Aaaaaaand...Goodbye, Ohio!

The rest of our stay at Great Wolf Lodge was a lot of fun!  We would totally do this again, with more than a one-night stay, if given the opportunity!  Zaden even had a bit of water fun on Wednesday, but he wasn't nearly as thrilled to be wet as the rest of the crew.  Lucan thought he was big stuff, going around and around in his climbing adventure to the smaller of the big waterslides--he needed a bit of help getting out of the end of the chute in a timely fashion, but otherwise he did great on his own!  Ted and I again took turns going back and forth between the littles and the big kids.  Final verdict:  This family gives the Great Wolf Lodge 16 thumbs up!  Here are a few pics from our stay.

We left close to 3 p.m. and headed to St. Louis, where we stayed the night in a Marriott Residence Inn.  Just in time, too, as we experienced a HUGE thunder/lightning storm about an hour after we got everyone to bed.  Thankfully, everyone (but me!) was sound asleep by the time it rolled in, thoroughly exhausted from all the playtime at the water park!

After mowing through an extensive selection at the continental breakfast, we hit the road again, this time to our friends Craig and Mimi's house, where we stayed overnight at the beginning of our Forever Long Road Trip.  Since we only had one short night together then, it has been fun to just hang out together!

We've only been here a couple of days (since Thursday afternoon), but we've packed a lot in already!

• P90X workouts and morning runs with Mimi!  (Ouch, I'm sore, but I'm motivated to get back into the exercise routine again!)
• A trip to the Legoland Discovery Center (pics here).
• Yummy meals, so far to include lasagna and salad, Craig's super bacon cheeseburgers, and some amazing biscuits and gravy!
• A campfire with s'mores (pics here).
• An early first birthday celebration for Zaden, since he turns one on August 24 and we'll be in flux!  (Pics here.)

Zaden's little party was so fun.  We kept it simple and picked up an individual little red velvet cake with sprinkles at the grocery store for Zaden to have for his very own get-messy feeding frenzy, then got an ice cream cake from Culver's for the rest of us to eat.  Mimi pulled out some birthday decorations, and in a snap the dining room was ready for a PAR-TAY!!  We had a blast watching Zaden experience his first real sugar rush!  It's hard to believe it's been nearly a year since our sweet little guy made an appearance with his daddy halfway around the world!