ICE and SNOW

J and I took the boys to ICE and SNOW at the Gaylord Palms Resort on Saturday.  If you’ll recall, J won two adult tickets to the event when he won the pumpkin carving contest back in October.  We were happy that J did not have to be in DC on our ticket date although the friend who gave them to us would have happily traded tickets with us if we found ourselves in a bind.

I took the boys to ICE last year with B and Steph.  While the event was awesome in 2009, I have to report that it has much improved for 2010.  Santa Claus was there, we were treated to steaming cups of hot chocolate, the boys were able to e-mail Santa their Christmas wish at kiosks set up in the hall…  It was all very neat and definitely put us in the Christmas spirit!

Many things were the same like the nifty blue parkas, the ice slides and amazing colored ice displays.  Nine degrees once again proved to be too cold for my camera.  It locked up after an hour or so of below freezing temps.  At least it worked long enough for me to capture some good pictures.

Perhaps the best improvement to the event was the addition of SNOW!  Wildman was thrilled as you can see!  Cutie Pie was feeling a bit under the weather and refused to participate in anything snow related.

That didn’t prevent Wildman from enjoying the powdery stuff with gusto…

It was perhaps the only chance that Wildman will ever get to go tubing on snow in Central Florida!  He had so much fun!

The cherry on top of our wonderful day came when Wildman won the hourly raffle at SNOW!  He played several carnival games for raffle tickets and ended up winning his pick of prizes when they called his number.  The prized husky now has a place of honor on Wildman’s bed.

I think going to ICE and SNOW needs to be a family tradition!

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Ice, Ice, Baby! Too Cold! Too Cold!

Steph, B and I took a little-kid-mini-vaca on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  We removed all 6 children from school and pointed the SUVs toward Orlando.  We had a mission and that mission was ICE!

Here in Florida, where our December lows barely graze 50 degrees, we have no choice but to artificially create a Winter Wonderland.  The Gaylord Palms thoughtfully set up such a place for us to visit.  A place carved from over 2 million pounds of ice.  Thank goodness the kiddies brought their mittens (thanks to the Target $1 bin) because it was COLD!  Like 9 degrees cold.  We Floridians have thin blood, you know.

The sexy blue parkas that were provided did help to keep us quite toasty though.

Most of the ice sculptures were illuminated by colorful lights.  We entered into an Alaska-themed Eskimo fishing pond first.  Gorgeous!

There were many warning signs along the way.

Wildman, being Wildman, did not take heed when we came to the ice carousel.

I wonder how many other kids have licked that same deer’s ear…  The kids were allowed to sit on the carousel animals because they had plastic saddles.  Don’t think we were breaking all of the rules…

There was this scary Santa carving that we made 5 out of the 6 kids climb up to and strike a pose.  Only the little girl in our group refused.  Smart girl!  Talk about dead-behind-the-eyes!

We came to ice slides at the end of our tour.  They were a huge hit with the children and adults alike.  We stayed in the slide room for half an hour freezing our tails off watching the kids take turn after turn zooming down the chutes.  It was so awesome!  Although I lost feeling in my hand and feet by this point.  I should have bought some mittens…

I think it is safe to say that my boys had a wonderful time!