Seth is Driving!

Seth got his driver's permit yesterday! Not too many kids get a car when they get their learner's permit.....but Seth did. We went to Steak N Shake for dinner and he got a 55 Sunbird.

Father-Daughter Dance

Jenna's school hosted a father-daughter/mother-son dance last night. Jenna was so excited to go with Steve. She saved her money and bought a new dress for the occasion and she would not allow Steve to see the dress until she was completely ready for the dance. (She even picked out what Steve would wear so they would coordinate!) They made an evening out of it and went out to eat at Olive Garden before the dance.

Since Steve and Jenna were going out, Seth and I went out too. We went to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and then to Books-A-Million to look around. Seth was estatic that he found a book for just 98 cents! The evening wouldn't be complete without dessert so we went to Target to get ice cream (Ben and Jerry's!) to take home to enjoy while watching the Olympics.

GREAT WOLF LODGE

Last year on a whim I entered an on-line sweepstakes for a family package for Mason County, OH (right outside Cincinnati, OH). I ended up winning one of the 30 packages that included a three day, two night stay at the Great Wolf Lodge, a $100 gas card and four two-day passes to Kings Island Amusement Park. We decided we didn't want to use everything on one trip. Great Wolf Lodge has an indoor water park, so we wanted to take full advantage of that and then use the Kings Island passes another time. We finally made time to go this past weekend since the kids were off school on Monday for President's Day. The original plan was to drive to OH on Sunday morning but due to the forecast for that day for bad weather moving into TN and KY, we left Saturday afternoon and got a room at a Comfort Suites at the same exit at Great Wolf. This actually worked out better because we had a full day on Sunday to enjoy Great Wolf. We arrived at the lodge about 9:15 and they allowed us to register and use the facilities before checking into our room. Great Wolf Lodges are known for their indoor water park. It was a lot of fun! They have about four water slides - one which is automated and like a roller coaster - a lazy river, a wave pool, a regular pool, a kiddie pool and 2 kiddie slides, and 2 hot tubs.

On Monday morning we woke up to winter storm warnings and snow! And snow it did - it was snowing when we woke up (Seth even ate breakfast out on the balcony in the snow!) and it snowed all day without stopping. (It was still snowing Tuesday morning.) There was about 8" of new snow when we left on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun being inside an 84 degree room riding water slides and watching all the snow outside. We had to check out on Tuesday morning, but Jenna and Steve went to the water park for an hour while Seth and I hung out reading in the lobby. We had lunch at Skyline Chili before leaving Cincinnati. I was concerned about travel conditions, but OH and KY had the interstates clear and we had no problems getting back to TN.

We had a lot of fun at Great Wolf Lodge. Now we just need to make time to go back to Cincinnati to use our passes for Kings Island.

We got a kick out of the picture on the left. The door said the outdoor pool was open "weather permitting". The outside sign says "Danger..Pool Closed". With 8" of new snow outside these signs made me laugh.

SNOW DAY PART 2

Jenna heading down the hill! Look out below!!

Seth enjoying his turn down the hill on the wakeboard.

Sometimes we southerners have to be very creative in what we use for sleds!

Ice on our neighbor's tree this morning.

Getting creative in ways to get around on the ice. This is Seth in our driveway using his hockey stick and wakeboard.

Seth discovered the perils of sledding on ice without gloves. (Noticed he put some gloves on AFTER he messed up his hand?)

SNOW DAY

The forecasters didn't disappoint us this time. Their predictions of snow and sleet were correct! Schools were cancelled already yesterday at 5:45 p.m. in anticipation of the "major" snowstorm. (We have learned since living in the south that "major" usually means a dusting of snow - if that.) This time "major" meant "major". It started to snow in Spring Hill at about 10:45 a.m. and we got about a 3" accumulation. It's been snowing all day and around 4:00 switched over to sleet. I can hear the sleet hitting the window while I'm typing. In watching the late afternoon news, we might get another 3" of snow overnight. Thankfully Steve's office closed early and he was home before the roads got too bad. We all played outside for awhile. Jenna has been outside the most playing with her friends. Seth and some of the younger boys in the cul-de-sac cleared off an area to play hockey. All they needed were the ice skates! Today was the perfect day for a big pot of baked potato cheese soup and some crusty bread. I always like baking on snow days and made some chocolate chocolate chip cookies. We're ready to hunker down for the evening and play some Wii and watch DVD's. As long as the electricity stays on, we'll be fine.

Papa Johns Bowl

We had high hopes for the day as we headed south on I-65 to attend the Papa Johns Bowl game in Birmingham, AL to watch USC vs UConn. It was a cold day and we had snow flurries on our way to Alabama. We got to the stadium about 10:15 and it looked like a home USC football game - USC tailgate tents and fans everywhere. It was a fun, upbeat atmosphere. We walked around the Fan Zone then headed back to the van to eat lunch before heading into the stadium. We went into the stadium about 12:15 for a 1:00 kickoff. Both UConn and USC's bands played for pregame. Immediately upon the first USC drive, we knew it was going to be a long afternoon. Like the guy behind us said, "USC brought the fans; UConn brought the football team." It was a terrible day for the Gamecock faithful. USC lost 20-7. On a bright note for me, I enjoyed seeing both marching bands play for pregame and halftime. Seth enjoyed watching and hearing the bands too. The UConn band was directly across the field from us so we heard them a lot during the game. They have an incredible sound. It was cold throughout the game and because the way the team was playing, many of the USC fans started to leave mid-way thru the 3rd quarter. We stuck it out til about 5 minutes left to go in the game and we left too - missing USC's only score of the game. Thankfully the stadium personnel had a great plan in place for traffic flow and it took us no time at all to get onto the interstate to head back home. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for some comfort food for dinner. After getting home, Jenna was checking her email and when she signed onto the computer saw the apology from head coach Steve Spurrier to all the 30,000 Gamecock fans who were at the game. Small consolation but it was nice to hear.

Ice Skating

Jenna has been pestering me for at least two years to take her ice skating. I finally took her today. We had a lot of fun and she did fine - which I knew she would since she knows how to rollerblade. She only fell twice (and I didn't fall at all!). Steve stopped by the rink on his lunch hour to watch and took a few pictures.