Two Little Men: Leo's Birthday at Great Wolf Lodge

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Leo's Birthday at Great Wolf Lodge

For Leo's birthday celebration this year, he chose to have a night at Great Wolf Lodge instead of a party. Great Wolf is a kid resort really close to our house - almost across the street - that has a huge indoor water park. Our original plan was to take Miss Allie and Evan with us, but Evan got sick at the last minute...so Henry and Daddy went as fill-ins. Leo had a great time! He loves the big tube slides where you get to ride on intertubes. After we checked in at about 2pm on Saturday afternoon, we immediately changed into our bathing suits and went to play at the water park. Then we got dressed and went to Grapevine Mills Mall to eat at Rainforest Cafe...but the line for Rainforest Cafe was HUGE at 4:45 pm (!!!)...so we rode the little train that they have there and then went across the street to a restaurant that we like that had no line. We forget that we live in a tourist town - that line at Rainforest was a shocker since I am out there during the week all the time and that mall is practically empty. But EVERY weekend, it is packed like it's the weekend before Christmas.

On Sunday morning, we got up and had breakfast at the hotel buffet. Then we went back to the waterpark for some more fun...and left by 10:30am. Leo had a great time.

Now...here is my unedited Real Parenting bulleted-list of the real happenings!
*Todd said they should add a NASCAR shop. The clientele was a sight to behold, to say the least. I'm really surprised since it's $300/night.

*Leo and I went to Great Wolf last Spring Break with some friends. It was PACKED, but I wasn't surprised since it was Spring Break. Apparently it is usually sold out on the weekend. We waited in line over 30 minutes to check in. They have a bank of 8 elevators, and we mostly had to climb the stairs to the 7th floor. We carried all our luggage and two boys down this morning. When an elevator is full, people start jamming the buttons to get a new elevator, so the doors to the one you're on won't close.

*They sell this wand game where kids use their magic wand to do things on each floor. This leads to kids (and parents!) clogging the elevators and RUNNING on the stairs and in the halls. Yes, we saw parents running in the halls and on the stairs.

*Our boys are literally like caged animals when trapped in a hotel room for any amount of time. They jump on the beds, whoop and holler, and Leo was jumping from a half-wall onto a bed and then to the floor, and Henry can't leave the telephone alone. Henry also tried to get out in the hall all the time. He could unlock the deadbolt and be in the hall before you could say "no." So we had to do the latch at the top that only lets the door open an inch or so...of course that led to pinched fingers.

*The boys needed a night light, and the only thing we could use that would let the room be a bit dark was the bathroom light. No problem. But I had a bit of a stomach bug in the night, and needed to use the bathroom...and I would have really liked a bit of privacy. But at 2am if I shut the bathroom door...someone sat bolt upright in bed and hollered "It's dark! Where's the light?!?!" So....no closing the bathroom door for the 5 times I was up.

*The hotel restaurant didn't open until 7:30am, and then the waterpark didn't open until 9 this morning. We had been up for 4 hours by then. They started asking when they could get out of bed at 5am. See above for caged animal description.

So there is the entire play-by-play! Leo had a wonderful time, and that's what is important!!!

(I have lots more pictures of Henry in the water b/c Todd took Leo to the slides and I stayed with Henry, and I had the camera.)

leaving the room to head down to the waterpark...