Thursday, May 22, 2008

The Great Escape

Our water park adventure at the Great Wolf Lodge was a success. We drove up in the early afternoon on Monday. Fefe napped while the kids watched High School Musical 2. It only took us about 2 hours to get there. Our room wasn’t quite ready when we arrived so we toured the water park while we waited. Loofa was about to die waiting to actually play in the water. Our room was awesome. The separate bedroom had a king size bed and all of the older kids fit on it. Fefe slept in her portacrib in the corner. J and I had a queen size bed in the main area. It was the most comfortable hotel bed I’ve ever slept on. I usually sleep terrible in hotel beds, but I slept great there. It helped that I brought my ear plugs.

Once we were all settled in we headed down to the water park. My first impression was that it was smaller than I expected. Loofa was initially nervous about everything except the little kid pool. The next day he warmed up more and really enjoyed the wave pool and the medium size slides. The first evening I took the kids down the Howling Tornado. It is the biggest and scariest slide. I was facing backwards that first time and nearly freaked when we dropped. Ephant was facing backwards the second time and the look on her face was priceless. I tried to get her to scream, but she was too tense. Brother B was only able to do it the first time because they started enforcing the height restrictions after that. J and I took shifts with the kids while Fefe was napping. I think Ephant and Brother B liked the wave pool best. They wore life jackets the whole time and enjoyed bobbing up and down in the waves. The hot tub was a close second (also the only water Fefe liked, everything else was too cold for out little princess). I think one full day was plenty of time to spend there.

When the kids got tired of the water we started a Magiquest. It is an interactive game at the Lodge. We bought Ephant and Brother B wands that are connected to a computer system. They started out earning runes by going around and waving the wands at various stations around the lodge. Once you have enough runes you can have an adventure. We didn’t have enough time for that, but the games are saved so you can start right back where you left when you return for your next stay. Brother B was pretty disappointed to not do the adventure. He had been really looking forward to fighting the dragon. I’m hoping to go back in a couple years.

Poor Loofa was pretty grumpy the last morning. We did one more hour at the water park and were planning to do the Magiquest adventure after checkout, but Loofa was having major breakdowns. When we got home I took his temperature. It was 103 degrees. Poor kid must have caught what Ephant had last week, although he never threw up. He woke up feeling fine this morning. Thank heavens for short sicknesses. Now I just have to deal with Loofa asking when we are going back.












The Magiquest Wands:

7 comments:

Kim-the-girl said...

That looks like a blast! I love all the pictures of Brother B with his mouth so big... for such a quiet kid, he sure has a big mouth! ;o)

IandS said...

The pics are so much fun - glad you had a good time. Did you buy the kids the life vests or rent them? Do all little kids at the park have to wear them?

JandS Morgan said...

Yep, the Corey mouth. He got that from me.

The kids aren't required to wear life jackets and yes they do have a ton of them there for free usage. Loofa's is one we brought ourself, but Ephant and Brother B were wearing the borrowed ones.

Cam said...

looks like you had a great time, I'm jealous, I'd love to go on a vacation!

Maren Hansen said...

What did you think of the foam rubber lifevests? I saw those at the local pool and they seemed more comfortable and better-fitting than the ones we own (traditional nylon-covered ones). Wish we coulda gone with you guys--woulda been fun.
m

Tim and Angie said...

Wow, fun pics and it looks like you had a lot of fun. Good for you for doing a fun family vacation like that. Great memories! I wish I could find something like that around here. Cute family Steph!

KellyAnne said...

That looks so fun! Justin and I have been thinking about going there, thanks for telling about it. I was going to ask about the life vest too. Pretty cool!