On Sunday afternoon we loaded the girls up and told them we were taking them to a surprise place to spend the night. Addi wanted clues and wasn't too happy when we wouldn't just tell her where we were going. Fortunately, Great Wolf Lodge was not that far of a drive because her pouting was really putting a damper on all of our excitement.
We got to the Lodge about 2:45 and our room was ready. While the girls and I waited in the car, Bryan walked into the lobby to check-in. Since it was a chilly Texas February day (a high of 78 or something), people were walking around outside the Lodge in their swimsuits.
That's when the girls figured out we would also be going to a swimming pool. And, that's when we all started calling the waterpark a swimming pool until Monday afternoon when I suggested we call it by it's correct name so there would be no wailing and gnashing of teeth this summer when I said we were going to the swimming pool. I tell ya, I've learned a few things in my years as a mother.
We spent about 2 hours in the waterpark that afternoon where Addi surprised us with her courage. She wanted to start out on the "adult" slides, the ones she was just barely tall enough to be allowed on. 
Then we went up to our room to change for supper. We found a restaurant in the Lodge that was filled with flat-screen tvs all tuned to the Super Bowl. That suited the Mister just fine. He didn't even complain when the little Misses took forever to eat as they are accustomed to doing. The entertainment was great. The food was disappointing. The menu was full of yummy sounding stuff. Many of it boasted being created specially for this Great Wolf Lodge by some professional sounding chef. I could really help them out.
1. Fire professional sounding chef and burn menus.
2. Go to foodnetwork.com and pick anything. It will taste supremely better than what we ate and your customers might not be so disgruntled when you charge them $15.95 for a hamburger.
That being said, we did order a dessert I would like to recreate at home, but that was through no skill of the chefs/cooks. It was simply because the Lodge uses
Blue Bell ice cream. I am not kidding when I tell you that on the platter was at least a pint of chocolate ice cream with probably half a pint of vanilla in the center. You couldn't see the vanilla because it was covered by a mound of cotton candy. Four long pretzel sticks covered in chocolate stuck out of the ice cream and met tee-pee like over the cotton candy. Plenty of hot fudge, whipped cream, and cherries topped it all off.
This is pretty much how we all looked while eating our sundae:
And this is pretty much how we all looked once our blood sugar was sky high:
We got back to our room and the girls were thrilled to watch movies on the flat screen tv in their very own tent for a while. At 8, we made our way down to storytime in the lobby. We found out once it started that Wiley Wolf would make an appearance for pictures after the story, so I ran walked, as quickly as possible up to our room to grab the camera. I made it back in time to find everyone else gone, my oldest cowered in a corner, and my youngest high-fiving Wiley. Everyone was relieved to see me with the camera. That's about the time Libby figured out there was something a little off with Wiley.
As a result, this is how the picture of Libby and Wiley turned out:
And this one (notice her grip on Bryan's shirt!):
Monday morning we woke up, ate a ridiculously priced breakfast (you'd of thought we would have been smart enough to load the girls up and run to Whataburger for some taquitos - tastier and cheaper!), and spent about an hour relaxing in our room before we had to check-out. Check-out time was 11 o'clock. Bryan and I thought we'd make sure the girls were well rested before heading back to the waterpark in the hopes we'd avert an early afternoon meltdown or two.
Of course, it worked.
Oh, wait, no it didn't!
About the time we decided we'd, once again, pay the exorbitant prices for lousy food and eat lunch, the kiddie area was evacuated and roped off. Even though we were planning to leave the area to eat, Libby almost drowned herself trying to stay. Then it took forever to get our food. Then we smelled The Smell near the table we'd already claimed. Fortunately Mondays aren't too busy, so we easily moved our gear to another table further away from The Smell. The kiddie area remained closed for quite a while which meant we had the perfect opportunity for Addi and Bryan to ride more big slides while I tried to guess when she'd come out to capture her expression with the camera. If that had actually happened, the picture would be here.
But it didn't. Instead of taking that perfect shot, I was picking my 2 year old up off the floor while trying to keep my digital camera dry and not teaching her some words I would later regret when she repeated them. I have these instead.
The first time Libby went down the kiddie slide:
And the second time (surprisingly she went again and again after this "flip"):
Addi ending a "medium" slide:
Libby also went down this slide all by herself while I was at the bathroom. She led Bryan to it, said, "slide", and showed up at the bottom with a horrified look on her face not long after Bryan went down himself. Needless to say, she did not go on this one again!
Finally the kiddie area reopened. Bryan and I pretended that it had just been closed down for routine maintenance while the girls continued to enjoy all the splashing, squirting, and sliding.
This was one of Libby's favorite attractions. In fact, on Sunday she was heading over to one of these when an older boy (we're talking at least 4) saw her and immediately raced over to climb up. She continued, completely undeterred. They got to the jet ski at about the same time and she was the one who ended up sitting on it. Not sure how it happened. Maybe he was so stunned by her determination??! 
Both girls also enjoyed the "lazy" river and the wave pool. Addi was quite the little floating fish in her life jacket. She swam all over the place. Libby was a little more cautious in water too deep for her to reach the bottom.
Neither girl particularly enjoyed having water poured over their heads. A trait they come by honestly from their mother.
We really had a blast. I expected a little time for relaxation and that wasn't the case at all. In my current condition, 24 hours was the perfect stay. In a couple months, or years, a few days might be fun.
We finally made the girls gather up their things to leave about 5 and made it home to eat, throw them in the bath and have them in bed by 6:30. Bryan and I were snoozing by 8:30.
I think they've asked me everyday this week if and when we can go back. Next time, I'd like to try another location where it will actually be cold outside while we are enjoying the water inside. But, that is a long way off. I think next time I'll want Baby P to be at least 3. And, let's face it, 3 years is like an eternity to little kids, so my standard answer has been, "We'll see." Yet another thing I've learned from my mothering years - Never make a promise you might not be able to keep to children who remember everything.
*Yes, I'm aware that the comments are acting crazy. Mine come and go. Don't know if you can still comment while it says there are comments and then you click and "No Comments" appear. I'll try it the next time that happens to me. If you can, know that I will still get them comments via email and I can go directly to Haloscan to read them. Hopefully this is just some sort of glitch Haloscan or Blogger is having today and it will be fixed soon.
