Great Wolf

For the last few years we've received an e-mail from a friend asking if we'd like to get in on a group rate at the The Great Wolf Lodge. And, every year, much to my dismay, we said no for one reason or another. What it came down to is that I'm the only water bug in our family. Dan isn't a fan of public pools, Tyler is plain scared and Ryan is too little to enjoy anything. No fun!!

So, this year we got the e-mail in September... just days after the cancer diagnosis. I forwarded it to Dan at work saying I wanted to go and he said book it. Woo Hoo! We lucked out that it was after chemo, but before surgery.

Yesterday was the big day. 80+ degrees in the middle of January felt really good! How much longer until summer?

I didn't take any pictures of us in the water park, but here's a couple of the park itself. Tyler kept his eye on this bucket the whole time. He was very concerned about it dumping on his head and no amount of explaining that it fell on the roof would deter him. He even used it as an excuse not to go on the medium sized water slides.

Both boys enjoyed this area. Ryan especially loved the water spouts coming up from the floor. Tyler went down each of the small water slides multiple times and really enjoyed the tree house with all of its water valves and sprayers. Dan got a couple of good hits in.

Once we had our fill of chlorine, we headed down to the arcade. I believe Tyler enjoyed it more than the water park... next time we'll just go to Chuck E Cheese.

Should it concern me that my two-year old grabbed this and knew right where the trigger was?

Our friends' boys are so sweet... they suggested that they all hold hands. I think we were on our way to the arcade.

The lobby was a whole lot of fun. There were "hands" that activated the animals. Ryan figured it out.

When we first arrived Tyler had to make sure that the wolves howling on the fireplace weren't real. I think he was really concerned... poor kid!! It was pretty obvious that these guys were fake. But, still a lot of fun.

The worst and best part of Great Wolf were the wristbands. You had to wear them the entire time and they did everything including opening lockers, opening your room door and buying tokens for the arcade... but you had to wear them the entire time, including in bed.

I made a mistake and put Tyler's on a little too loose so you could slip it off. But, then I decided it was good so he wouldn't have to sleep in it. Imagine my surprise when I saw that he was holding it in his hand when he got in to bed. He told me he liked it because of the "electronics." Of course.

Here they are with the talking tree.

And, in the arcade (again) this morning.

Ryan's prize in the arcade was "smarties" or so I thought. On further inspection, they were "Rockets." Hmmm. It must be a Canadian thing...

On the way home we stopped at a superhero themed restaurant for lunch. It was fun for the boys and the food was good! What a nice way to end a crazy weekend.

The best news is that we were able to cross the border both times with no hassle... so now I've added a whole bunch of other activities to my "must do" list... The science museum in Toronto, Toronto Zoo, shopping in the Eaton Center... we have a whole other country to explore!! I'm sure Dan is excited too. Ha!