Officially waterlogged

Victoria, Ciera and Tienna "we're here......"

Last Friday could not come soon enough for Ciera, she had been looking forward to this day for weeks....we were heading to Niagara with her friend Victoria (and her parents) for a night at Great Wolf Lodge.   Thursday night Ciera came downstairs with her little suitcase packed, when I asked what was in it I was impressed...she had a pair of PJ's, 2 shirts and 2 pairs of pants, I asked "what about underwear and socks?"  "oh yeah" and she scooted back upstairs for them. 

We were in the car all of 5 minutes when she asked "are we there yet?", she does it as she knows it drives me insane!!!  I had planned our departure to coincide with Tienna's naptime, my thinking was...ok she will sleep on the 1.5 hour drive and she will be good for the afternoon, Ciera was under strict instructions not to play, tickle, or talk with her sister in the car or there would be "big trouble", Ciera stood up to her end of the bargain, Tienna however did not.  Tienna was wide awake the whole drive there...sigh.

We arrived at 2:00PM and by 2:30 we were in our bathing suits and in the waterpark. 

Victoria and Ciera all ready to hit the water



The whole family set to go!



What a fun place, Ciera was up and on a waterslide before I could even blink, I was surprised that she was not even hesitant, and proud that she is really coming into her own and out of her safety shell.  Tienna was in baby glee...all this water!!! 

She would lead you to where she wanted to be, in little water fountains, puddles, it didn't matter.  By 5:00 her little knees were all scraped from crawling around on the tile floor.  

Ciera was up and down slides, in and out of the water all afternoon.  Our friends were wonderful and would watch Tienna so Ciera and I could go on slides and spend some time alone.  3 hours of water fun and then a bath for the 3 kids, life is good!

We signed the older girls up for the "PJ Party" and we dropped them off in their PJ's at 7:00, and we put our bathing suits back on so we could enjoy some almost kid free time at the waterpark.  Again we took turns with Tienna and I had a blast.  

Ciera had a great time at the PJ party, again no hesitation about me leaving, I had to call her back for a hug and a kiss.  By 9:45 we were all back in our room and Tienna was having her bottle and we all thought wow she is going to crash hard, she had been up since 8:00 and going hard all day.  By 10:00 she was crashed in her pack and play.  We had some snacks, some quiet time and then it was off to bed for the older girls.......Tienna woke up as they were coming in.  When I say woke up, she didn't just cry softly this was full out wailing....for a good 15 minutes, but somehow Victoria managed to fall asleep while Ciera lay in bed with her hands over her ears.  Ok, the kids were now all asleep...phew...back to the couch for mom to relax for a bit.

I finally went to sleep and poof at 11:30 full out wailing again from Tienna, rigid body, eyes not even open just wailing...loudly.  I understand, it was dark, she had no idea where she was and why, heck last time she slept somewhere different her whole world turned upside down.  It took me an hour to get her back to sleep.   I flaked out.....until 1:30AM full out wailing again..........nothing I could do to console her...I gave her a bottle....nope...I rocked her..nope....changed her diaper...nope.  Poor Victoria got down off the coveted top bunk and went to the bed in the other room with her parents.  Ciera woke up, "why is Tienna cuddling with you?" I get asked accusingly "I'm trying to get her to sleep Ciera, I did the same with you when you were a baby".  Finally I decided to just have Tienna lie down on me and we'd sleep this way....bear in mind I am in a small single bed, thank goodness on side was up against a wall.  Tienna settles down...it's now 3:30AM...I hear soft crying from the other bed....Ciera.  "what's wrong?"..."why does Tienna get to sleep with you?"....oh for crying out loud..."ok come over here and don't knock her she's asleep now".  So Ciera curled up at the bottom of the bed across my legs, I had pillows on one side to allow me to not sleep with the wood frame on my back and Tienna on me with a pillow on my other side she if she rolled she would not hit the wall.  She woke up a couple other times but I was able to settle her quickly.   Not much sleep for any of us that night.

By 11:00AM we were back in the waterpark......with a bit less enthusiasm than the previous day.  We stayed for about 2 hours and then after asking Ciera "are you sure you don't want to go on anything else?" "no mom I want to go to the arcade", we hung out in the arcade for an hour as Tienna got more and more miserable......yep she was tired...really?  I can't imagine why :-)






Tienna on her first "ride", please note Ciera with the big sister  hand protectivley on her sisters leg!



End of day 2......too pooped to smile

As we walked to the car Ciera was sniffling..."why are you crying?" "I don't want to go home, I love Niagara Falls, I wish we could live here","I wanted to go on more water slides" this continued for quite a while until she fell asleep.   Tienna was asleep pretty much before we left the parking lot!  I drove home the long way so they could both get some sleep.



Princess Ciera on the way home



Princess Tienna on the way home (it's hard to catch a car shot of her as she is still rear facing!)

 Even that night as Ciera went to bed she was crying "I wish we could live there, it's fun"..."yes honey and that's why it's called a vacation".

Ciera is still refusing to take off her wrist band.....guess she had fun!!!  Let's just say Saturday night was a quiet and early bed night at our house!!!!



Tienna when I went in her room at 6:00PM when I went to wake her up for dinner!!

Hmm...... no wonder she was not overly thrilled when I took her swimming yesterday morning, I guess she was still waterlogged!!!