Great Wolf Lodge

For another surprise for Larry for his birthday I planned a surprise get away to the Great Wolf Lodge. I called his boss to get the time scheduled off and booked it. I even erased my email confirming the reservation (after I printed my stuff) Then a week later they sent another confirmation and Larry saw it on the email! So my surprise was half ruined... but we did not tell the kids what was up. Wednesday morning I got the kids up and started getting them ready for "school" (I packed all the stuff the day before and hid it in the back of the car). I told them school was starting late because of a maintenance issue... (is it wrong that I totally lied...) Anyway I told them I would drive them (they usually ride their bikes). They all got in the car (Larry left ahead of us dropping the dog at a friends house.) Then I drove passed the school. They were a little freaked out. Mom you passed it. I told them oh well maybe we will do something fun instead, what do you want to do? Amelia was pretty worried, her teacher would miss her she missed her teacher and "I need to learn!!!" So I kept driving to Larry's work and we picked him up. Then the kids looked in the back and saw the bags, the started guessing. We kept making new stories up. We said lets stay the night at OMSI, we pass OMSI. They all yell Hey you passed it!!! Then we say Oh lets go to Seattle, well go to the Space needle... Then we get to the Great Wolf Lodge and you can see it from the Freeway. Larry told all the kids LOOK! They started screaming sooooo excited! It was so funny! They loved the surprise and it was so much fun making it a surprise. I could hardly sleep the night before I was so excited. (If you can't tell I love surprises!!!)
They were so funny the whole way there. The would guess where we were going and they would say things like, hey there is a car following us that is suspicious, they laughed so hard when they opened Larry's lunch box and found toothbrushes and deodorant (my way of pretending things are normal by packing a lunch for Larry and not letting them see me pack last minute things in there.) I laughed a lot the whole way there they were so funny! It was so worth it they had so much fun and it was the best birthday ever (or so I like to say) for Larry. His birthday was Thursday! It was so much fun I may plan more adventures as surprises!!!

You can't tell from this photo but Ruth had a blast!!! She was so good when she would get tired she would just fall asleep with Larry or I holding her. I truly was surprised at how well she handled it and loved the whole thing!

Ethan coming out of the wave pool! Surfer boy!

Another one of those fun floating things to climb on!

The giant bucket of water!!!

We loved this cool snake. It floats and is anchored down so it doesn't float away. Larry and I wished we could cut the rope and put it on the top of the car. We would love to take it on vacation to the lake!!! Our kids had a great time on this thing!

We called this pool the Lily pad pond. It was a huge pool that had these fun lily pad's to walk across, plus some other fun things to climb on and play on.

This was one of little kid areas. The water starts really shallow and only gets to be about 2 feet deep. Hayden and Ruth LOVED this area. (Although so did Brock and Amelia!) Ruth would walk around and climb on everything she could. It was so cute! She didn't even mind all the stuff that sprays water in your face. She would just shake her head and wipe her face with a smile.

This is the wave pool. The waves don't run all the time. They start and stop with 5-10 min breaks in between. It is amazing how fast they start and stop. It was a lot of fun and we spent quite a bit of time in there. All my kids loved it, even Ruth. Hayden didn't so much at the beginning, but grew to love it!

This is a piece of the water park. That giant bucket at the top fills up with water and dumps. It does it pretty often. I would guess about ever 5 minutes or so. It was pretty awesome. That whole structure has things to dump water with, and 2 fun water slides from the top!

The kids by the clock tower. They have a fun story time here just before bed time. My kids all thought it was fun, but Ruth LOVED it. She had caught a second wind by then and would squeal with excitement every time one of the characters moved, talked, sang! IT was sooo cute (her more then the show!)

Hayden playing in the fountain by the wave pool. She loved the fountains, (ok she loved all of it except for the slides)! She doesn't go on slides even at home.