Great Wolf Lodge

Although a bit expensive, my sister and I decided to take the boys, Noah, Trevor and Oliver, to spend one night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound Washington. Gammy, since she came home from FEMA on time, also got to tag along and enjoy the quick summer-fun trip with us. We packed a bunch of food and snacks to take with us to help with the cost. A relatively short drive, about 90 minutes from here with good traffic, put us at the lodge at 1pm. By 2pm we had checked in, eaten a quick snack, changed and were headed to the indoor water park. Exhausted, we coaxed the boys out of the water about 3 hours later. We tortured the children by making them eat some dinner, then tortured them some more by making them wait until we were ready to go explore some more of the lodge. We ended up buying the boys a magic wand and a game that allowed them to go on a MagiQuest. It's a high-tech game, that sends the kids scampering through the lobby, down hallways, and up and down and up and down and up and down the stairway. Did I mention that we went up and down the stairway A FEW DOZEN times. Sure, we could've taken the elevator but what kind of fun would a MagiQuest be if we didn't scour the magical staircase for clues? I lost track of time but we spent 2-3 hours on our various quests. Mom, Shana and I traded off and on between the boys and taking them on their quests or hanging out with them in the arcade. Needless to say, we were all exhausted and could barely crawl into bed last night. Even though we had to check out of our room by 11am today, we could stay and play until the park closed at 9pm. We decided to play around a bit this morning, pack up our room, then hit the water park at 11am for a couple more hours of play. Around 1pm we hauled the prunes out of the water and headed home. It was so much fun, I am beyond tired and we are all a bit cranky tonight (early bedtimes here we come!) but it was worth it! I can't wait to go back again!

I took one disposable waterproof camera with us and my smaller point and shoot camera. I have no idea how the pictures from the disposable camera turned out but am hoping for some fun shots. It was VERY hard to get pictures with my regular camera, you are constantly getting wet or trying not to get wet. I managed, somehow, to still get a ton and have too many to share. I put a couple of pages, full of pictures, together then I also have some individuals...

We stayed in a Kid Cabin Suite...a cabin area with 2 bunks and a daybed, then the main area has a queen bed and a sleeper sofa. The kids area had it's own TV for movies or video games and the main area had it's own TV too, plus a small fridge and nice counter area for food. It also had a cute little balcony and a cozy fireplace.

These are just some shots from around the lodge, the ones of them sitting on the bear's lap (sorry, cut off the bear's head) is when we were leaving. See how happy they look?? Bottom left is the view from our room and bottom right is the view from the bridge that looks down into the main lobby area.

After story time, which Oliver and I missed most of, he got to meet the wolf cubs!

This is Noah starting out on one of his quests to find the Dazzle Rune!

Even though you can't make us out, this is me with the 3 boys coming out of the Canyon River Run. This was perfect for all of us! Oliver wasn't tall enough to go on the Howling Tornado so I went on this one and the Alberta Falls quite a few times with him.

Noah shooting out of the Alberta Falls tube.

So not only did we climb a thousand stairs on our MagiQuest, we also climbed a thousand stairs going up to the Howling Tornado, Canyon River and Alberta Falls water slides. That really cool thing in the middle is the tube return for the Tornado and Canyon slides. You had to carry your own tubes up for the Alberta Falls.

Oliver relaxing in the hot tub...

Trevor relaxing in the hot tub...

Noah and Oliver standing in this cool waterfall/fountain thing.

My kids are probably somewhere in this picture but I don't know where. This is the wave pool or the ocean as the boys called it, and we spent a TON of time here. There were different wave cycles, some calmer than others but they were all fun. I have more pictures of the water park but this gives you a good idea of where we spent most of our time.