Renovations, vacations and other such nonsense

So the other nonsense first.

I have taken 2 minutes off of my 5K run time and actually added distance. So instead of 34 minutes to do 3.1 miles, I can get up to 3.25 miles in 32 minutes and I can easily get that in over my lunch hour. So, I'm pretty stoked about that. I can also report that I am now down 43 pounds. So I'm on tract to be down about 80 pounds by my birthday in December. Awesome.

Now, renovations. So, 2 months ago we discovered water in our bedroom. Yes, water. Lovely when it is in the bathroom and more specifically, in the shower. But in the bedroom, not so much. Especially when it is running under a wall and soaking the carpet. Well, the shower pan cracked and that was the cause of the problems. So since then we have all been using the hall bath (aka the kids bathroom). Now here we are this week we are in the middle of the below scene:
Yes, that is tile you see on the ceiling. More to come after they finish that later tomorrow. So by next week after it is all grouted and sealed, we can have our bathroom back.

Now the cruel irony. We bought this house after it had been redone and all we had to do was move in. Yeah, now. Not so much. Tonight...we are standing in the master bathroom looking at the in-progress renovation/repair of our shower and decide with the new tile going in the wallpaper has to go, the floor in the bathroom really needs redone to match the new shower, and then, and then, and then. So we will see what we do next when we have the money to do so.
Oh my, this is the beginning of the end. Just shoot me now cause here we go.

So vacations. Vacations are nice. And so is this place: Great Wolf Lodge. Here is the outside:

This is is just the lobby: This place was just incredible, from the lobby to the water park to all of the details they take care of.

The room...

We had the Kid Kamp Suite and the kids had their own "camp" in the room. They slept in bunk beds in their "camp", had a little window, their own TV. one of the funnier things about the trip...throughout the day, at dinner, etc., you would hear the staff start a wolf howl, kind of like the wave in a crowd. One would start it and it would go all over the lobby, water park, etc. Our kids picked up on it and when they heard the wolf howl, they would howl. Reid's howl just too cute. In the end, the kids were beyond over the mood. More like over Saturn.

The Grapevine location had an 80,000 sq. foot water park (inside) and another water park area outside, something like nine water slides, a small kids area, a wave pool, a lazy river, hot tubs, a huge three-story water fort, and several other play pools. With our one night reservation, we were able to play in the water park for two days.They also had an arcade, restaurants (the spinach artichoke dip was to die for), an adult spa, a kids spa, and a thing called MagiQuest. You buy a wand for like 10 bucks and then go all over the hotel looking for clues to the Quest. There are pictures, treasures chests and crystals spread out throughout the hotel and when a kid would point their wand, the picture/chest/crystal would light up and give the next clue. We didn't have time to do it, but it was really, really cool.

That is about it for now.