Good Times at Great Wolf Lodge

On a whim, we decided to take the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge a few weeks ago.  We'd had a gift card for the lodge (thanks Meg and Travis!) for a really long time and for once we actually had no plans all weekend.  Amazing! 

I made sure to get us a room that had bunk beds in it.  What is it about bunk beds that is so exciting to kids?  I really don't know, but they loved their Wolf Den!

Big brother took the top bunk and Little Sister settled into the bottom one.

After watching videos of the lodge online, they were so thrilled to finally be there:)



Even though it was 4:30 by the time we got to our room, the kids were begging to go to the water park that evening.  We caved pretty easily and everyone got their swim suits on and headed downstairs.  When we arrived at the entrance, they asked Jackson to get measured.  Turns out he is a smidge over 48 inches, which means that he was good to go and could ride anything in the park.  Yay!



Our first adventure was getting into the wave pool.  Let's just say I've swam in warmer water before.  Thank goodness we warmed up to it a bit, and seeing the kids enjoy it so much made it alright, but it sure would be nice if it were closer to 90 degrees than to 80:)  I know, I'm spoiled, but it was a little cold!

We all wondered how Lila would do when the waves started.  No worries, she LOVED it.

And so did her brother.

After a very fun 2 hours in the waterpark, we were ready to go shower up and have dinner. 

We ate in the main restuarant and were so pleasantly surprised with how good the food was.  I ordered a dinner salad with my salmon and when it got there Lila said, "where's my salad?" I made her a little plate and she chowed down on it.  How many 2 year olds do you know that eat salad?  I was at least 13 before I ever tried it!

Good thing we got a little nutrition in her, because after dinner we hit up the Sweet Snack Shop for some ice cream.  Check out the serving size of 1 scoop!

 

We ended up going to bed kind of late and then sleeping in the next morning.  No one in our room woke up until 8:50am.  Genius!  Our room was so cozy and dark and the kids just snoozed with us.  It really was nice.  We all enjoyed the breakfast buffet and then went over to story time in the lobby.  After it was over, the kids went on the Wolf Walk and learned about different animals.

This place is so cool!

At the end of the Wolf Walk, the kids got to make origami wolves--a fun, easy activity.

Then it was time for our white legs to get back in the water.  Good grief, I could use a tan!

They jumped the waves again just like the day before...

and then Daddy and Jackson went down the orange and turquoise slides at least 6 times.  Lila, my brave little girl, wanted to go, too, so we climbed all the way up there.  Too bad they said that she wasn't quite big enough.  She's ready, whenever she gets the green light, though!

Soon after all that sliding, we spotted the basketball pool.  Oh, my!  J man was in heaven for sure now.

We took our lunch back up to the room and then had a few hours of downtime.  It was so NICE.  Jared and Lila took a nap, while Jackson and I snuggled and watched football.

After this little pixie had gotten her some rest, she was ready to get back out there!

It doesn't take a lot to make her smile.  She loved the smallest things, like these miniature fountains.

She also really liked the kiddie pool.  See those slides in the far back right?  The blue one was super fast.  She went down it three times all by herself.  We were so proud of her!

After hanging out in the kiddie pool, Jackson was ready for a little more adventure.  Check out those orange, green and yellow tubes way up high.  It took a little convincing, but we finally got him to try one.  And he LOVED it!  We took turns going down with him in the double innertube.  He must have riden at least 10 times and probably would have gone all afternoon.

We played until early evening and then decided to mix things up a bit, so we took the kids to dinner down the street at the Rain Forest Cafe.  They loved it from the moment we got there and they got to see a lifesized crocodile.  We walked inside and they were thrilled to see all the fish.  It was so fun to be able to have chicken fingers while watching the elephants and gorillas--a kid's dream, I tell ya.

Our table was right next to the tigers--very cool.  

The next morning Daddy had to go to work (it was a Monday) but Jackson wasn't starting school until the next day.  So, after getting the kids a donut and myself something from Starbucks, we hit the waterpark one last time.  Lila had been talking about the big bucket for two days straight, and we spent a lot of time watching brother ride these slides and waiting for it to dump over.  She squealed every single time.  The very last thing that Jackson did was stand underneath it and let the 1000 gallons of water come crashing down on him.  That's a lot of water!  It was the perfect way to end our time there.

On our way out, the kids asked if they could take their picture with this exhibit and wanted their souvenir wolves to be in it, too.

Great Wolf Lodge, we will most definitely be back! 
We had the best two days and made lots of good memories.  Isn't that what it's all about?