puss and Boots

Addison loved Fiona. She said she was beautiful! 

Strawberries covered in green slime (aka white chocolate)

She earned her Orge ears. 

The slime!

Then we headed to see "Ice!" For the sixth year in a row, the Gaylord hosted their "Ice" attraction. They bring in forty ice artists from China and over four million pounds of ice. This year, their "Ice" attraction was inspired by Dreamworks Shrek the Halls movie.

This dreamworks guy greeted us as we waited in line for our parkas. Yes, parkas. They keep the ice tent
between 12 and 17 degrees to keep the ice from melting. 

Parkas! 



Addy was a little tired of waiting. 



Almost there. 

There it is. Shrek made out of ice.  

Our new friend, donkey.

Fiona and her babies.

The ice slide. They had two slides made of ice that you could slide down.

Addison loved it. 

Luke hated it.

There she is. The dragon is all Luke wanted to see. 

They were pretending to be scared of her. 

At this point, we were cold and ready to get out of the ice tent.

And then we walked into the manger scene all made out of ice. 

It was gorgeous. The picture does it no justice at all.  

After a little rest time in the room, Addison and I headed down to Gingy's to do a little gingerbread house decorating.

This is serious business. 

And she got to meet Gingy. 

I love this picture. 

An entire section of the hotel is made to look like the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. The lights over it were all multicolored.

More rocks! She really wanted to pose there.

And another rock.

You can barely see it, but we caught a sneak peek of a bride and groom
having their  pictures taken. It was awesome!

There she is posing again. 

The bride and groom again. : )

She happily posed while I tried to figure out whether to use that darn flash or not. 

She was entertaining passerby's with her posing. 

A tree made of poinsettias. See above without flash and below with. Maybe I should take a photography class. 

Eating dinner at the Riverwalk Cantina. Yum. 

Those multicolored lights again that I love so much. 

Dinner right by the water. Nothing like it. 

After dinner we headed to the indoor pool and ended our stay with a splash. What a fun weekend away. The Gaylord Texan may very well become a Christmas family tradition for the Dalkes. Neither of the kiddos wanted to leave, and secretly, neither did I. Maybe next year we'll escape for a little longer.

.....day 129 of a year of writing.....