Our Fun Time at the Great Wolf Lodge!

Marion called one day before Thanksgiving, to tell me that she had come across a groupon for a one night stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. She thought it would be fun if she brought Nick, and I brought Kayli, for a one night stay at this hotel with a water park. We could invite Suzanne. Matt, Colin, and Jake to join in around their sports/school schedules. I immediately remembered the last time I took advantage of a similar Great Wolf Lodge day offer, when Kayli was just 2! I was skeptical back then that bringing a toddler to a water park would be fun, but I was pleasantly surprised...

Matt, Colin, Jake, and Nick all participated in that day of fun...

in fact, it was June when we went back then, so there was an outdoor section open too...

well, I was totally on board for another trip to this place, and while we were there we thought it would be fun to re-enact a photo...
so here we are back then...

and here we are now (six years later)...

we once again had a wonderful time, but this time we didn't spend all our time in the zero entry pool section! Actually, it was kind of funny that the first thing we did when we walked into the water park was to head to the tallest slide. I just followed everyone else. We climbed the stairs to the top, where they put us in a two-man inflatable raft, Kayli in front, me in back, and shot us down the apparently famous tornado slide! I really had no idea what this was all about, but discovered very quickly that this was their wildest slide that had us flipping up one side and back again to the other, feeling like we might actually flip over! I had a hold of Kayli with my feet, and she was screaming "Help me Mom!" I finally managed to reach up and cover her eyes with my hands for the last leg of this journey. She was not a happy camper when we came rushing out of the tube at the bottom! We moved on to some other fun water activities...

Kayli looked like a little spider monkey, as she delftly navigated her way across this water log path using the rope ladder...

almost looks like she's performing a ballet here...

we all loved the huge water-treehouse...

and Kayli loved the tube slides that didn't require you to ride in a raft!

there were so many waterfalls, and water buckets, and water traps, I felt like every time we turned around we were getting a bucket dumped over our heads...

so, there were actually two more "raft-type" slides that weren't quite as wild as the "tornado slide" and the lines were not quite as long either. But, they were just as much fun! I waited at the bottom to get this picture of Matt, Marion, and Nick...

and the second day, after we had all finished eating lunch, and we knew we only had a few hours left at the park, Marion badgered convinced Kayli to try one more raft slide, as long as it was a 3-man raft, and she got to sit in the middle! We headed to the top, we waited in line, we were getting in the raft when the guide said to me "Can you put the little girl in front?" and I said "Nope. She has to be in the middle or she won't go." So, they let us put Kayli in the middle, and we were off, wheeeee...

Before leaving the hotel today, we decided to let Nick and Kayli participate in the Magic Quest game that is quite popular here at this hotel. Basically, you pay for a "magic wand" and you're off and running on a magical scavenger hunt! There's a wizard that speaks out from the trees to guide you...

there's a booklet, and a magical wand that you point at things to confirm your discoveries...

we discovered that this was much like accompanying your children to boot camp! For every new quest, we found ourselves walking up and down flight after flight of stairs, and covering both sides of the building! Now I know why there were so many kids running this circuit WITHOUT THEIR PARENTS! Marion and I persevered...

this game went on for a couple of hours!!! At the end, the wizard congratulates you for a job well done!

There is actually a "part two" or extension of this game that the kids could complete at a later date if they just bring back their wand, hmmm, can we work in this extra aerobic activity sometime during the holiday break?