The girls tracked out of school on Friday, and we had planned a short trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. Just for fun, we decided to make the trip a surprise. When Addie and Nina woke up from naps Sunday afternoon, we told the girls we had some errands to run. When we hopped in the car, we surprised them with the news that we were going on a trip without revealing the destination. We kept them guessing the whole drive with clues every half hour or so. They loved guessing, and we loved that they never figured it out! Elise finally read the sign as we pulled into the parking lot!
The lighting in the waterpark left me with mostly horrible pictures, but a few were salvagable. The big girls were both tall enough to go on any of the slides, so that was great. They tried them all, even the Howlin' Tornado! That ride is insane... you ride on this big four-person raft and get dropped into a huge 6-story funnel where you swish back and forth in the funnel, 30 feet up the sides of it. J.C. and the girls even braved it at night when it was pitch black! Addie loved the wave pool and the toddler play area where she would have been perfectly happy spending the entire day going from jet ski to jet ski pushing off other toddlers and bullying her way on to them!
This was our second trip to a Great Wolf Lodge but our first trip to the one in Concord, NC. We were extremely impressed with the caliber of the lifeguards. I don't think I've been to any other pool or waterpark with lifeguards on par with these. They were almost militant in the way they guarded, and I mean that in a good way. When Nina fell and got hurt going up some stairs, they had a first aider there within seconds. With being outnumbered in the child to parent ratio, it was reassuring to feel really confident in the lifeguards as our extra eyes.
Trips like this make me really appreciate our year-round school schedule. It is so nice to be able to take advantage of the low crowds and low prices at places like this on weekdays during the traditional school year. We never waited in line for any attraction and often felt like we had the place to ourselves. I love this picture of Elise all alone as the 1,000 gallon bucket of water dumped on her!
Our room was a Kid Cabin Suite which had a cute little log cabin in it with a set of bunk beds and one daybed.
Addie has never slept in a regular bed, but it sounded so appealing to put all of them in the cabin together, so we pushed some pillows and chairs up against one of the beds to box her in there with hopes that she would sleep. Yeah, Right. This picture was taken about 9:30 (3 hours after her usual bed time). There was very little sleeping that night, for any of us. J.C. finally bolted out of bed about 5 a.m., threw the pack n' play together and tossed her in there. She was silent the rest of the morning. If only he had thought of that hours earlier! The next night, she went straight into the pack n' play.
Both evenings, the big girls went to storytime in the lobby in their PJ's. Nina was asked to be the helper one night which she loved.
We all really enjoyed ourselves. It was a quick getaway but just long enough. We were waterlogged and over-chlorinated by the time check-out rolled around. As with any trip, being off our usual schedule and routine led to a few meltdowns (myself included), but overall, it was a wonderful trip. The girls were thrilled with the surprise, so I'm glad we planned it that way. Tomorrow, it is back to the real world.
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