Ice Castle

Tonight we drove up to Midway to visit the Ice Castle there. It looked surreal and beautiful and so cool! Loved the patterns and shapes, so pretty!

The drive to and from took more time than the actual event for us, but that's cause we only did a quick in and out.

We could have stayed longer, but I wasn't sure what to expect with this being our first time. I recommended that the children attire themselves in pants, socks, and shoes or boots. Lily, our feisty four year old, didn't want to go. So she was just kinda grabbed and forced into the car with the few things we nabbed on our way. Next time we'll make sure she dresses warmer, cause she mad most of the time. But then again, she's just a little Jekyl & Hyde persona right now anyway and I assume will be for the next 6 months until she turns 5. Still, overall I think it was a good surprise and since it was a fresh and new experience, I trust the awe and memory of it will be strong.

Ethan and Melodie were both trying to document with their phone cameras. I told them they can take pictures if they want, but I am the official document-er of family outings. Thus I had to take a picture of them taking a picture.

Lily and Sophia both wanted Corey to hold them and they loved the ice castle from this vantage point. And this here is not an easy thing to do: carry two toddlers as you walk through ice and snow. Being as he stayed up until 3 a.m. helping our friend Eduardo translate (long story there...) he was pretty wiped out already and thus didn't hold them both for very long. As I said, Lily was not well prepared. She didn't bring gloves and was quite unhappy. The phrase the kids repeated the most often during the excursion was "My hands are cold" by Lily... (See Sophia holding a purse there, these little girls are so cute)

and the next phrase runner up was Abi, Wesley and Hyrum all looking inside the tiny icicle caves and saying "I wish I was a Lego!!!".

Those minifigures would have had such a grand adventure in that ice castle, it would have been like them climbing Mt. Everest.

After having enough of Lily's wailing, I volunteered to help not ruin everyone elses' experience by taking her to the car. So with Natalie in tow, Lily and I tried to leave for the exit. It was slow going. Lily faced her trial better when she thought we were on our way out and thus wasn't complaining as we shuffled out way to the exit. I held her hands against my leg. I let her guess as to which path led to the car, and so with her guidance we were able to hang out in the castle a bit longer. When we got to the car, I turned on the hot air and she kicked off her boots and was happy with me in the front seat. We must have taken a long time getting out of the castle, cause we were only in the car heating ourselves up for about 1 minute when everyone else showed up ready to leave. Then Lily got mad at me when I told her she had to go sit in her booster. "I wish I was never in this family!"  My reply "Love you Lily, into the back seat you go..." Her reply: "I'm going to find a new family!" Abi chimed in here with a reply that made me laugh out loud "But Lily, if you do, then you'll find a even worser family!" Yup, can't get much worser than us, ha! :)