Beyond Bon Bons: Great Wolf Lodge

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Great Wolf Lodge

In honor of Kalaya becoming a big sister in a VERY short time, we decided to take a mini vacation as a family of 3 for the last time. We didn't have a huge budget, but wanted to do something fun! Disneyland would have been my #1 choice, of course, but we didn't want to travel that far from home, this soon before baby. Plus, it would have meant 4 days of driving or paying for airline tickets during the week after Christmas. Um, no thank you! The date had to be the week after Christmas, because Portland State (where Nelson works) has a furlough week then and all other vacation time is being saved up for paternity leave!

We decided to go to the Great Wolf Lodge, which is only a couple of hours away, but out of state. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a large hotel/resort that has a huge water park inside of it, 2 days of which are included with staying one night. It's on the spendy side for one night, and of course there are PLENTY of other ways to waste money there, but we were smart about it. The rooms have microwaves and fridges, so we saved money by bringing our own meals.

It was really fun! We're glad we went. I don't think we'll be heading back up any time soon, mainly because there is not as much for toddlers to do as we had thought. The water park had several play areas for her, and she loved the wave pool and another pool that had floating toys and basketball hoops. But, she wanted nothing what so ever to do with the slides. Any of them. We had her go on 2 small and one larger and she hated them all. Period. So...maybe a few more years. We had thought we could ride with her, but apparently not. Plus, I was just too big and too pregnant to do much of anything. When we have 2 kids in elementary or middle school. it will be just perfect! But, it was good to go, see what it had, and Kalaya had a blast, so that's what matters! The hotel is fun, there's activities and things to look at all over. It SNOWS inside, which was really exciting and there are all of these animatronic (sp?) animals that talk to and interact with you, including a big area where they sing and perform throughout the day. They have a craft and imagination room that Kalaya absolutely LOVED and lots of other ways to spend money too. The rooms are nice and the facility is very family and kid friendly and we will head back some day!!