Great Wolf Lodge

We headed out to Great Wolf Lodge mid-week.  It was a super foggy drive up to Grapevine, TX.  The kids had forgotten their phones with their games on them, so they read a lot on the trip up.  I was happy for that.  Josiah borrowed the first Harry Potter book from a neighbor and ended up reading half of it on the way up and half on the way back home.  He now has a new obsession.  Google rerouted us when we reached Dallas because of an accident, so we ended up going straight through downtown with the big skyscrapers on each side.  The particular street we were on looked very much like driving through New York City, so that was fun.  I even got to drive aggressively when I found myself in the wrong lanes.  ;)  City driving.  

At Great Wolf Lodge, the kids got to see their 'cabin.'  We had kept it a surprise. It was a small room within the hotel room that had a bunk bed and a single.  They thought that was cool, but their favorite part was that they had their own TV.  They love their Cartoon Network in hotel rooms.  We also had a balcony, which was very cool.  In the early morning, while things were still quiet, we went out onto the balcony and inhaled the smell of jet fuel.  DFW Airport was literally next to Great Wolf Lodge.  We saw planes quite close landing and taking off all day long.  (But because there was so much noise from all the water slides and water features and piped in music, it was hard to hear the planes.)

(I attempted a panorama, but the kids kept walking through the picture, so here's a very rotund Josiah.)

View from our balcony

That first day we did the inside pools.  We started off in the wave pool, then ventured over to the water slides.  They had three slides that were single/double riders and two slides that were 4-5 riders.  We did the bigger slides first.  These slides were no joke.  They popped us up and bounced us all around.  I grabbed Caroline's arm on the way down the first one because she kept popping up in the innertube.  Todd did three slides and then he was done.  When he did the family style ones, he always ended up backwards because he weighed more than the kids.  Then he wiped out on the third one which formally completed his time on the slides.  I tried all five inside slides and then called it quits.  They were too much like roller coasters for my body and I cannot handle roller coasters.  The kids, meanwhile, kept going and going and going.  I stared at Caroline before she climbed the stairs to the slides and mouthed 'hold on tight!!'  She always gave me a thumbs up.

There was also a playground sort of area in the waterpark.  Part of it had a giant bucket over top of it that would fill with water and periodically dump out.  Todd was keen to do this feature.  He always got a kid to do it with him, but he enjoyed the deluge of water hitting him.  

We finished the day riding the lazy river.  We were all pretty hungry and tired by the end, so we had pizza for dinner.  The kids watched their Cartoon Network.  I tried to stay awake past 7:30 p.m.  

The following day was our one full day there.  We started off by finding a little doughnut shop in town.  It was a tiny little shop that had a 6'x2' area to stand and order.  One lady ran the front, while a man behind her kneaded giant mounds of dough.  The doughnuts were good and fresh.  Then we waited til 10 a.m. so we could try out the ropes course.  Todd sat out and acted as photographer, while the kids and I got suited up.  We climbed to the first landing and there were lots of obstacles to walk across and each side had three ziplines - one on top of the other so that the top one was very high up.  We were all excited about the ziplines, so we headed to those first.  Henry, who wanted to be first on the course, sped ahead of us.  Josiah was ahead of Caroline and I for the zipline but when it was his turn to go, he froze.  He didn't know what to do or even if he wanted to do it.  The lady who worked the course showed him what to do and was encouraging him.  While she was talking to Josiah, Henry was yelling, "Look at me."  He was high up on the third landing dancing on the zipline platform.  He jumped off and yelled, "Let's goooooo!!!!!" while shooting fake pistols in the air as he ziplined across.  Not an ounce of fear.  Josiah, staring at his own zipline platform, ended up walking off the platform giving only a very weak push.  That got him only halfway across so he had to bounce his body back and forth to reach the other platform.  After that he was willing to give a stronger push-off and he had a lot of fun flying across all the ziplines.  Caroline, too, was nervous at first, but she warmed up quickly.  She did all the ziplines and even let go for most of them. When we first started the course it felt really challenging, but once we figured out how to use the rope that tethered us, we were all moving through it fairly easily.  We climbed and ziplined for an hour.  As we were walking away from it, Henry said that he wanted to be a soldier when he grew up.  He's been wanting to be a police officer for quite a while, but he really likes to wear a lot of gear like the soldiers do.  He had pretended he was a soldier on the ropes course.  A pistol shooting, Dude Perfect-yelling soldier.

Caroline:

Josiah:

Henry:

After the ropes course we moved on to the outside pool.  It was actually a very cool morning, so the pool had to have been chilly, but that didn't stop the waterslide loving kids.  There were two outside slides as well as Caroline's favorite lily pads.  We spent time inside as well.  One area had a bunch of basketball hoops, so Henry and I shot a lot of baskets while Josiah and Caroline hung out on the playground water area.  They did more of the big waterslides.  It was very nice that the kids were big enough to slide by themselves.  We were always relieved to count all three of them as they emerged from the tunnel.  No one bounced out.  

That evening we found a deli in town to eat dinner.  It was a tiny little corner deli and Todd was sorry we only had one meal there.  They had a great menu and we all enjoyed our sandwiches.  Josiah, especially, liked their sign on how to eat their Italian beef sandwich. Particularly the P.P.S.S.

We spent that evening at the arcade.  Caroline was interested in this skipping rope game.  Basically the light went all around the circle and when it came to the bottom, you had to jump up to 'jump' over the light.  The game started.  She was successful on her first three jumps, but the lights got her on the fourth.  She really enjoyed the driving games.  Apparently you cannot die on these because she hit every wall and obstacle that came her way.  The boys played shooting games and driving games, too.  Most of the games spit out tickets, so we ended the night with 225 tickets.  And so began the excruciating process of how to spend the tickets on cheap plastic toys.  Henry, fortunately, found two army men and he was done with his share.  Josiah and Caroline just stared and thought and stared and thought.  Twenty minutes later, they both ended up with tiny squishy animals, one army man, and one hamburger candy.

🢤Caroline got her face on the video game - a masked face.

For souvenirs, Josiah chose a wand from the MagicQuest game.  The wands were in the $15 range.  The wand toppers were in the $18 range (!!!) and the game was another $15.  Josiah got a wand.  At one point we passed a father walking around the hotel with his daughter playing the MagicQuest game.  He said they had been at it for three hours and hadn't finished yet.  He didn't look too thrilled.  So we dodged a bullet by not purchasing the game.  Caroline got Slush, a big, soft wolf.  Henry chose a baseball cap.  

Friday morning we drove home.  It rained for most of the trip home and we noted that the temperature outside was between 64 and 68 degrees.  When we finally drove out of the rain into sunny skies, we watched the temperature creep up to 88° in 15 minutes time.  Welcome back to Houston.  We unpacked the car and then picked up a very excited Benson.  He had spent his first two nights away from us in a kennel.  We let him run like crazy in the backyard and then gave him a bath.  We didn't want him bringing home any little pests in his fur.  

It was a busy three days.  Todd and I emerged from it far more exhausted than the kids.  We were happy they enjoyed it all.  Now we have a regular school week ahead.  We also get to call the orthodontist Monday morning.  Josiah lost three brackets this week.  One on the drive to GWL (eating small pretzels he didn't have permission to eat), one on the drive home (eating Goldfish), and one Saturday morning (eating a granola bar he didn't have permission to eat - because they're on the no list for braces).  Argh!