Great Wolf Lodge

This past weekend we took a trip to Great Wolf Lodge for V's birthday.  Man, is that place awesome!  As soon as we arrived, we rushed to the room to change.  Just to paint you a picture - we entered our room, dropped our bags, unzipped them like there was a million dollars in there and yanked out our bathing suits.  After we all changed, oh in about 10.8 seconds I'd say, we headed down to the water park.  Waiting to be checked in by the "height police", all you heard was V saying (in a laughing squeal), "Oh my gosh, this is so awesome" and Riley shrieking with excitement!  Enter perma - smile on Daddy & Mommy's faces.  This is going to be a great weekend, I remember thinking.  Nothing but SLIDES!  We all took a dip in the wave pool at first, but it was time for V and I to give the slides a good test run, which meant time to climb - three, winding flights of stairs, I might add.  You have to go up in order to come down, right?  But, the climb was so worth our splashing pleasure on the way down.  The best slide by far was one known as, The Tornado!  Imagine being caught inside of the funnel of a tornado shuffling from one side to the other and that's how you get The Tornado.  Luckily, some little girls in front of us gave us some tips and let us ride with them.  I just remember going down the slide for maybe two seconds and the girls yelled out, "Hold on tight!".  We dropped STRAIGHT DOWN...into the funnel.  We splashed from side to side on the walls of this tornado until we washed down the tunnel into the pool.  What a rush!

Inside of The Tornado

Please excuse the poor quality of the picture.  It was a "water-proof" camera, which after I developed, I realized it was to be used "outdoors only".  Oops.  This was one of two that you can make out.  However, you get the point...water gushing all around while it pushes you up one wall and down only to be pushed back up the other!

Next, we hopped on the tunnel slides that wrap in and outside of the building, known as Alberta Falls.  Not too sure how they came up with the name for that slide  But who cares...It was fun!

Inside of Alberta Falls

Ahh, there we go, a picture that looks 1/4 decent!  I guess the outside light coming in through the tunnel helped my photo shoot here.

OK, OK, so now that we were gone for about 45 minutes, we decided it was time to check on Dad and Riley.  And where did we find them?  In the kiddie pool with buckets of dumping water and animals that shoot water out of their spouts with the pull of a trigger, of course!  We walked up to Riley squirting Daddy right in the face! They may have been having more fun than V and I were! Now, it was time for V to take his Dad on all of the slides.  So they did a run through while Riley and I hung out in the wave pool.  All Riley kept saying was, "I having fun, Mommy!  I splash in the water, Mommy!"  It was magic to my ears!  The kids were both having a blast which meant the weekend was already a success - and it wasn't even over yet.

After V hit the slides a few times and Riley attacked whoever crossed his path in the kiddie pool, we had worked up an appetite.  And it just so happened that we were in the right place to do some eating.  Juicy prime rib, yummy pork roast, home-baked fries, sesame chicken, Thai noodles, fresh garlic green beans, sweet & crunchy corn, creamy mashed potatoes, salad bar, fresh baked rolls...OK, I'm gonna stop now 'cause my mouth is watering!  Oh, but wait, I can't leave out the chocolate molten cake, strawberry cheese cake and ice cream.  Now, I'm done.

Onto happy hour in the lobby.  The Lodge hires a guy to provide kid-friendly entertainment, from dancing to limbo.  Riley didn't quite get that you're supposed to take a "turn" during these activities.  He decided he would just stand in the middle of everything and bounce and sway.  It was hilarious!  V occasionally was able to budge Riley out of the way, but Riley was pretty set on where he wanted to be - The Center of Attention.  Needless to say, we all got a great laugh.  Next stop, the Arcade.  This is where V got to shine!  That kid can master any kind of shooting game he gets behind.  A little over an hour of shooting in different situations wrapped up the evening.  I started to wonder how I was going to make it up the stairs, I was so tired.  But, we did and into the bed, Riley and I fell.  V and his Dad went back out for another round in the water park until it closed...and back to the arcade into the late hours of the evening.

After they called it a night, we all settled into bed.  We had to get our rest so we could run around the water park again before we left.  Thanks to our little alarm clock, aka Riley, we got up at 7:30am.  We hit the breakfast buffet and then onto one last splash.  But this time - we pretty much had the water park to ourselves!  No long lines to wait in and we actually got a few chairs to put our stuff down.  Score!  So, off V and I went to hit up the slides one more time before leaving.  This time we got in all four in twenty-five minutes.  All the while, Daddy got Riley to go down the small slide in another part of the park.  (I have to admit, V and I were a little upset that I didn't get to see him do it.)  Sadly, it was time to say Good-Bye to Great Wolf Lodge.

We cannot wait to go back next year and make it a new family tradition!  It truly was like a mini-Disney, just cheaper and closer!  Ya can't beat that.  Until then....hooooooowwwl!