Great Wolf Lodge- Part 1 at the hotel and water park

We had such a fun trip to GWL! It was crowded from what everybody else said, but we didn't know the difference since we had never been. To me, it seemed fine. We got in around 1:15 after stopping at McD's for lunch, and our room was ready, so we unloaded, put our suits on, and headed to the water park. We saw a few other Zeeland families that we knew. The park was amazing. Such fun stuff for all ages. The kids all got pretty daring by this afternoon. Every single one of them went down the big, huge slides on rafts. Even little Sadie! Brooks and Aliyah were definitely the water rats. They couldn't get enough. I think Cobe's recent illness took a toll on him- he was a little worn out after playing for awhile. After the mall Friday night, Lisa, Aliyah, Brooks and I went back to the park. No lines at all, so we rode the big slides over and over since we didn't have to wait. Then we went back for 9:00 story time (which was a waste of time- we should have stayed at the park). Sadie had already hit the sack at 7:30 b/c she had not had a nap and was whipped. Cobe and Ryan stayed in the room and watched a b-ball game. Maya hit the hay early too because she was worn out, so Boeve stayed with her.

This morning, we had breakfast in our rooms, loaded the cars, checked out and hit the water park again. By about 11:00 my kids were done. They were all starving and tired. So we dressed and went to Pizza Hut for lunch then headed home. If you are contemplating a trip there, I'd say it is WELL worth it. A ton of fun and activity. The lodge had a big arcade, scavenger hunts and interactive quests that the kids could go on as well, but we didn't really even have time to take advantage of everything the hotel offered. I would recommend staying for 2 nights. I would like to go back again in the future, especially now we know what to expect.

This is Aliyah and Brooks listening to the lame story at story time. The kids can meet in the lobby of the lodge at 8:00 or 9:00 for a bedtime story. They were bored. :-) Check out that kid digging up his nose in the background. Didn't even realize I had captured that on film.
My camera doesn't take action shots as you can tell, but this is Sadie going down the kiddie slide in the kiddie pool. They had 3 small slides for kids under 48 inches, so we spent time here with the little ones. Sadie's other FAVORITE activity was going around the river on a tube. She could ride that river all day in my lap. On Saturday late afternoon, Lisa took her around a few times and she fell asleep for a few laps.
Cobe loved to catch his little sister when she came down the slide.
Aliyah after catching Sis one time. I felt like I could only take pictures of the kids in the little pool. Otherwise, my camera would have gotten wet, and I was in the water with them the whole time other than this pool. I would have loved to have gotten a shot of each of their faces as they came off of the huge big "tube" slides. Those slides were big tunnels that even went outside of the hotel and came back around in. They had dark tunnels as well. When Aliyah, Brooks, Lisa and I went at night, the whole tunnel was dark since it went outside. Pretty cool stuff!
And Sis again. Not great pictures, but I wanted to at least capture a few shots. Can't wait to go back!!!!!!!