ICE at the Gaylord Texan

My parent were planning on coming down to Texas for Thanksgiving but unfortunately my grandma Doris became ill and they went to take care of her in Montana. We are of course disappointed but know that they are where they should be. And they have been missed! Especially on Tuesday when we had tickets to ICE at the Gaylord Texan hotel. 

(They had a naughty/nice list where my name was the only legible one!)

The ICE show is in this ginormous hotel where they section off this huge area, it is a frigid 9* F inside where they have more than 2 MILLION pounds of hand-carved ice sculptures. It was actually kind of unreal. 

I can admit that I underestimated how cold it would be. I made sure everyone wore their winter coats but even with the blue coats they gave all of us, it was still cold on any part that was uncovered. My hands were hurting so bad and as soon as Nathan discovered it he blew warm air into his gloves and put them on my hands. I was never so grateful for a pair of warm gloves!!!

This year's theme was Christmas around the world and there were scenes from different countries. As I mentioned, my parents weren't able to come so we let Kennedy and Kohen invite their friends who are siblings so we ended up with 8 kids, it was a bit hectic keeping track of everyone when we all looked the same! But we only lost track of Ander twice so we are calling that a win!

Different sculptures you could climb through like this ^ Christmas tree, or sit on for pictures. The colors were so vibrant and fun and there was so much to look at. 

In one room there were ice slides and even a special shorter one with helpers for little ones Scarlett's size. Scarlett somehow only brought one glove and her hands were so cold she had put them both in the one glove, like she was praying. So when she sat down on the slide and didn't slide very fast, she started wigglin her little tush to try and scootch down the slide with her hands stuck in one glove, it was so darn cute, everyone was laughing.

Everyone else slid right down the ice slides! They had a great time and wanted to go again but it was too cold to wait in line again.

They had children from different countries all around the world, Nathan and I thought we might let the kids guess which country we will be moving too next in this room but they didn't have it. Close! But not exactly. Guess they (and anyone reading this) will have to wait a bit longer!

Here's our crew towards the end, they did awesome!

As a finale, you walked into this room and saw this giant, lit up ice angel welcoming you in to a beautiful Nativity Scene. The angel was my favorite thing that I saw. 

Those red noses show just how chilly it was. Poor Scarlett was warming up her ungloved hand in her dad's neck. 

The only scene that was clear ice was the Nativity, and it was stunningly beautiful. The perfect way to end our chilly trip through this icey wonderland!