Great Wolf Lodge Rocks!

Since we went to Hatteras this July with the fam instead of Michigan with the Canos, Lourdes Cano and I wanted to plan a long weekend together over Labor Day.  We decided on the Dells.  Now, I had never been to the Dells, but it seems like everyone in Illinois goes there with their kids.  So early on Saturday morning, we started the 3.5 hour drive to Wisconsin.  Having recently been taken on two long car rides - Hatteras and Ohio for Juliet's birthday - the girls protested the...whole...drive.

And when we finally arrived, I was a bit dubious.  Joe described it as "the Vegas of water parks."  I was like, no it is more like the Reno of water parks.  See Exhibit A, the Coliseum, which was in the middle of Mount Olympus water park.  What?

But my prejudgment was wrong.  We had a freaking BLAST!  The Great Wolf Lodge was really nice. And the kids went nuts in the water.  The first day we let them run around going down the slides, chilling in the wave pool etc for like 3 hours.  Then we went back to our suite to get showers and eat dinner.  That was all the kids could muster.  They were absolutely EXHAUSTED.  The adults weren't much better off.

These "jet skies" were Finn's FAVORITE part of the water park.

While Finn has always been nervous of the water (hence the private swim lessons) the girls were fearless, especially Sabine.  Even though she is all of 19 pounds soaking wet, she took on the baby slides all by herself and floated with me in an inflatable tube that neither her brother or sister would get near.  She would go under water for a second or would get drenched by one of the buckets, and would wipe off her face and keep going.  She is definitely my water baby.

But Lou held her own.

And all that swimming makes you hungry.  The other thing we did a lot of during our visit to the Dells was EAT.  Here are the kids posing in front of/inside of various restaurants.  

Our favorite meal was had at Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty, which is known for its all you can eat comfort food breakfast.

Our other little adventure outside the hotel was to take a tour aboard the Original Wisconsin Ducks.  The "Ducks" are land and water vehicles that were created for the troops in World War II.  Now, they are used to take a scenic tour of Wisconsin piloted by college aged boys who are forced to tell corny jokes for our entertainment.  It sounds cheesy, but again very fun.

Yes, we even bought the commemorative picture.

And Finn's FAVORITE part of the whole vacation was story time.  At night people dressed like cute wolves would come out, read a story, and take pictures with the kids.  One of the wolves was named Violet.  Finn loved her and so, of course, did Lourdes who wants to be exactly like her big brother.  So after story time and pictures, I let them both pick out Violet dolls to take home.  Sabine, on the hand, was absolutely terrified of the wolves.  She has a big fear of anthropomorphic animals.  She literally had to be taken out of story time screaming when Violet appeared.  So she did not get a Violet doll.  She got a very tiny, pink dog that she was confident could never hurt her.  She calls her "woof woof."

Finn and his Violet.

Finn showing off his other favorite part of the trip, the wolf ears and tail that come with the kids meal.

Beanie and Woof Woof.

And I am proud to say that even though the first day at the Lodge, I chickened out while about to go down a water slide that 5 year old Mae had already conquered, I overcame my fear of water slides and rode the scariest ride there...twice.  I'll admit that the shade thrown by my husband and "friends" after I chickened out on the first ride was what motivated me.  Even at 32, I am not above succumbing to peer pressure.