Going to the Great Wolf Lodge has become a tradition for us and the kids. We love it because we can all fit in one room, weather isn't an issue, and staying one night gives us two full days of fun at a water park.
It's especially fun to see the little ones as they are becoming more independent in the water. Neither of them is afraid of diving right in and swimming around. They wear life vests, but dont really need them much any more because they're both getting stronger in their swimming.
A new thing we got this time that I think will be a new tradition is the big bucket sundae. It's just big enough to satisfy this horde. It certainly doesn't last long!
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!
A couple of weeks ago, we took a family vacation to Williamsburg, VA. It was Homeschool Days, so the tickets for the Colonial Village were majorly discounted. In conjunction, a lot of hotels in the area offer deals. The Great Wolf Lodge is one of them. If you've never heard of them, these are hotels with an indoor water park as part of the hotel. Normally, the cheapest room is about $219/night during the week and a whopping $489/night on the weekend. During Homeschool Days, every room is discounted (if you use the online code) to $169/night. We chose a kid-friendly Cabin Suite that had a mini log cabin room with bunk beds and a single twin bed in it.
The kids were all very excited to see their room!
Ezra got the bottom bunk
Olivia took the top bunk
And Gabe took the single bed.
Gabe brandishing his balloon sword.
We hadn't even told them about the water park...
The giant fort in the middle of the water park. That bucket on top would tip over every 5 minutes and unload a torrent of water on everyone below.
The younger kids area had lots of neat things for them to play with.
Ezra and Gabe spent almost the entire time on these slides, foregoing naps in favor of shambling zombie-like up the stairs to slide down again and again.
The backside of the fort had two slides that Olivia spent many an hour going down.
The bigger slides took a bit more courage for her to brave, but after a couple of times, she was going on them all by herself!
Besides these slides, there was a lazy river and a wave pool, both of which were pretty nice. There was also another pool with basketball hoops and balls and a rope/lily pad obstacle course for the kids to cross. It was quite an advantage being able to leave your room and not have to carry everything with you to the water park. They had life jackets and towels available and a (not too terribly priced) snack bar for food.
We brought our food to the hotel and ate in the room for breakfast and lunch, but the room only has a dorm-sized fridge and a microwave, so don't think about full-kitchen style cooking. And the only table in the room was a small 4-seater, so not exactly good for the family to gather around at mealtime. The restaurants in the hotel were a little steep ($10 per person for breakfast, $20 for dinner), so we chose instead to sample some of the local food in Williamsburg.
We highly recommend Food For Thought as a great place to eat. We called ahead to let them know we were bringing 4 kids and they had a table set up for us when we got there. The staff was extremely friendly and bent over backwards to make sure we (and I mean ALL of us, not just Rebecca and I) were happy. The food was wonderful and they had trivia cards on the table for us to entertain ourselves with while waiting.
All-in-all, we had a wonderful time there and the price was about what we thought it should be. We couldn't see spending the $289/night ($529 on the weekend!!!!) that they normally charge for the room, but $169 seemed fair. After the trip we decided that pairing this with Colonial Williamsburg wasn't such a hot idea (the kids were WIPED!) so next time we may just go to Williamsburg for the history and take a mid-week vacation to Concord, NC where they've built a Great Wolf Lodge.
