Great Wolf Lodge...

The much anticipated birthday adventure at Great Wolf Lodge had finally arrived. After a 2 hour drive we arrived and headed off for our first dip in the water. Later while the boys continued to swim, we decorated the room for our 'almost' 7 year-olds. What fun we - the Moms- had making the room look and feel special for our little boys.

As the boys arrived they quickly noticed the banners, the signs and right around the corner from this room, their King Size suite, complete with goodie baskets!

I think this picture of the two is my favorite of the weekend. Boys - like brothers- all excited about the fun yet to be had. They got along better than brothers for the entire stay and it really was a big love fest.

After all, what would a birthday celebration be, without cake and sprinkles!? Make a wish, and hope it comes true...

With the sunlight shining in from their 'own balcony' they settled into some 'quiet time' which turned out to be organizing gummy fruit treats on the carpet. Yeah, I know, they ate them off the carpet. I think they will live.

We made great use of our time and I'm happy to say I joined the boys on 3 of the four times we went down for water park time. For hours at a time, we'd play in the wave pool, slide down rides in rafts (after a ba-zillion stairs) and stand under the amazing waterfall as the bucket tipped every few minutes releasing over 1,000 gallons of water. We all loved it. (The feeling of the waves, and bobbing up and down stayed with me...even as I returned home to my own bed all cozy and warm, I felt as if I was still laying in a raft...How does the body do that?!)

This is a great place to come, especially if you're kid is tall enough to have the green bracelet because they are 48 inches or taller and have access to everything in the park, without an adult! How great is that!

This place was big enough to enjoy, but not so big as to get lost and wonder where the kids are. Every few minutes we'd see two wet, little, brown-haired boys scamper their way back to climb the stairs, AGAIN.

If it's a birthday weekend, then you get to eat chips, in bed, for breakfast if you want to. This picture seemed to sum up the liberties these two were allowed this one time!

Our room was great... 2 queens, a sofa bed, fireplace, fridge and microwave, and we learned at check-in...since it was the boys birthday celebration...a FREE upgrade with a king suite! (It too had its own bathroom!)

Pierce thanked us for bringing those familiar decorations from home that helped to make the room feel important. Birthdays are important and so are these two kids. We told them, "Happy Birthday!" all weekend long, even though their real bdays are June 9th and July 28th.

Some of our favorite hours were spent in the arcade...playing games, winning tickets, finding tokens on the carpet, etc. So many great games and we all played our fair share!

Here Evan and Daddy spend their last token on day 2 of our visit. Evan did great, and earned a total of 961 tickets over the two days and was ready to turn them in for prizes.

All of these tickets were not earned by just playing games. There was some luck involved too. One machine spit out 176 tickets, instead of 1. Opps. Mark, Evan and I all found tickets that were left behind in machines, and also those dropped by careless players. I find tokens on the carpet, tickets, and even a purse. (I turned in the purse!)

Evan had a blast feeding his tickets into the ticket cruncher to see how many he had earned!

In the end, it was the Great Wolf himself that Evan chose, along with a lock box piggy bank and some candy. I was happy he got to select such special things to remember this trip by.

Evan wheeled our bags out to the curb before we headed home. We were there one night, and two very full days. It felt like a weekend, and I refereed to it as a weekend, even though it was just a jam packed day.

Thursday...

1:00 pm - early check in. We all used the water park until about 3:30.

3:30-5:30 Hang out in room, goodie baskets, dinner, unpack.

5:30-6:30 Round one at the arcade. So much fun!

6:30-9:00 Water park. We would have stayed later, but 9:00 is closing time!

9:00 Unwind in room...with lots of giggles coming from the King suite!

Friday

7:30 a.m. Giggles and chips in bed for the boys. Why not?!

9:00 -11:30 a.m. Water park opens and we are there!

11:30 -12:30 Check out of room, head to Mc Donald's for lunch.

12:30-1:30 Round 2 at the arcade (we can use all facilities until the place closes!)

1:30-4:30 Water park, again. The boys were nonstop.

4:30 Hit the locker rooms, dry off, hit the road, stop at Taco Bell, drive home.

8:15 p, Home sweet home and Evan' sleep with Great Wolf on his head.

Fun was had by all, and we made memories this mom will remember for a lifetime. I think two little boys won't soon forget it either. Perfect. (And what's even better is that we have the rest of the weekend to recover!)

Happy Birthday Boys. May this be a special time you always remember!