Great Wolf Lodge

The Friday before Halloween (can you tell we had a crazy busy week leading up to Halloween?) we headed on over to Kansas City to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. In case you have never heard of it, the Great Wolf Lodge is a hotel that has its own indoor water park that is only available to hotel guests. We went there to celebrate our neighbor Luke's 11th birthday. The kids were out of school that day so we got there around noon so that we could play in the water as much as possible. All of the kids had a blast including Ava. In fact both of my kids overcame a fear that day. Andrew finally decided to try going down a water slide (he's been terrified for the longest time) and Ava decided it was ok to put her face in the water and get splashed. We spent about 5 hours playing in the water before getting ready for dinner.

Ava and Jackie shortly after we arrived

The birthday boy, Luke, and Ava sitting in a bucket



Andrew taking his turn on the obstacle course

He did really well!

Ava also found a love for water slides while we were there. Of course we had to give her a little push over the edge, but she loved it just the same. In fact we quit walking her up the stairs. One person would push her down, someone would catch her at the bottom and the put her back on the concrete to walk up all on her own. We did this for a LONG time :-)

I absolutely LOVE her face in this picture

The boys headed up for another slide

They really liked the 3 person tubes so they could all go down together

From front to back: Andrew, Matt, Luke

Nothing better for snack time then a big soft pretzel and some cheese

After we finished playing in the water park everyone headed up to our rooms to get ready for dinner. We decided to eat at the restaurant in the hotel so that the kids to participate in everything the lodge had to offer. Since it was so close to Halloween they had trick or treating throughout the main level of the building. Around 8:00pm they had story time for all of the kids in the lobby which was followed by a costume parade and finished up with a 2hr dance party complete with contests. The boys had a blast. I missed the dance party because I had to go put Ava in bed. She had been all day without a nap and somehow managed to not meltdown one single time. I was so proud of her and when she started to fuss at 8:30 I promptly took her upstairs and laid her down.

Decorating their bags to collect candy in

Ava wasn't really interested in her costume that night so knowing that she had not napped I decided not to force it.

This is the only picture I got of the boys because they were too busy running all over the place. Can you tell they were annoyed we made them sit down and wait on Ava?

From R to L: Darth Vader (Andrew), a Kansas State Univ Fan (Luke) and Matt who is some other Star Wars character, but I can't remember who specifically

Andrew and Matt loved sitting in this big chair carved out of a tree. Here they were waiting on story time to begin

Adam got Luke in a headlock and was trying to avoid being bitten

All in all we had a great night. It was definitely expensive but I think it is something we will do again on special occasions in the future. It was fun getting to celebrate Luke's birthday with him. We are so lucky to have neighbors that have become not only our best friends but also like a 2nd family to us.