Great Wolf Lodge!

Several weeks ago, Melanie asked me if we'd want to join them for a night at the Great Wolf Lodge. We had never been, mainly because it is not exactly cheap, but I had heard that it was tons of fun and worth the money. So, we decided that even though I would be big and pregnant, it would be much easier to go now than with a newborn in tow, and we went for a night during spring break. And we had a blast!!!

Steve and I decided not to tell the kids ahead of time. They knew we had a "surprise" for them, but they didn't know what. They did finally figure out (through asking us countless questions) that we were going to a hotel of some sort....here's us pulling up to the place.

They were much more exuberant when they actually saw the inside of the place :)

In case anyone is considering a visit here in the future, my advice is that you don't get a fancy room, unless you're staying more than one night and will actually be spending time in the room. You can start swimming early on the day of arrival, and stay until closing time of the day of departure, and there are lots of other things to do around the hotel (arcade, food, scavenger hunt...), so you just don't end up spending a lot of time there.

The great thing about the water park is that it really is suitable for all ages. There's a great baby/toddler pool, waterslides for both younger and older kids, a wave pool that all the kids loved, and a few slides that any adult would love, too. Travis was barely big enough to be able to go on everything, even the "Tornado", so that was fun. Jayna was a bit timid at first, but before we knew it, she was headed off to certain waterslides alone without even telling us where she was going (yes, she got scolded for that:) I think the part that was most fun for me was the waterslides where I got to ride on an innertube with the kids. Such fun to see their faces and hear them scream! Although you should have seen me trying to get out of the innertubes at the end of the ride...

And that was really the only downside for me. Almost 8 months pregnant at the time, you would have thought I was the main attraction of the place. Seriously, will someone tell me what is so fascinating about a pregnant lady?! Young, old, and every age in between - people wouldn't stop staring at me! I was mostly able to ignore it, but it did make me a bit self-conscious. Particularly when it came to this one creepy dude staring at me the entire time we stood in a longish  line for a waterslide. Ew. (and p.s., it's not like I was wearing a revealing swimsuit - it was very modest!)

 Playin' in the arcade. Or just pretending to play, in this case.

 Jayna wanted to try the game with the "claw" - we thought she'd want to try several times and waste a bunch of tokens before giving up - but she got one (by herself!) on the first try! "Sniffer" now sleeps with her.

 Hud and Ev.

 Gearing up for a second day of swimming fun.

 Getting ready to jump a wave!

 Cousins! I love this picture.

 The best picture I could get of Travis Jayna, Ethan, Aunt Mel and Uncle Eric coming down the big slide together.

Conked out. Evan was not nearly as energetic the last half of the second day, and it turned out that he was coming down with a bug of some sort. He rarely falls asleep anywhere there's anything going on, so we knew he either played really hard or wasn't feeling well.

Anyway, the kids really had a great time. You don't always know how these kinds of outings with young kids are going to go, but it was really a great time for everyone! Steve and I didn't feel stressed about anything (except maybe when Jayna took off), and we felt like 2 days of swimming was the perfect amount. It was also really nice to have Melanie and Eric there - that way, adults could go do the big rides and there was still someone to watch the rest of the kids. And I'm betting it will be even more fun when we go in a few years when the kids are all older and don't need as much supervision. In the meantime, we get to hear "When do we get to go back to Great Wolf Lodge?" every time we pass it on the freeway :)