Ice, Ice, Baby

Alright, stop! Collaborate and listen! (Sorry.....couldn't resist.)

On my winter bucket list this year was visiting the Ice Castles in Lincoln, New Hampshire. I initially tried to do it on MLK weekend but apparently everyone and their dog wanted to do the same and we were stuck trying to get off Loon Mountain, out of the small town of Lincoln for over an hour. Each time we tried to do it since, something else has happened.

A couple of weeks ago, poor Cade got a nasty stomach bug which Mike cleaned up\dealt with all day while I was at work. Then Mike was down with said bug a couple of days later. By Friday, it seemed like all were well and we were going to give the Ice Castles a try. I took off work early to make the drive up. I got home, was greeted with a very long from Cade who said "I don't feel good" then proceeded to puke all over me, my bags and himself. Yuck! 

After much clean up and debate on next steps, against my better judgement we went ahead and stayed with plans to head north. Thanks to our late start and ridiculously heavy traffic, we missed our timed ticket window. Was I doomed not to get this item crossed off my bucket list? 

By some miracle, we finally got there (after the kids' usual bedtime), they let us in even though we were overdue, and the kids really enjoyed it despite the very cold night and the extenuating circumstances. Cade wanted me to carry him through most of it, but since that was the worst problem we had, it really was a great time. And the ice castles were really cool (no pun intended)!

Ice Bench

Entrance Tunnel

Fountain

Moon In The Background

Small Ice Tunnel (Weren't Quite Brave Enough to Go Through This One)

The Lights Were Really Cool

This is how they looked to us...without the camera flash.

Looking up at the icicles was beautiful!

Ice Slide

Love This Pic

Me and My Boys (No Flash)

Me and My Boys (Flash)

I loved seeing the ice castles at night. Seeing the rotating colors coming from within the ice was really mesmerizing. However, if time had allowed, I would have loved to see them as well during the daytime to get to really SEE the ice formations a little clearer. Alas, we won't be able to do so because rising temps mean this tourist attraction is now officially closed.

Ice Castle Selfie

Mike was happy to be our official photographer that night and stay out of being in the paparazzi. So all credit to the gorgeous pictures above go to him (except the selfie of course). And in other good news, that last bought of sickness really was the end of it for Cade (yay!). Nothing sadder than seeing your usually energetic, happy kids down for the count.