Great wolf lodge

We just got back from a short, but very fun trip to Great Wolf Lodge up in Washington.  Before I have to wake up in the morning, and get back to life, I wanted to share our fun time.  We stayed 1 night so we packed in as much swimming and MagiQuest playing in as we could.  With 2 little ones that was a little tough because they got tired so quickly.  When we arrived at the lodge at around 2pm our room wasn't ready yet, but we could start swimming.  We got about 2.5 hours of swimming in and then we headed to our room to change and go get some dinner.  After dinner it was about 7:30, so we put the baby down for the night and I took the 3 older ones downstairs to buy a wand so we could start playing the MagiQuest game.  For those of you that don't know what the magiquest game is, it is a live action game where you follow clues around to collect runes and treasures using a special wand.  We didn't get a chance to play it last time we went to GWL, so the kids were very excited that we were going to do it this time.  Well, we bought the wand.  It's pretty expensive to buy a wand for each child though, so we decided to start out with only 1 wand.  In reality this should have been good enough, and they should have been happy to have that 1 wand to play with, but they weren't.  Sometimes they were really great and they would happily pass around the wand, but other times they just fought, and grabbed, and whined about not having their own wand.  THAT part wasn't fun exactly, but the whole game was super fun, and all the kids loved it.  They sure did get tired and worn out too because you have to go all over the lodge, up and down stairs (or elevators if you are a tired Momma :-), back and forth through the lobby and the halls finding the next thing on the quest.  Well, anyway, the kids did that until about 9:30 that night.  They gave up on the part of the quest that they were working on because it wasn't working right, so we decided to call it a night and try again in the morning.

The next morning we got up, went to find some breakfast, and then got started on the game again.  The part that they were stuck on worked!  They were able to complete a few more quests, and then it was time to go back to the room to get our stuff packed and moved to the car.  We had to check out by 11, but we could still stay and play and swim all day, so we did!  After everything was in the car, and we had our swim suits on we headed to the water park for a few hours.  I was very excited to go on the big slides this time because last time we came I was very pregnant with Alexander and didn't get to do much.  Mom and Dad had to take turns watching the little ones while the other would take the bigger 2 on the big slides.  By about 12:30 Aric and Alex were done.  They were tired, and hungry.  So, I got them dressed and took them out of the water park while Daddy took the older 2 on the water slides some more.  Aric wanted to do some more magiquest, so I took him and the baby and we did a quest by ourselves.  At this point I purchased another wand because I had forgotten my keys in the locker back at the water park, and didn't want to go all the way back there and all the way back out to the car again with a very tired Aric.  I figured it would be nice to have at least 1 more wand anyway, and April had been begging to buy one for herself with her own money.  So, now we had 2 wands for 3 kids, that's better right?  Oh man!  There were tears to be had about this.  Now Aaron thought Aric had his own wand, and April had hers, so he wasn't very happy.  I couldn't convince him that the 2 wands were still everyone's to share.  Oh well, he finally agreed that we would buy him a wand NEXT time we come to Great Wolf Lodge.  He was finally okay with that.  It was still hard to get by with 2 wands, but we managed.  Anyway, after lunch, we spent a few more hours doing the magiquest game.  We wanted to finish all the quests, and we did!  The kids made it to master magi.  But, then we realized there was more!  We hadn't even been to the dragon yet, and that's the part we all wanted to do.  Apparently it's part of the other adventure.  Mom and Dad looked at each other, and we both agreed that it was time to go.  The littles were super tired, and I think we were all just ready to rest for a while after all that walking around.  So, now we have to go back and get another wand (maybe 2 depending on how old Alex is), and play until we get to wake the dragon (or whatever you do).  We can't wait to go back!

Here are the few pictures I got...

Aric loved the water jet ski's


Aric couldn't stand these bands on, but you have to keep them on the whole time.  He managed to get his off by just sliding it over his hand before bed, so it worked out nice that he didn't have to wear it all night.  He would have been an unhappy camper.  I thought his little hand look so cute with the bands.  Also, he was just barely an inch short of being able to ride the "big" slides.  That's what the red bracelet means.  Although I'm not sure he would have gone on them anyway.
 Look at that super grumpy, tired, tuckered out little boy.  Yes, he was done, and ready for some down time and lunch.

Okay, maybe he's not so grumpy.  We were just sitting and waiting for the other's to be done while baby napped in the stroller.  It's always fun to sit and "people watch".
 
Alex took a pretty long nap in that loud water park.  He was exhausted.  At this point we had checked out though so I couldn't take him back to the room or anything, so we just sat and relaxed.

Some of the magiquest fun.  This character was hilarious.  It's the man in the stump, and he would snore when nobody was waving a wand at him. 
This is a picture of the lodge from the bridge that we walked over many, many times while doing the magiquest game.
One of the many stiars we climed over and over again.  See that black bear on the wall behind the boys?  Aric loved waving the wand at him to see what he would say.  He would say things like, "roar, did I scare you?"  Or, "you'd better clear your plate, before I do."  This was said in a very deep, slow, creepy voice.  The boys loved it.



Alex finally got a hold of the much coveted wand!  He just so cute.  He had fun running all over the lodge, laughing, hiding, and trying to run away when we would let him free from the stroller.  Oh, and he lost his crocs about a dozen times, but we managed to find them again every time. 
 

We had an awesome time!  I was glad and sad to come home.  I was wishing we could stay away just a little longer on our drive home because it's nice to just get away sometimes.  But, it's also nice to be home back in our own house.  I'm looking forward to more family trips this spring and summer!