ICE at the Gaylord Texan-2014

This year (and of course by "year" I mean 2014 because I'm as slow as a turtle stampeding though peanut butter when it comes to blogging) for Thanksgiving we all traveled to Texas to have Thanksgiving with Grandpa E and Josh's brother Ian and his family. Josh had to work Monday and part of Tuesday so we left late Tuesday afternoon. We were about an hour into our trip when we ran into a huge line of traffic that was backed up for about a mile because of a really bad wreck. We ended up waiting in the traffic for about an hour before deciding to take a detour (about an hour out of the way) to go around it. Needless to say, we got to Grandpa E's house VERY late Tuesday night, but I was thankful we were there and all in one piece. We slept in late the next morning and then made plans with Ian to meet them at the Gaylord Texan to go do the ICE exhibit. If you're ever in Grapevine, Texas around Thanksgiving-New Years, you need to go do ICE. It's such a fun experience for everyone! If you don't know what ICE is, here is a brief synopsis: Artisans from China come to the Gaylord Texan every year and spend hours upon hours carving 2 million pounds of ice into beautiful and amazing ice sculptures! They've done it now for about 7 years and this was our third year to attend. While the crowds were much worse during Thanksgiving than they are at New Years, it was still lots of fun. I hope we can go every year they offer it. 

Us with Grandpa E

Eli and Sophie

This year's theme was Frosty the Snowman.

Wearing the required parkas they give you because they keep the ICE exhibit at a chilly 7 degrees :)

Having so much fun!

The most crowded area inside the exhibit is always where the ice slides are. 

Kids, parents, grandparents, aunt, uncles, cousins, and random strangers are all gathered around watching the kids and adults sliding down the ice slides.

Grandpa E and Ian

Eli sliding down the ice slide.

Last year when Sarah and I took the kids to ICE during New Years we basically had the place to ourselves. This year we went during opening weekend. CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY! You can see in the picture below the line of people on the right waiting to slide. It's worth the wait, but because we started getting really cold Eli was only able to slide 3 times instead of as many as he wanted to like last year. 

The last exhibit is always the nativity where the gospel is proclaimed every single minute to thousands of believers and non-believers alike. They have a recording that reads the account of Christ's birth from the Bible and they use spotlights to show each sculpture during the reading of the story. I love how the people at the Gaylord Texans are committed to sharing the true meaning of Christmas with everyone. 

Another year of ICE is complete. I can't wait to see what next year's (or actually this year's) theme is going to be! I hope we'll be able to attend :)