Great Wolf Lodge!

Wednesday started mid winter break.  Thursday, Friday, and Monday are all off from school. We had been hearing about Great Wolf Lodge for a while now.  Mark booked us in for Wednesday night.  We thought we would try one night to see how we liked it. We liked it just fine!

Grand Mound is just shy of 80 miles south of us.  It is an easy place to find, right off the freeway.  Took us only about a hour and a half.

I snapped this as the luggage was being brought in. I took it as a sign we were going to have a great time. I was not wrong! Since we left right after early release from school on Wednesday, we got to the Lodge much earlier than check in time. We were prepared for that, we brought a bag with just swim wear in it. We checked in, rented a locker and hit the water park!
At 4, check in time. I went and got the luggage and found our room

Snowflakes in the lobby.  They were really pretty

I am so thrilled I was able to snap this photo of the big bucket of water spilling out all over everyone!  The bucket has already popped back up! It takes 5 minutes to fill up, then it dumps! Lon LOVED it.
I was surprised at how much of the park Lon loved!! Daddy took him up to the jr water slide, the one you can slide on without a raft, he looked at it once, decided no. Took another look and went for it. Could not keep him off it after that. He turned into a brave water boy!

Slap Tail Wave Pool.  Big fun waves, Lon wore a park provided life vest for this pool. Everything else he did not wear a vest for.

I found Lon and Daddy! If you think I was not swimming, I was. Until 4 when I went to get our room. You can see Lon and Daddy wearing their wrist bands. Lon's is orange. It opens nothing and it can charge nothing. Mine and Mark's were blueish green, and those were our room keys, and our Which was fine. It did take me a little bit to get used to not having a separate key to remember when I left the room. We did not spend much time in our room.

These are the BIG water slides. One they send up the inner tube for you, the one I went on over and over was Alberta Falls and I had to bring the inner tube with me. Lon could ride the Falls but only with me, or Mark. He loved it.  I climbed up those big steep stairs 7 times total. Which is not alot, but my legs are tired! Wednesday it was not as crowded at Thursday morning. I did most of my climbing on Wednesday.  We also did alot in the wave pool and walking around the park, getting wet. There are alot of things that squirt you with water or dump water on you. It is impossible to stay dry. Which is good, but not very camera friendly

Tired boy at dinner. He got the wolf ears with his meal. He did not like his pizza. He ate dessert very quickly and since I could not find a bathroom anywhere in the restaurant, Lon threw up in the bar. Lovely. Poor little guy. But he was better soon.

Lon was too excited to go to sleep, after a nice snack of popcorn and chocolate milk, it was story time!  Lon got in his jammies and we sat on the floor and listened to the story told by aniamatronic creatures. 

After the animatronics were over a lady came out with Wiley Wolf and read a story to us. It was very hard to hear her from where we were sitting. It was good though. Lon had a great time.  The little white flakes you see are actual indoor snow falling.  This was the last night of the season. That was lucky for us!

After the story was finished, they let ALL the kids line up in single file and for a photo op with Wiley. And it as as many children as wanted their photo taken. That was nice.  Lon thought it was pretty cool.
Then we went upstairs (this place is all about stairs!) and got some ice cream for a before bed treat. Lon got chocolate, and he ate it slowly.

And they are out! Once Lon and Daddy layed down, boom! They were both out.

The next morning, I walked the boys to the park, got a locker, put a change of clothes in it. Loaded up the car, made sure we were all cleaned out of the room. Automatically the wrist band won't let you charge anything after 11am, but you can stay in the water park till closing at 9pm.
Once souvenirs had been purchased and the car loaded up, I went back to the pool and we spent another three hours in the water!  We got a nice snack at the pool snack bar.  Then we got dressed and went home. Mark and Lon are already sacked out! It was fun, but exhausting too!  We will go  back later.  One night was just about right to check it out and see what we liked.   We liked it!