Ice! Mommy/Daughter Date

About a month ago I found a coupon in the mail for half off the Ice! event at the Gaylord Texan Hotel. I’ve heard from several people that have been in years past that it’s a lot of fun. So, I bought a ticket for Autumn & I for tonight. I picked her up from daycare, we grabbed some McDonalds for dinner, and hit the road. Well, we were cruising along just great until we got about 30 min away and then we hit a wall of traffic. We were 30 minutes late, but we made it. We parked and hurried over to the hotel. The we had to wind all through the hotel to get to the right place. We got in line and they take a group of about 200 people into a staging area. You watch a little video about how the whole thing is put together. They fly in 40 ice artisans from China to create the sculptures!!! Then after the video you go to another area where they give you a blue parka to wear b/c they have to keep the area at 9 degrees cold so the ice doesn’t melt!

The artisans do such an amazing job that it’s easy to forget that everything around you is made of ice!

Singing w/ the choir.

Each year they have a different theme and this year it was “Christmas Around The World.” They had these big sculptures that depicted different countries. We had to get one in front of the Congo in honor of Papa & Mimi being in South Africa.

We also had to get one in front of the Samoa one since I’m obsessed w/ Polynesians.

The United States one was an Indian girl, so we had to get a picture of the Ponca Princess in front of one of her “peeps.”

They have these big slides made of ice that you can go down. Autumn & went and waited in line while I tried to push my way through the big crowd to get to the front to take a picture.

She loved it so much that she went down twice.

Looks like she’s on the nice list instead of the naughty list. Again, just a reminder that all of this is made out of ice!!!

The best part was this crystal clear ice nativity. It was impressive! They also had audio playing talking about how Christ, how He’s the the reason for the season, etc I was pleasantly surprised that they were playing something so religious over the loud speakers in this room. It made me happy to hear it!

We were glad to finally make our way out of the ice area and back into the warmth of the hotel to thaw off. We stopped at a little shop and got a cupcake and headed back to the car. We stopped to get this pic to send to Papa & Mimi. Notice the Texan themed carpet. LOL!

The inside of the hotel is massive & it’s hard to show just how tall this was and how big the rotunda is from this picture. It’s so pretty!

We walked around a little bit to get some fun pics like this one. Then we eventually left b/c it was already 9:30 pm! It was a wonderful Mommy/Daughter date.

Mary had come over to use our internet b/c theirs went out and she had to be on a video chat for an online class she is taking. She had texted earlier when Autumn & I were stuck in traffic to see if she could use our internet, and I texted back yes. Then she called and I was really rude & snippy to her b/c we were super late, traffic was horrible, and I wasn’t sure which exit we had to get off on. I apologized so much when we got home to let her know how sorry I was. She laughed it off and said she thought she was talking to my Mom for a minute. LOL!

Curt came over to pick her up, and had a heart to heart w/ Nick about his relationship w/ Savi. He grilled him and made him blush several times. I’m so thankful for friends who we think of as family!