Going to the Lodge...

We headed south to Ohio for a few days at the Great Wolf Lodge... never been there before, always heard good things.  All of Ohio must have gone back to school Tuesday because it was very reasonably priced and there were no lines for the water slides.  We had a great time! 

It's a no brainer for the kids - water slides, craft/game room, arcade, kid friendly food, wolf ears, story time and an ice cream stand.  So the secret to the Lodge's success is luring in the parents.  And I think we stumbled upon their secret.  80's music.  Somewhere deep in the R & D Department of GWL someone figured the average age of parents of elementary aged kids, with certain levels of disposable income.  And then purchased an unlimited subscription to XM Channel 8 - Hits of the 80's.  Everywhere you go that you can hear music, that's what it is.  And we liked it - we were singing along, identifying titles and artists and discussing what grade we were in when that song was a hit.  Yep, they got us.  And we didn't see it coming.  We thought we were there for the kids.

The boys really did have fun - they both really like playing in the water.  We encouraged them both to try bigger slides than they had done before - Casey was very afraid of "the big yellow one" but eventually gave in and tried it and LOVED it.  After walking Sam back down the stairs from attempting "the smaller yellow one" twice, he agreed to try it.  Unfortunately he sat up and flipped around, shooting himself into the pool head first.  Jeff was right there but needless to say he didn't want to try it again.  Every 20 minutes or so a big bell dings and it means that the huge bucket is about to dump a ton of water - people scamper from all over to get under it and scream as the comes down.  Casey got very into this early on day 2 and by the end of day 2 Sam was willing to stand at the back of the impacted area and enjoy the breeze and mist.  Last thing about the waterpark - the lifeguards were great.  Very attentive and professional - no chatting with the lifeguards unless they were the one telling you when to go on top of the slides.  They pace preset routes and don't take their eyes off the water.  We saw a kid get rescued, a lost kid find their mom and appreciated being made aware that our kid was on his way down a slide.  We were impressed with these folks.

Find Casey - red vest - Jeff holding him up

not a great pic but shows the general mood

goof balls

Sam did this one about 60 times

The arcade is a favorite spot for all 3 of my guys - they have a nice routine built around their arcade time and money and I was honored to participate.  I loved watching them all have fun and earn as many tickets as they could.  I even got to help, thanks to some dumb luck on a jackpot game.
We all slept well and saved money by channeling our parents and bringing our own cereal and milk and sandwich making supplies. 

with all their winnings

Overall it was a really nice getaway, set to good music.

Arts and crafts room

zzzzzzzzz