Lazy rivers and clean-ish cars

Alternatively titled: Mini-Vacay

Through the years my dad had become more of an experience giving guy than a stuff giving guy. It probably helps that experience are easier to shop for but he also knows that stuff piles up while memories remain.

So several months ago when Elizabeth mentioned that she really wanted to go back to Great Wolf Lodge he took notice and Christmas day came with a gift certificate for a nights stay under the tree. 

Now Smiley Girl was about 14 months old the last time we were there so she didn't remember much about it but as soon as we showed her a picture she was so excited. I would wager to say that she was more excited for GWL than she was for Disney last year and Disney was so serious excitement at our house.

Anyway, for several weeks we've heard nothing from Smiley girl except for how excited she is to go to Great Wolf Lodge.  Sunday morning we woke up, ate waffles (homemade, thank you very much) and waited for TDM to be ready.  

Since everything was ready to go, I took a few minutes to clean my car while TDM was in the shower. I had given each kid a bag the day before and asked them to clean out the car, shoving everything that didn't belong in the car into either a bag for the house or a bag for the garbage. Imagine my shock and dismay that there was more to clean. 

Not really, my kids are slobs.

Anyway, I spent a few minutes picking up all of the stuff that had already been picked up which is basically code for shoving literally everything into a bag.  Because I'm basically an evil mom who decided right then and there that part of homeschooling in the coming weeks would be a lesson in how stuff gets destroyed when it isn't taken care of. There is one bag stuffed to the brim with everything from Minnie Mouse dresses to crushed cinnamon twists from Taco Bell to sucker sticks to books, french fries and DVDs. I also took a minute to vacuum it all out and then because the shower was still running I also decided to wipe down everything with a wet cloth.  

Finally TDM was ready, the car was packed and we set out for Great Wolf Lodge.  As soon as we reached our room Smiley girl completely unpacked her suitcase into one of the drawers and then because she was ready to go to the water park and no one else was yet, I had her unpack mine as well. 

Strike while the iron is hot right or at least use the child labor when it's willing, right?

We made our way to the water park without further ado and proceeded to float the Lazy River, slide down water slides, have bucket after bucket after bucket of water dumped over our heads, jumped on lily pads and ran into friends we know from our town.

I feel like you should know that the mom of the family that we ran into has been stalking me since way back when Miss E was in preschool. So having her show up at the water park three hours away from us just creepy. But she is a good stalker. Not a crazy-I'm-afraid-of-her-stalker but a fun-I-love-running-into-her-stalker so it's all good.  I had a great time catching up with her. 

Anyway when our fingers looked like this:

And our toes look much the same, and our bellies were rumbly we headed straight for our room to get warm and place an Applebee's order.  I ran to pick it up while the kids got cleaned up and visited Story Time.

I've never been so happy to see food in at least a couple weeks. 

Before calling it a night we made our way to the arcade to quickly blow some hard earned cash. When that was all said and done we had three rubber bears from a claw machine and enough tokens to "get" 9 miniature Tootsie Rolls and one plastic BFF necklace. Naturally a fight broke out because they split the necklace but Elizabeth was pretty sure that she would regret giving her little sister half of her heart and there was NO way that Smiley Girl was sharing her Tootsie Rolls.  

Hello chocolate drama!

The most restful night of sleep ever happened until Dunkin Donuts delivered the room service that we had requested at 7:30 am.  (We clearly were not thinking when we checked the box for that delivery time!)

And then the water park opened at 10 am.

So we did all the things again, ate lunch and floated the Lazy River, rode all of the water slides, had buckets and buckets of water poured on our heads, did the lily pads, talked to our stalker friends and floated the lazy river some more. 

I figure that Smiley Girl easily floated and bounced 35 miles in the river. 

And then we changed into street clothes, hit up the spa for a quick $10 Sprinkled in Scoops package, grabbed an ice cream cone and headed for home.

Except that the car "accidentally" turned into another motel so we stayed the night there. Papa John's supplied dinner for us while Impractical Jokers and the originial episodes of Full House supplied the entertainment.  The kids were not fans of those new fangled tv commercials (we use streaming only) but given that TDM and I grew up in a world with exactly ONE television channel I wasn't finding much sympathy.

The next morning we came home and that's it.

Except that we all had a lot of fun and feel pretty relaxed from the lazy river. So, best Christmas present ever!

We did learn a few things along the way: 

Every drink in the joint costs $3. Except that the fridge in your room comes with two bottles of Dasani. And while you are taking luggage out to your car the staff will knock on the door to offer more water but your kids will tell them "No thank you" because they thought about it and they weren't thirsty. 

Also, the food stand in the water park.has an exceptionally entertaining guy who is afraid of the ice cream machine, yells loudly when needed and apparently thinks that chicken tenders are the equivalent of dead fish. He also gives out free cups of ice water, which saves you $3 on an alternative beverage. Clearly GWL cares about your hydration. 

And, remember that bag of nasty stuff from the back of the car? I'm thinking that I'm going to let that perk for a bit before dumping that sucker onto the kitchen table so the kids can sort it all out. I'm thinking of calling it "Home Ec/Archeology/Germ 101 and Take Care Of Your Own Crap" class. Should be fun!