Great Wolf Lodge

For all the headaches caused by the Army (just keeping it real ya'll) there are definitely some perks.  Like the Strong Bonds conferences (marriage retreats) for families almost always held at some fun resort where parents and kids can always have fun.  We attended one in Hawaii when the twins were around 18 months and last month we were given the opportunity to go again.  This time the conference was at Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells.  We were actually on a waiting list for this event and got a call two days before telling us we got in.  Of course we dropped all of our plans and got ready, no need to pass up a free family fun vacay. 

 On top of that, it's one more state we can knock off our list.  And may i just say, Wisconsin was beautiful.  I don't know that i had any preconceived idea of what it would look like, but i did not expect it to be so beautiful.   Driving through there, on all of the country roads, passing all the amazing farm houses and land, i kept telling Mike that this was the place we should live... get a dairy farm, live in the country.  Seriously It.Was.Gorgeous.   Mike kept having to remind me we weren't farmers.  And that the winter would most definitely change my mind.  Still, we gotta go back.   I may have fell in love. 

The Dells is only about 3 hours from us...so no big deal at all.  Davis was absolutely ready for this road trip! 

Macky was pretty excited about our room.  Of course he thought this would be his bed....

The kids LOVED the water park.  There was such a difference from when we took the twins there a year ago.  Everyone had the best time and was much more comfortable in the water.  

Davis did amazing for not having much water/pool experience. 

Nora went down a few slides! 

and Holden did almost everything!  even some of the big stuff by himself! 

 

Macky also did wonderful.  He played in the water a teeny bit, but mostly slept.  I still can't believe we have a baby that will sleep while we are out and about.  I thought that was a myth!  Anyway that gave us a lot of time to hang out with our other 3 littles and really play. 

 

riding the slides with my biggest boy!

meeting the characters :) 

 

We even had a date night!  While I think most everyone else opted to leave the hotel and check out the town, Mike and I opted to take our 3 hours kid free and go back to the water park and ride all the rides we wanted together, NO KIDS.  and kids, it was awesome! Once we had our fill, we quickly showered, went down to the lounge and had some dinner together before picking up the kids and having ice cream.  It was a pretty stellar night...

...until this guys fell hard into the nightstand.  Then there was some drama, but what's new really? He bruises his face ALL.THE.TIME.

and yes, there were classes we had to attend too.  they weren't all that great, but small price to pay for a fun weekend with the family.  funniest part?  Mike throwing his coffee all over me and my workbook.  smooth move. 

and because we are water park lovers...we had to go once more before we drove back home...so here's our tired, end of the weekend, wet hair, family picture to remember our time at Great Wolf Lodge. 

and while we're usually pretty good at getting good photos of the kids....we do have our failures.  

like these...

 

we were tired and gave up.

but really.  it was an awesome weekend :)