Great Wolf Lodge

For the first time ever (yes, ever!) our family of 5 went on vacation just the 5 of us!  I had this week off and we had not yet made any plans a couple months ago when we got a great offer on a Living Social e-mail for a discount on a stay at Great Wolf Lodge.  We decided to go for it and book a few days to enjoy the waterpark.  Despite some complications early on, we had a great trip and a LOT of fun!  I expected we'd spend the whole time enjoying the big waterpark, but we ended up doing a lot of other fun activities there too!  I was impressed by all the fun things there were at the lodge.  Since I figured we'd be in the water park the whole time, I didn't bring a camera to take pictures, but I did manage to get some photos on my phone when we weren't in the water park.

We left on Sunday morning, had fun watching movies in the car, stopped for lunch, then arrived around 2pm.  We checked in and the kids got wolf ears to wear.

Our room was ready, so we got our luggage unloaded from the car and got changed into our swimming suits to enjoy the waterpark before dinner.  We swam from 2:30-5pm and then got changed to go to dinner.  We decided to try a restaurant about a block away from the lodge (right across the parking lot actually) called Buffalo Phil's Pizza and Grille.  We picked that restaurant because they have "train delivered food" - they have a little train that runs around on a ledge by the booths and brings food and drinks out to your table.  We thought that would be fun for the kiddos so off we went.  When we got there, there was a 20 minute wait for a table by the train, so we checked out the little gift shop stuff in the lobby.  

Trevor and Austin checked out the buffalo hats, train whistles, etc. then turned to RUN across the lobby toward where Sarah and Daddy were sitting (up a couple steps by a wall for a handicap ramp up to that level).  Running across the lobby, they somehow tripped and Trevor went flying head first into a stone wall edge. There was an audible smack as his little head hit the stone.  He was crying and I scooped him up to console him. The hostesses at the desk asked if I needed anything and I shooed them away, reassuring them he was fine.  I didn't see any injury right away, but then, about 30 seconds later, I noticed his left side of his head was covered in blood.  I headed to the restaurant restroom, where there was a baby changing table right next to a little sink.  I was able to wet some paper towels and blot away the excess blood to see the wound.  It was deep and gaping! I knew he'd need stitches or staples, but of course, I don't have anything with me with which I could do them.  The first thing the hostesses said when he fell was, "There's an urgent car right down the road."  So, off we went to urgent care.  There was nobody else there, so we got it taken care of pretty quickly.  They popped 3 staples in to close Trevor's head wound and he got a popsicle once he stopped crying.  The first thing he said after he got his staples was, "Where's a mirror?!"  I took a photo, but he looked up right as I took it.  Here's my poor sad boy.

And here's his lovely stapled wound.

Frankly, I'm quite surprised we made it this far without needing stitches or staples in this kid before this!  He is so rambunctious!  I was just marveling in the last week or so that we had almost made it 4 years without him getting staples/stitches, so maybe I jinxed it.

After getting his wound closed, the kids still wanted to go to the "train restaurant", so we headed back to Buffalo Phil's.  The kids enjoyed the train coming by with toys on it when it wasn't carrying food. 

 Trevor with the train behind him.

Ice cream sundaes in a train bowl.

And Sarah and Mommy enjoyed sharing a slice of peanut butter pie.

Trevor was a trooper.  He whimpered in his sleep a few times that night and would fuss if anybody went near his wound, but you otherwise wouldn't have known he had been injured.  After we got the kids to bed, I stayed up looking up options for nearby stores where we could possibly buy a swim cap to cover Trevor's head wound.  If we could not keep it clean and dry, he couldn't go swimming (which was the whole reason we had chosen to go to the Lodge - its 80,000 sq ft water park).  I was unsuccessful in finding a good option except maybe a Wal-Mart 2 towns away that had adult swim caps.

We got up the next morning and enjoyed the 8am "Clock Tower Show".  The animals talk and move, the wolf is projected over the clock face, and an Indian girl and an explorer boy come out of the doors and sing a song about the "Rhythm of Nature".

The kids were enthralled.

Then they had a little session in which they learned about different animals and paw prints, etc.  They then made origami wolves.

Before heading to breakfast, we checked in with the staff at the water park to see if their store in the water park (open later) had swim caps.  Luckily, they did!  We had a yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then got suited up for swimming, bought Trevor a swim cap, popped it on him, and had a blast swimming for the morning.  

The kids got tired of swimming after a few hours, so we got dried off and went on some other adventures.  We got the kids "Paw Passes" for Austin and Sarah and a "Pup Pass" for Trevor.  They included all sorts of fun activities, treats, etc. for the kids to do and enjoy around the lodge.

As part of their passes, they each got to do a Build-a-Bear type station to choose and stuff one of the Great Wolf Lodge Adventure Crew friends.  The stuffed animals each had a sensor in it to activate the stations on the Clubhouse Crew Adventure Game.

The map of the adventure game. 

Trevor at one of the stations.

Trevor and Daddy taking a rest by the spa while Austin and Sarah take a turn on the station there.

Trevor's pass had a free ice cream at the Bear Paw Sweets and Eats, so we had a great excuse to stop for ice cream.  The kids loved the color changing spoons - they turn blue in the cold ice cream.

 Trevor licked every last drop!

The kids had a blast trotting around the lodge with their new stuffed friends in their little red Great Wolf Lodge backpacks.

One of the stations was in the arcade and it activated the "Whack a Whaym" game (Whaym is one of the Great Wolf Lodge characters). Trevor had fun and got a bunch of arcade tickets from it.  Their passes also came with a card with 20 tokens on it for the arcade, so we stuck around for a little while to use their tokens on the arcade games.

The Adventure Game took up most of the afternoon, and the kids had a blast.

 Then we had dinner at the restaurant in the lodge, then played at the Jammie Jamboree, watched the Clock Tower Show, stayed for story time, then got to meet Rachel Racoon.

 Again, the kids were so enamored with the show.

Story time with Rachel Racoon.

 Then off to bed after a busy, fun day. 

Here is my little Trevor, sleeping after a busy day, snuggling his new wolf stuffed friend and showing off his wounds.  You can see the yellow goose egg on his left forehead from last week, and can just barely see the glint of the flash off one of the staples on his head.

 The next day, we checked out of the lodge after breakfast and headed to MagiQuest for the morning.  The big kids had a wand and a game included on their Paw Passes and, though Trevor was a little to young to get the game, we got him a wand (but just didn't activate it) so he could play along with the big kids.  The MagiQuest has 4 levels of climbing nets, stairs, slides, etc. to traverse in following clues to activate enchanted objects, treasure chests, crystals, jewels, etc. to collect "runes".  Then they use those runes to go on adventures, like fighting a dragon or a goblin.  The kids had an absolute blast doing this!

You go to the enchanted tree to activate your quest...

We were there until about 1pm before we decided to break off and take Trevor to do his last Pup Pass activity while the big kids finished up.  Trevor got to color a Great Wolf Lodge pillowcase.

After those activities were done, we had some pizza for lunch and then headed to the waterpark for our last swim before heading home.  Here is Trevor looking cute in his swim cap.  It did a great job keeping his wound clean and dry and he really enjoyed swimming and going on the water slides.

Trevor's favorites were the lazy river, the Lookout Mountain waterslide (on a double tube with Mommy or Daddy), the wave pool, the "fishy slide" (small kids' waterslide), and the "kids camp" area with little climbers and pretend jet skis with squirters that he had fun shooting Mommy with.

Austin was a daredevil and went on every slide he could.  Daddy and Mommy took turns taking him on the Howlin' Tornado (the big slide you see from the highway).  He also loved the wave pool.

Sarah was very hesitant to go on any waterslides. I got her to go on 1 the first day (the Whirly Bird) and she enjoyed it, but wouldn't go on it again.  The 2nd day, I got her to go on Lookout Mountain and she went on that one many times, even by herself in a single tube.  The last day, she tried one slide by the dumping bucket, but she didn't want to go on it anymore because she was afraid of the bucket dumping on her while she climbed the playground to get to the slide.

Here is a shot I grabbed the last day right before we left (because I had my phone with me in the swim bag without clothes to change back into for the ride home).  This is actually the area we spent the least time in because the kids didn't like getting the big bucket dumped on the play area.  The other 2 main areas of the indoor water park had lots of things the kids loved, so we spent most of the time there. 

 Right before leaving to head to the car and drive home, we stopped by the store in the waterpark to redeem the last thing left on their Paw Passes - glitter tattoos. Austin didn't want to get one, so Trevor got his.  Sarah got a fairy and Trevor got a skull and crossbones.

We had a blast on our trip, despite Trevor's injury.  We probably could have spent another day and still had plenty of things to do.  We may return there in the future, or maybe try some of the other waterparks in Wisconsin Dells next time.  I was impressed by all the non-waterpark activities there were to do at Great Wolf Lodge.

We arrived home on Tuesday night, had Back to School Night on Wednesday, celebrated Daddy's birthday on Thursday, and are looking forward to Trevor's pirate themed birthday party on Saturday.  School starts on Monday for the big kids and Tuesday for Trevor.