We know so many people around here who make trips to Great Wolf Lodge a regular tradition in their families. From what I'd heard, it didn't seem like a wonderful place to take a baby, so we'd avoided joining the throngs. This year, however, our baby is no longer a baby, and with our next addition still incubating, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to visit. What made it even better, is that this trip was a Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Winters. The kids were singing their praises the entire vacation.
Great Wolf Lodge is both an indoor water park and a hotel. As you might imagine, cameras and water parks aren't exactly the best combination, so photographic evidence of our experiences are limited.
We arrived in the afternoon, changed into bathing suits, and immediately hit the water park. Walking into the enormous, 82 degree water area took me right back to our time in humid Florida. All the kids were anxious to try out the wave pool, and that proved to be a hit both days we were there.
Aubree was nervous about going down the water slides, but after her first run, she was hooked. Bryce was a willing participant and really enjoyed all the rides, especially the biggest and scariest (which he was just tall enough to go on). By the end of our trip, it was great to see Aubree and Bryce enthusiastically running to go on rides together.
Thane, our fearless one, was furious that he wasn't tall enough to ride the most intense water slide. He went on every other slide with gusto, however, and spent hours trying to teach himself how to swim in the wave pool. The only thing that slowed him down at all was when he scraped his knee on day 2 and had to get a band-aid. From then on, he was so worried that the waves would pull the band-aid off, that he kept one hand on his knee at all times!
We had dinner our first night in our hotel room, and after hours of water fun, everyone was starving! We had a casual evening with popcorn and hot chocolate and trying unsuccessfully to find anything even remotely meaningful to watch on cable TV.
Once Thane and Graham conked out, I took Aubree and Bryce down to story time. Aubree was less than impressed, but Bryce declared it the best part of his day.
The kids loved our hotel room. It had a mini-room for them, with a bunk-bed and a cabin-like feel. They were especially impressed with all the critters painted on the walls.
Oh, and they liked that they had their own TV as well, and they put that to good use the next morning.
Soon we were off for our second day in the water park. I spent my time with little G, while Mark and the big three went on water slide after water slide.
Graham really liked anything that could shoot water.
Thoughts for next time... I think we will definitely go again, but not till our new baby is at least two. I think I'll have a lot more fun when I'm not pregnant and can enjoy the water slides as well. Finally, going with a group of friends would make it even more enjoyable. So, who's in?
Thanks millions, Grandma and Grandpa Winters!
1 comment:
That looks awesome! Your pictures are great, especially the first and the last. I still remember a trip to Disneyworld the summer I turned 10, when we had a similar hotel room. Something about awesome rooms-with-rooms just sticks with a kid.
Post a Comment