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Sunday, August 14, 2011

How come we never knew about the Wolf?!

For our last summer hurrah we wanted to take a family vacation but couldn’t decide where the heck to go. Then at the last minute I Googled “best waterparks on the West Coast” and hit what looked like paydirt! We took a blind leap and booked The Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA, and Oh My Word it was fabulous!IMG_1694LRIMG_1699LRIMG_0260LR

We loved everything about it, plus (and this is a huge plus) it’s one of the only family vacations we’ve ever taken that we didn’t come home exhausted from. Wheeeee!

SAMSUNGFlying there was half the fun (as usual). And the girls (as usual) disdained my suggestion that they wear comfy jeans and tennis shoes on the plane.

IMG_0237LROnce there, Ro and Ree screamed with joy to see that we had an actual little-kid log cabin complete with bunk beds smack dab in the middle of our hotel room. Seriously, they must have let a five-year-old design this room it was just so perfect.

I think this funny sign (which we stumbled upon outside a local Church’s chicken establishment) sums up the girls’ new attitude toward swimwear on this trip:IMG_0232LR

Yep, that’s right, Ro and Ree suddenly decided that one-piece swimsuits are SO last year, and gleefully scoured the clearance racks at the mall for $3 bikinis before our trip:SAMSUNG

The waterpark was huge, kept at a constant balmy temp, and completely indoors -- so we didn’t need sunscreen the entire trip. (squeal!)(could there be anyone in the world who detests sunscreen as much as I?). There were a bunch of thrilling three-story-high rides, a crazy wave pool, a soaker-play area, a deep pool with fun climbing things, and a toddler play area.
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The girls got free wolf ears at our first dinner and wore them pretty much constantly after that -- during dessert, an emergency hotel evacuation, to bed, while coloring in the lobby, for the nightly story-time, and over breakfast hot chocolates:
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And they LOVED the lodge game called MagiQuest. I was pretty skeptical at first, but let me tell you that game is genius. The kids buy custom wands at the lobby store, then they’re off on electronic, animated, wand-based scavenger hunts all over the lodge. Each quest has a series of clues, and the lodge is tricked out on every floor with magical forests, animated paintings, treasure chests, wizards and pixies, and I don’t even know what else. The girls had fun for days tearing around on their quests (Ro called them “questes” which cracked me up):
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Goodbye for now, Great Wolf, you can be SURE we will be back.
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If anyone has other cool suggestions for neat family vacations or questions about Great Wolf, lay ‘em on me! And if you’ve been there (to any of the locations), I’m so curious to hear what your family thought.

PS: Did anyone notice that we’ve had another scissor incident (gritted teeth) and Ro is now sporting self-styled bangs? I guess their teacher will easily tell them apart again – remember that they started school last year with Ree’s arm in a bright pink cast...

34 comments:

  1. Anonymous8/14/2011

    VERY cool!!

    You should check out West Edmonton Mall in Alberta Canada sometime as a family holiday! So FUN!!! :-)

    http://www.wem.ca/#/play

    Check out their indoor waterpark, rides, icerink, mini golf, shopping, hotel, submarines, etc. ALL in the same mall!

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  2. Great Wolf is awesome. That is where we have our yearly China reunion. We have done it for the last 4 years. We have a party in our room Saturday night, order pizza, everyone brings soda and snacks, we get a room on the bottom so the kids can go outside and play. It works works out great for all our families ( there's 7). Alex and Abby have almost all the same pictures as Ree and Ro. Too cute.

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  3. Looks like you all had great fun. Maisie and I are heading to a similar place, Wilderness at the Smokies with the indoor water park, etc. as that's where her out-of-state gymnastics meet is being held. After seeing your girls and watching the Smokies video she's super excited.

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  4. Thanks for the review! We have one in Kansas City, MO ... about a 4 hour drive from home. I always thought it would be a fantastic middle of winter getaway. Now I'll be sure to look further into it and start planning!

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  5. Sounds great! I'm glad you had fun. Thanks for sharing. I just did the same google search as you and they have one on the east coast too. Squeeeee!

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  6. Is that Ro sporting some adorable bangs? Cute!!

    Wow! Looks like you had an amazing time at GWL! Fun during the day and at night too. Now that's a great vacay spot!

    We have a GWL in Niagara Falls. Wanna come play?

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  7. Looks like fun, I never knew it was there and it is so close. Thanks for sharing we are going to have to check it out.

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  8. The GWL in Cincinnati looks exactly the same. We're off in just a few hours! Tell the girls that the twins in my Daisy troop wear different earrings. No casts, no funky bangs. Their names are Virankha and Vivekkha, which is hard enough, so thank goodness for those earrings!

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  9. I have lived in Washington my whole life and have never even heard of it???? very very cool!

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  10. Anonymous8/15/2011

    Great Wolf Lodge in KC, Kansas, was the place for fun for our family last week--kids all loved it and so did the parents and grandparents!

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  11. Check out Kalahari. They have 2 in the U.S. It's another water park and I'm told is bigger than Great Wolf. Don't know that to be true because we've only been to Kalahari. Check out the website though. It's pretty cool.

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  12. We loved Great Wolf, but my complaint is a miserly one. The food is just too dang expensive for too poor a quality. That's my complaint. Gawd, I'm a penny pincher, lol!

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  13. Oh my gosh, that looks RIDICULOUSLY fun! I'm thinking it might end up on our list of Winter Things To Do. You always come up with the best ideas!

    Donna
    Our Blog: Double Happiness!

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  14. We love GWL here in Williamsburg VA. Just about 30 minutes from our house so it is a nice get away without having to go to far. You should try it in the winter. It snows in the lobby!

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  15. When we lived in WA we drove down to GWL. It was a lot of fun and we went in February I think--it was PACKED!! I guess that's what everyone in WA/OR does to get through the dreary winters. They were sold out of the bunkie rooms though when we went, but my kids loved the wand thing and the video arcade room. Although youngest didn't care much for that bear on the stairs whose eyes light up, freaked her out!

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  16. Shoot me a note next time you go and my dynamic duo and I will come visit you! It's about an hour, give or take a little, from us. And if you fly in/out of Seattle, the airport is 15 minutes from me... My twosome is about the same age as your girls.

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  17. There is one in Texas too....the best concept evah!!!

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  18. We went there a couple of months with our girls. Kiddy Vegas! They had a blast. We loved it except it was a bit expensive.

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  19. we just got back last weekend from ours here in Texas! We LOVED it. Check it out http://www.thewhitehousebaby.com/2011/08/great-wolf-lodge.html

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  20. We drove up there about 2 months ago. We only stayed one night but, PSparkly LOVED it. Story time, swimming, MagiQuest, the loot...it was all good! It's a crazy, loud place and drove me a little nuts at times. However, I did enjoy the outdoor lounge chairs in the sun with (somewhat) chlorine-free air. I also spent an hour with a couple of martinis in the restaurant...that's probably what kept me sane. Heh.
    Happy to see you all had yourselves a great time.
    M.

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  21. I drive past that place all. the. time. but have never been inside. Maybe I need to!

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  22. That is super close to our house. I always drive by on my way out of portland. We're going there as soon as they can swim! I didn't realize it was so awesome.

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  23. We've been to the Grapevine, TX one three times. I always freeze my buns off indoors, so this summer we went (normally we go in Feb), and I made the kids spend a lot of time at the outdoor pool so I could thaw. My kids *love* it... by this third trip, though, the adults were pretty over it.

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  24. I am dying to know - is that a picture of a chocolate fondue with ...french fries to dip?

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  25. Anonymous8/16/2011

    I think one of the episodes of "Undercover Boss" was there. (Not sure if it was that same location.)

    Jamie S.

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  26. Anonymous8/16/2011

    Love, love, love the one down in Williamsburg, VA. Makes
    a super fun trip for all, and mom loves to sneak off to the spa! We did the holiday lights at Busch Gardens and some outlet shopping on the way in. We were ready for the warm waves!

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  27. We go to the one in the Pconos (just got back yesterday.) We had a blast. But, I'm w/ Sabrina - the food is super expensive and really not good at least at the one in PA (and i'm not really a picky eater.) But, we just bring stuff w/ us and it is fine. The kids love it. I can't wait until they are a little older so we can all go on the big rides!
    Glad you guys enjoyed it!

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  28. Anonymous8/17/2011

    Check on the Wisconsin Dells. They have lot's of indoor waterpark hotels including a Great Wolf, The Wilderness & a Kalahari as well as many smaller family waterparks. We love the Dells. The Dells also has boat rides, mini golf, fudge, shopping & more. It's a fun family vacation spot.
    Glad the girls loved the Wolf.

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  29. What an awesome time!

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  30. That place sounds really terrific. I didn't know about GWL and reading there are some within reasonable distance from us, I have to check it out. Perhaps that will be our fall vacation destination.

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  31. We hosted our Taiwan R.O.C.ks Taiwan adoptive family reunion at Great Wolf in TX!! We had 24 families come from all over the country(2 even from HI) that have all adopted from Taiwan to join our kids together for a weekend of fun and friends!!! It was a blast and we all LOVED GWL!!!

    Glad you had fun, and I think you all visit TX sometimes and if you make it to the DFW area the biggest GWL awaits you(if you can imagine it even bigger than the one you went to)

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  32. Anonymous11/05/2011

    If you liked the Great Wolf Lodge you should go to the Kalahari if you have never been there! I'm not sure about prices but I go there almost every year labor day weekend with my friends and it is soo fun!

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  33. Okay, we did this for Thanksgiving and it was every bit as much fun as you made us think it would be! Yep, this is probably our new Thanksgiving tradition! What a blast!!

    Donna

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