Vacation - Prt 2: Great Wolf Lodge

After leaving the Wildlife Ranch, we headed over (an hour and half drive) to meet my sister at Great Wolf Lodge. My sister, Shannon, reserved a HUGE room for our two families and let us join in on their fun. So, the rooms were suites that had two bedrooms (one room with a king size bed and whirlpool tub and the other room had two double beds and separate bath) plus a small 'kitchen' with fridge and microwave. She also purchased a 'Pup Pass', which gave us (as a group) 20 arcade tokens, a free stuffed animal to make (like Build a Bear), a Tshirt to create (or other craft), and a couple of souvenir items (glasses and such). She also tacked on the breakfast buffet for each of us, which was THE most fabulous breakfast I've ever had. The buffet line was the whole distance of the restaraunt - double sided, with a whole section dedicated to kid-friendly foods. And all the food was cooked sooo great. We ate a late 'brunch' each day and called it our lunch and packed stuff for dinner, so it all worked out great! We didn't eat out once (except for on the drive there and back).

The big attraction to this 'hotel' is the waterpark. It's two-fold. There is an indoor waterpark and outdoor. Below is a picture of HALF the indoor waterpark. The indoor part had 6-8 slides maybe? Plus the big treehouse you see with all kinds of water activities inside and around it, plus a HUGE bucket that filled and dumped water on the treehouse periodically. The indoor section in addition then had a wave pool, a 'river' you could float around, a 'baby pool' with more water toys, smaller kiddie slides and shallow water. There was one more pool that was just for lounging plus a hot tub. Lots of stuff huh?Brenna trying to figure out how to get in there.... (this was the 'baby' pool)Here's Brooke (with Shannon behind her) in the same baby pool playing with the water gun jet skis...Brad joining in on the fun with the girls...Brenna splashing me...This particular slide you entered from the inside, travelled through the tunnel outside, go into a large funnel type thing (my sister described it as being flushed like a toilet) and then got dumped back inside. Here's Brooke waiting for Daddy and Kelli and Micah (its a 4 person float) to come out the end of the slide...

I mentioned SOME of the fun activities they had inside to do as well. When you needed a break from the water or a rest, they had sooo much inside stuff to do. This place is REALLY geared for kids.

Periodically throughout the day, the kids gathered around the clock tower and got to see animals come to life (animated) as they put on a little show with singing and such. At the nightime one, following the show, they had 'bedtime stories' where they kids were read a book by Wiley the Wolf (the hotel mascot). After the morning show, there was a 'wolf walk', where the kids walked through the hotel (the decorations and such were AWESOME!) and learned about all the different animals. At the end of the tour, they learned to make an origami wolf. Here's Shannon and Brooke coloring their completed wolves...Shannon also bought a Magi Quest wand. Honestly I thought it was kinda dumb when I first heard about it. But it was actually kind of a fun game for the older kids. You take the wand around the hotel (everywhere around the hotel) and 'find' different things hidden away to complete the quest. It could be a statue, an animal hidden away, a hidden staircase, even a picture on the wall. The thing is you apparently have to go in some special order to complete the quest to become a master Magi or something? Then, the whole downstairs floor was dedicated to fun little craft booths, the arcade, the Cub Club (an indoor play area and craft area for younger kids), a spa, a kids' spa, snack shops, ice cream shops, and other miscellaneous activities. Here's Brooke with her finished animal that she made...A couple of photo ops...Playing in the Cub Club area...Brooke decorating her souvenir shirtIt was also Kelli Michele's 14th bday while we were there. So, conveniently, there is a lovely outlet mall (gotta love being able to go outlet shopping!) that we were able to pick her up a cookie cake and some fun bday supplies. We couldn't NOT celebrate! Shannon also bought each of the girls matching dresses. Cute or dorky? Cute maybe for the young ones, but I think the older girls might have thought it was dorky. Then there was still the outdoor waterpark. The outdoor section of the waterpark had 2-3 slides as well plus a shallow graduated entrance pool with fun water spouting toys and a hot tub too. Here's the view from our room...And the wolf that every so often would howl and spout off a rainshower...I think both of the girls thoroughly enjoyed the outdoor pool more than anything..even though it was FREEZING water. Brenna particularly loved the little platform that she could easily crawl around/toddle around on. It was just her depth!The rest of the pool was just Brooke's depth. Deep enough to 'swim', but where she could still touch too!Brenna, always looking for an escape route...Brooke sunbathing....And the whole gang (minus me, the picture taker, of course) before we packed up and left....Check out is around lunchtime, but the cool thing is you can still stay and enjoy the waterpark facilities till closing (and only residents of the hotel can play at the park - they don't sell outside tickets). So we hung around till the girls were nice and worn out so they'd sleep allll the way home. We owe Shannon big time for letting us enjoy the place with her family. It was great to hang out family to family and even more fun to do it at such a great, fun, kid-friendly place!

On the way home, we stopped at Cracker Barrel to eat dinner (Brad's favorite restaraunt) so we let the girls play a round of Checkers. :-PAnd you can tell, everyone must have had a fun time, because these were the pics from the ride home....

Thanks again Shannon for a fabulous trip!