Vacation #2 - Great Wolf Lodge

I have wanted to take the boys to Great Wolf Lodge forever, but my frugal husband has always insisted that it is an outrageous expense.  Then one day I got a fabulous groupon offer for 50% and immediately jumped at the chance to take a mini family vacation to this remarkable hotel. 

 

It was really, really marvelous!!  The hotel is beautiful, the rooms are fantastic, and the water park is lots of fun.  Dawson enjoyed it the most - he loved all of the slides and also spent lots of time playing at the big tree house and getting soaked by the giant bucket of water as much as possible.  Brady wasn't tall enough for the bigger slides and doesn't really like getting water dumped on him so he avoided the big, fun tree house - but he absolutely loved the wave pool and spent lots of time in the little kid play area and the outdoor pool. 

 

It was a great water park vacation and I'm glad the boys got to experience it at least this one time (not sure we'll splurge on it again - unless there's another great groupon offer).

 

I didn't get to take many pictures because my camera doesn't mix well with water.  So pictures of the boys sliding, splashing, and frolicking in the water are sadly absent from this post.  The best I could do was take a few pictures from the hotel lobby.  None of these pictures do our experience justice - it's a place you have to go and see yourself to really appreciate it.

 

 

So excited to be heading to Great Wolf Lodge.

In the lobby in front of the big windows that overlook part of the waterpark.

I called this the treehouse - lots of places to climb and explore with water pouring on you and places were you can squirt and pour water on others, plus a couple of slides - great fun!

The big bucket water dump!

More of the treehouse, with some slides in the background.

Little kids play area and wave pool.

The clock in the lobby, where they have a story time each evening.

The treehouse viewing area in the lobby.

A picture with my sweeties in front of the big fireplace.

Sea Life Aquarium

While we were at Great Wolf Lodge, one of the staff gave us free tickets to the Sea Life Aquarium in Grapevine.  So we ventured out of our awesome hotel (for the one and only time) to visit the aquarium.  It was a really neat place - small, but with fun things for the boys to see and do.

 

Cozy Animals

Brady loves to cuddle up with stuffed animals.  Often, when I go to check on him at night, he's squeezed in between 2 big stuffed animals, holding their "hands" and sleeping peacefully.

 

Foggy Morning Walk

A beautiful foggy morning walk on the golf course with my guys.

 

Sprinkler Trampoline

One of the BEST summer activities - jumping on the trampoline with a sprinkler underneath it soaking everyone with every jump.

 

James, Dawson, & Brady stopping briefly to pose for me.

Good friends (and now neighbors), James and Dawson, having a good time together.

James doing a trick - a back flip.

Dawson's turn for a trick - a front flip.