The Lee Family: ICE!

Monday, November 24, 2014

ICE!

Yesterday afternoon we visited ICE at the Gaylord Texan. Last year we went on Christmas Eve with the girls' grandparents and basically walked right in without a lot of other visitors. This year, we figured if we went early we would be similarly lucky with the amount of people. It was also half-price tickets, so we figured it would be a lot less expensive. What could go wrong? We arrived early for our 5:30pm ticket time and joined a massively long line. The line barely moved and the girls were restless and wanted to play so it made it difficult. Luckily there was a young boy behind us in line that the girls ended up playing with and we talked to his parents who had never visited ICE before.

The theme for ICE this year was Frosty the Snowman, which we were all looking forward to seeing. By the time we got to the area to pick up our big, thick blue jackets we were all hot, tired and hungry and Olivia wasn't up for wearing her jacket at all. By the time we continued in the line and made it to the actual exhibit, we were all wearing our jackets and hats, although Olivia wouldn't wear her gloves. The exhibit was really fun and interesting and it's pretty amazing what the Chinese ice artists can do with a block of ice! The girls loved exploring and there were so many people waddling around bundled up in their bulky blue jackets that we had a hard time keeping up with them! Olivia could snack in between people and be gone and thankfully we kept track of her by her hat and managed to keep track of her but it was difficult. We made it to the slide area and it took forever for Sofia and CK to make it to the top. At that point, Olivia was so hungry she started crying, so I pulled her into a corner and fed her a granola bar from my purse. I didn't plan on offering it to Olivia since I figured she'd be scared to try it or would change her mind at the top of the slide and there is really no way of walking down the stairs at that point. However, she ended up walking up the far side of the slides and went down by herself! She loved it! Since I was at the top with her, I had to go down too and was surprised at how fast and fun it was!

After the slides, we continued walking through the ICE exhibit and made our way out. By the time we returned our jackets it was after 7pm! We were all hungry and a little grumpy at this point and Sofia was desperate for a cut of hot chocolate, which they conveniently sell at the end of ICE. We were ready to get out of the Gaylord and eat some real food, so we managed to make our way to the car and drove to Baker's Ribs, a BBQ joint that opened up not far from the Gaylord which is also in Dallas and a favorite of CK's. It was fantastic and really hit the spot! We were all so hungry and it was just what we needed after a long afternoon at ICE.

Waiting in line....