As a Chrysler employee B is apparently eligible for all sorts of discounts and all sorts of places. One of those places just happens to be Great Wold Lodge! So naturally when it came time to use that extra vacation time they gave him, we decided it would be the perfect place to go spend a few days.
We chose to go up on a Thursday and return home on Saturday, we figured it would work out best, and we figured right. Check in isn't until 4pm but you can arrive as early as 1pm to use the water park. We arrived at 2:30 and since it was a Thursday our room was ready and we immediately checked in. Of course Y wanted to head to the pool area right away so after getting changed we were off!
Both girls had a blast playing in the water, something that hadn't been able to do since our neighborhood pool closed in September. There weren't a ton of people there, in fact aside from us there may have only been 5-10 other families utilizing the water park. Y was quite apprehensive of the water even though we made sure she was wearing a life vest. I think the few months out of the pool affected her level of confidence. We stayed until about 6:30pm when we decided we would head up and order a pizza for dinner. Every night at 8pm and 9pm they have story time for the kids and we wanted to be sure to make it to the 8pm time slot so that we could get the girls in bed.
Friday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, showered and headed off to the water park again! Y met a little boy who was able to boost her confidence in the water and after that there was no holding her back! I told B I would watch the girls if he wanted to do any of the big water slides, an offer he took me up on! After he was done, he encouraged me to try it and assured me that it was just a smooth, calm ride down to the bottom - he LIED! I was terrified, but I will admit I had a blast doing it. We stayed for a couple hours before heading up to our room for lunch. Immediately after lunch, B and Y were off again to the water park while I stayed behind to make sure Q had a good nap. She ended up sleeping for 3½ hours but once she woke up she pointed to the door and said, "go pool!" Actually she began to say that any time we came back up to the room. Regardless of what time it was she would always point to the door and say, "go pool!" We returned back from dinner just in time to get upstairs, change into our PJs and enjoy our final night of story time. Friday was a bit more crowded than Thursday had been but it was still pretty deserted.
On Saturday we had to check out of our room at 11pm but we were allowed to use the water park until it closed at 9pm. We didn't end up staying that late, we ended up leaving around 6pm because we still had to stop for dinner and then make the 2½ hour drive home. Saturday was notably crowded, in fact I told B that it's not a place I'd care to visit during the summer months for that exact reason - there were just too many people. But part of that could be attributed to the fact that they had recently run a special on Groupon which many people had apparently taken advantage of.
It was an awesome weekend and something that we will definitely be doing again, In fact Y is constantly asking us when we are going back to Ohio or Great Wolf Lodge. Even I must admit that I can't wait to go back, they have so many kid and family friendly activities that we didn't get to take advantage of!
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| At story time this scene "comes alive" to tell the story of a little boy lost and afraid in the forest. |
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| They were getting ready for Christmas while we were there. |
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| All the kids loved banging on this drum/table |
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| I meant to take a photo of the finished product before we left but forgot the camera was already packed away. This gingerbread house is built using a wood frame but everything you can see is edible. He had been working on it since September! I was able to taste the icing he was using and it was actually delicious. He told me that the candy canes that you see on the side are actually mint flavored. He told me I could taste if I wanted but didn't advise it since He had done that part a month prior - I took his word for it. haha |
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| After storytime with Wiley the Wolf |
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| This was Thursday, as you can see it was pretty deserted! |
