A howling good time

Last week we took a quick little trip to Grapevine, TX. More specifically to the Great Wolf Lodge. We didn't have much time to take a big trip but wanted to do something as a family before school starts up and before Chris deploys. It also happened to be our anniversary week. We'd heard lots about the Great Wolf Lodge and boy did it deliver! It was impressive even from the parking lot. That's Chris really tiny with our luggage in the background.
There is a huge indoor water park. It has a great kids area, wave pool, two body slides, two tube slides, and a lazy river. I think the body slides were the boys favorite, especially Zachary. He wanted to go on it over and over. One of the slides was a little bit faster or something and would make him flip around on his way to the bottom. You can see the water park through a huge window in the lobby.
Then there's also an outdoor waterpark with two more slides and a big pool area. We mostly stayed indoors because Zachary wasn't tall enough to ride those slides and Alex could only ride one but we did keep going out there to get some sun and warm up when we got too chilly inside.
There are restaurants and things there so that you don't really have to even leave the hotel but we decided to get out for dinner (we stayed two nights). One night we found a Rainforest Cafe so that was extra fun for the boys too. Alex had a little trouble with his eyes on the second day. We put the regular body sunscreen on his face instead of the more sensitive one and so it ran into his eyes. That, along with the huge amounts of chlorine in the water park, did him in. He wanted out and no more swimming. I did get out with him and we found something else to do but we did get him back in again. We played a really neat magic game in the hotel that you buy a magic wand for. Then you run all over the hotel using your wand and going on quests and adventures. Fun!! Here is Alex using his wand to open a treasure chest.
The whole place is really kid oriented with a room where they do kids crafts (we went there once to play bingo) and they have story times in the lobby and an animated show. Zachary got to sit by the group leader while they were singing.
The boys learned to make paper wolfs. There was howling everywhere! When we first walked in the hotel to check in Zachary howled and the man behind the desk howled back at him. I didn't take my camera into the actual water park but here are a few other random pictures taken during our stay.


We had a great time!