Twilight marketing

The Olympic peninsula is trying to make the most of the Twilight
series popularity. Forks, Port Angles and La Push all try to lure
Twilight fans their way. The town of Forks celebrates Stephenie Meyer
Day on the same day as Twilight's Bella Swan's birthday, Sept. 13.

Hoh Rain Forest

We hiked through the Hoh rain forest in the Olympic National Park.
This area of Washington gets about 12-14 feet of rain. Overall I
thought the rain forest in Mt Rainier's national park was more
impressive than this one.

Superbowl party

We had a Super Bowl party in Mexico with all the fellow Apple people.
We were starving because the dinner we had earlier in the evening lacked a
substantial vegetarian option. I didn't really care about the Super
Bowl game but I heard there would be pizza and guacamole. Trying to
get a pizza without meat was a challenge. The first one we found had
pickles and mushrooms on it. Surprisingly it was pretty good or maybe
I was just super hungry. Then they came out with corn and pineapple.
Joe then requested they make just a plain cheese pizza for us however
he forgot to tell them to use tomato sauce instead of the one that came with barbecue sauce.

Ceiba del Mar

Joe and I spent 5 days in Mexico at a small and quiet resort called
Ceiba del Mar. It was located halfway between Cancun and Playa del
Carmen. The staff at the resort were absolutely attentive to our needs
while being very pleasant. There was even one employee who would spend
15 minutes a day helping us use our limited Spanish correctly. It was
a perfect place to rest and relax and that is just what we did.

Denny's for our Thanksgiving dinner

After leaving the water park exhausted we realized we were also
starving. Nothing much is open Thanksgiving evening off the
interstate except Denny's so that is where we had our Thanksgiving
celebration with Boca Burgers and mac n' cheese. Monti added a bit of
traditional Thanksgiving by getting mashed potatoes as her side item.

MagiQuest at Great Wolf Lodge

Throughout the main areas of the hotel were kids running around waving
wands at anything and everything. It was absolutely killing Monti not
being involved in whatever they were doing. We headed to the gift shop
to see what it was all about. The game was called MagiQuest and it
required the purchase of a wand and a game. Once we had a wand we were
able to activate quests that sent us throughout the hotel trying to
find symbols or hidden objects. When you came across one of the
objects you needed you would wave your wand at it. The game kept track
of what objects you had collected and what quests you completed. The
objects could be found on 5 different levels of the hotel. We played
for a total of 3 hours and we walked a countless number of stairs. It
was a big hit with the girls. On a personal note I am still having dreams involving my unsuccessful search for the howling stone wolf.

In the water park

Dahlia was pretty scared of all the slides except for the ones in the little kids area. Both girls agreed that the wave pool was their favorite. Monti went on every slide she could. Nothing was too scary for her. She even stood under the large bucket that drenches those below it every 5 minutes or so.

Howlin Tornado

The signature water slide at the Great Wolf Lodge is called the Howlin' Tornado.
Up to 4 people go on a giant tube down a slide that has a significant
drop before dumping you in the giant funnel shaped area. The raft
travels up and down the sides like a skateboarder on a half-pipe ramp.
Neither of the girls were tall enough to go on the ride but Joe and I
did go on it while the girls watched from below.

After a long drive

We left right after caroling practice on Wednesday for Great Wolf Lodge. It is only 82 miles from Issaquah but due to holiday traffic it took us over 4 hours to get there. Monti must have asked "When will we get there?" thirty times before Joe told her no more. Once there we were able to play in the water park for an hour before heading to bed. The girls thought they were so special sleeping in their own private Wolf Den in our room. It contained bunk beds and their own personal TV to watch the Disney channel on. Of course they slept in those wonderful bunk beds for about 2 hours only before joining us in our queen sized bed.