For Gabe's 9th birthday, we surprised them all by foregoing the usual birthday party for a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord. We'd been to a GWL before in Williamsburg, but that was way back in 2012, when Emma was the only Little, though Irene was on her way. :) One of the nice things about the GWL is that you can get into the pool at 1pm on the day you check in and then can stay in the pool until they close on the day you check out. So even though we only stayed one night, they got a full day and a half in the pool.
The kids were all super excited when we arrived because we didn't tell them ahead of time that we were doing this. We checked in and Rebecca took them all straight to the pool while I unloaded in the room and decorated it.
If you recall, Gabe had asked for a Minion birthday theme, so we obliged him further on this trip with balloons, a banner, confetti and a bunch of Minion themed snacks.
I even made a trail mix with blue and yellow M&Ms (yes, I had to pick them out of a huge bag!) Chex Mix, pretzel sticks and candy eyes.
While I was setting up the room, The kids were getting into action. The best part about the GWL is that the older 3 are all old enough to run off on their own and do whatever slides they want. I think there were only two slides that Gabe and Ezra were supposed to need an adult for, but we certainly didn't mind going with them.
The Littles weren't exactly hard to watch, tho. They loved the wave pool! It came on and off at 5 minute intervals, so they'd bang around in the waves for a few minutes and then when it stopped, they'd want to go over to the huge fort with two slides that they could ride on their own.
They also liked the splash area around the fort, but they weren't big fans of the huge, 500-gallon bucket that dumped every 10 minutes or so.
We engaged in a few races on the track slides, which was fun. I went a couple of times and beat everyone else, but I think it's just because gravity pulls harder on me. ;) I didn't get a picture of him, but during the second day, Ezra and Gabe made a friend who spend most of that day riding the slides with us wherever we went.
As a treat on the second day, we got a massive bucket of ice cream that came with all manner of stuff in it like cookie bites, brownie chunks, whipped cream and chocolate syrup.
They made short work of it, tho. (Rebecca and I may have helped a little...)
At the end of the trip, we were all waterlogged and exhausted, but super happy that we had come. Of course, they all want to do it again as soon as possible and I certainly don't disagree!
