A Hoooowling Great Adventure!

The big kids were on fall break this past weekend, which meant a lovely 4 day weekend for us. Generally we are quite content to stay around home & just enjoy some downtime. A break from all the rushing about that is our (very blessed) life. On Friday, Darcy still had school, so we did take it easy. Saturday was business as usual football games, birthday parties & the like. Somewhere in there, Jack asked us for perhaps the 4, 357th time since August, "Can we go to the Great Wolf Lodge ??? Please, pleeeeaaassse!" And probably to his shock & utter amazement, we said YES! Since everyone was out of school on Monday we thought why not! I did a quick Internet check & they did indeed have a room that would sleep all seven of us for a decent rate. And I made a quick call to my mom who had generously given us a Great Wolf Lodge "gift card" for Christmas last year. Praise the Lord, everything fell into place perfectly! We made reservations for a one night stay on Sunday night. I unpacked the bathing suits that I had just put into storage, and packed a few bags of essentials (oh, how nice it was to not have to pack food, towels, etc!) Sunday morning could not get here fast enough!! We got up a little earlier than normal to load up the car, we dressed for church (with bathing suits at the top of our suitcases) and headed out the door! We enjoyed wonderful worship, teaching, serving & fellowship at church...and then we were off!

Jack had gone to the GWL this summer on an overnight trip with his Sunday School group, so he considered himself a bit of an expert. He was happy to step into the role of tour guide. First stop, Cici's pizza (about 10 minutes from the GWL, Jack told us & he was right!) We ate our fill of yummy pizza & more importantly the kids had been saving up quarters to buy trinkets from the gum ball machines. The little "squishie" animals are their favorites & I think they got 3 or 4 each! Jeff & I just shook our heads as we ate our pizza, but I can remember the thrill of spending my own money on little trinkets & treasures. And they kept up with their respective squishies all weekend, even Drew! (And there were only about 354 arguments about whose was whose!) With the lure of the Great Wolf calling, we didn't tarry at Cici's & got back into the car to get to our destination.

We arrived before the printed check-in time, but our room was ready so we were able to unload our stuff, get quickly settled in our room & suit up! Then it was time to hit the water park! This is where I started taking pictures, so I will narrate the rest of our trip in the captions.
(And I will go ahead & make the call now to break this up into two posts...I know I have uploaded over 50 pictures for each day at the water park...so I'm going to take a page from my smart friend Sarah's book & do a post per day of our get-away! When your eyes start rolling back in your head from looking at pics of my kids splashing in yet another pool, I know you will thank me for breaking it up!)

 All suited up, let the fun begin!!! 

Okay, first LOVE about the GWL...just a 2 minute walk from the room & we were there! No towels to carry, NO SUNSCREEN to apply!

 Here is tour guide Jack giving us the low-down on the park lay-out. Shoes off, life vests on the little ones & let's begin!

 Sweet Lucy is just along for the ride & content to be where ever we are!

Exploring! 

 Jack & Sophie headed straight for the big wave pool

 Jack spent a lot of time diving under the water whenever I got close with the camera!

 A little wave from Darcy

Darcy shooting a water canon 

 Water, water everywhere!!

 Every corner of the park had something new & fun to explore & discover

 Smiles all around!

 They say they keep the temps inside a perfect 84 degrees. The air was warm, but the water was still pretty chilly!

 Jack & Sophie using the buddy system

 Drew & Daddy

 These neat lily pads were lots of fun for the big kids to race across

 Jack's almost there!

 Sophie making a cautious start, but once she got the hang of it, she was speedy!

 Drew chillin' 

 Drew must have floated like this on his back holding a ball for at least half an hour.

 He was SO content to just get pulled along 

 You can't see it well in this picture, but he's grinning from ear to ear!

 Jack watching out for his little brother. I won't lie to you, taking a trip with 5 little ones can surely have its moments of chaos, but in the end the good far outweighs the bad...built in playmates, someone to explore with, the buddy system, looking out for one another...that's what family is all about!

 We did not have to walk 10 feet and Drew would find something new to check out. This was just the bottom of a big water slide & Drew must have played there for 15 minutes!

 One of the many different kinds of water sprayers...

 I'm thinking we need one of these for the back yard!

 Let's do that again!

 Sophie's turn

 Lucy didn't fuss a bit!

 Our happy girl!

 Back at the wave pool

 Here again, Drew was content to just stand & let the waves rush over him.

 Have I mentioned another LOVE about the GWL...it's like the beach but with NO sand, NO bugs, NO wind blowing things all over the place, NO scorching heat, NO sunglasses getting smeary & scratched, and NO SUNSCREEN NEEDED!!!

 Riding the waves!

 Good one!

 Hold on Daddy!!

 After a full afternoon in the waterpark, we went back to the room & got everyone bathed. On our way to dinner we the kids noticed some people handing out candy at various stations. We inquired at the front desk & they were doing a complimentary trick-or-treating & they handed us some bags.

 The kids had fun going to each station "trick-or-treating" before dinner (with the understanding that all candy  must be reserved for after dinner!)

 We ate a yummy dinner at the hotel!

 Then it was time for something nearly as fun as the waterpark itself--or you would think that based on the number of times the kids asked about it--yes, I am referring to the making of a souvenir penny!

Drew giving me his best "picture smile!" 

They handed out cute wolf ear headbands after dinner. 

 Sophie admiring her flattened penny

 Drew's turn!

 Lucy really doesn't understand all the fuss over a penny...

 She says, Hold out for the big bucks!

 Pretty wolfie girls!

 Then it was back to the cabin, uh room for bed! Our room was GREAT! It had a really cool "log cabin" area with bunk beds & a single bed. The kids felt SO cool to have their own room! And even though there was not a door, we liked that it was separated enough from the main room that we didn't have to go to bed exactly when our kids did.

After just a few excited giggles & chatter, everyone was asleep within 5 minutes of heads hitting pillows.

Even Lucy was worn out from the long day! 

(Don't worry, she did not sleep like this on the bed. There was a pack-n-play in the room.) 

Nighty-night! 

(Can you hear the snoring? ;-)

And stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to our Great Wolf Lodge adventure get-away! 

(I know you will be waiting on the edge of your seats!)