Winter getaway

January and February are very busy months for my husband at work, and therefore are the months that give us the longest work days and weeks to get through. On Wednesday Adam took us away to Great Wolf Lodge as a special treat for staying happy, and to give us some much needed family time. We had a terrific time! A friend from work told Adam to ask for a free room upgrade when we checked in, so we asked, and they gave us one! We got the Wolf Den room that has a little "cabin" inside with bunk beds for the kids to sleep in.


When we walked in the room we saw this:

I thought it was really cool and I am thirty-year-old grown-up, so I have to think that is pretty awesome to a four-year-old boy.

Here are the kids enjoying the bunk beds:

Joey's cousins have bunk beds, so they have always fallen into the realm of cool and desirable. He was a little nervous on the ladder at first, but by the end of the trip he could go up and down without any assistance.


I thought the artwork was adorable; he thought having a TV in his "room" was fantastic. We didn't use the TV because you had to pay to play the video games, so he would hold the controller and pretend to play. Sometimes he is so weird.

Katie enjoyed the animal artwork too. Here she is looking at a "duck."

Katie calls all birds ducks. She has not yet processed that ducks are birds, but not all birds are ducks. She has picked her label for flying creatures, and that is "duck", no matter how many times I say "bird."

Katie slept on the bottom bunk at night. It was her first time sleeping on a bed that was not also a cage (crib or pack 'n play). I put two chairs by it to keep her from falling out, and I was surprised that she only climbed out of bed once before falling asleep. The bigger surprise was that she slept the whole night without waking up, and didn't wake up too early.

The indoor water park is absolutely perfect. Every age group and thrill-level is satisfied. They have slides the size of a playground sliding board, one-story high body slides, two story high body slides, and then the 3-4 story high tube slides. Joey says he loved the highest body slides best, I think because they provided a thrill without any fear factor. They were also fun because the two slides are right beside each other and we would race down together. He got a huge thrill out of beating me to the bottom. Joey also did the tube slides with either Adam or me and enjoyed them, though they did give your gut quite the tickle. Joey also really enjoyed the wave pool. I didn't get too many photos in the water park because it was so humid the lens fogged up right away, and the ones I took are very fuzzy.

So here is Joey on the little slide.

And even Katie went down - which I never would have thought when we first walked into the water park as she clung to me with fright and buried her head in my neck. The huge bucket that dumps 1000 gallons of water over one portion of the park every ten minutes or so, was a little intimidating terrifying to her at first. After she realized that this warm, noisy room presented no immediate threat, she let me put her down, and soon she was having a great time. When she showed some interest in doing the same slides that big brother was doing, I went up the stairs with her and pushed her down and Adam caught her at the bottom. When I would ask her if she wanted to do it again she would say "No", but eventually she would walk up the stairs to do it again. (sorry the picture is so fuzzy)

She looked so cute in her little life vest. When Katie is wet, she has a very pathetic "drowned rat" look about her, so she was a cute, little drowned-rat in a cute, little life vest.

Adam and I were both thrilled with what a great time we all had. I prayed for some sweet family time, and the Lord answered those prayers. The kids had fun and so did Dad and Mom. The room was clean, comfortable and adorable, and we got a great deal with some help from Adam's co-worker. It was two days of enjoying each other's company, which truly was the best part. If this is one of the first trips Joey is able to remember later on in life, I think it will be a great memory.

I am so thankful for my husband who realized we could use a family fun retreat, and I am so thankful for the Lord providing for us to be able to go. (And thanks for letting me share it with all of you.)