Things to Do - Project 52, Weeks 25 & 26

I'm finally catching up on this project. Yay!! These were the last two weeks of June.













WEEK 25 - The last week of school.

(1) Bicycle helmets and popsicles on the front lawn.
(2) P finds the last week of school exhausting.
(3) Last day of school.
(4) Our 4th annual last day of school/solstice block party.
(5) My last week with this awesome kid before she goes to kindergarten next year.
(6) F's promotion ceremony for middle school.
(7) The nature center (it was was "mixed up" clothes day at school).
(8) Hats are fun.
(9) Our last day of school/solstice block party.
(10) Fireworks to celebrate the beginning of summer.








WEEK 26 - The first week of summer vacation. Basically I worked and the kids needed to entertain themselves, hence the lack of photos (except for a weekday trip to GWL and a weekend family backpacking trip).

(1) T brought an airplane on our first family overnight backpacking trip (in Shenandoah National Park).
(2) York River State Park after a night at Great Wolf Lodge.
(3) P backpacking on the trail.
(4) The Lincoln Memorial in the evening (before a family photo shoot).
(5) Great Wolf Lodge.
(6) One more Great Wolf Lodge shot.

Things to Do - 12 in 12, August 2014 (Great Wolf Lodge Edition)

If the kids behaved and played nicely this summer, I promised I'd take them to Great Wolf Lodge. The problem is that whenever I log on to reserve a room and am confronted by the extraordinary difference between weekday and weekend rates, I end up planning for the cheaper option, thus leaving poor Dan out (or lucky Dan, depending on how you view GWL).

Luckily, my in-laws were babysitting their other grandchildren the same week we planned to go. So I talked with Dan's mom and we decided to make it a family thing because cousins equal happiness.

Photographing the August 12 in 12, made me realize how fluid your concept of time becomes when spending all day in an indoor waterpark. Hours just seem to meander along . . .



7:30 am - The kids wake up at 7 (WTF?), but I manage to stay in bed a little longer. When I finally walk into the living room, this is what I see.



8:30 am (after breakfast in the room) - Ready to attack the water park. Unfortunately, we still have 30 minutes before it opens. (By the way, GWL, we love the free wolf ears - thank you!)



9:05 am - And so it begins . . .



10:30 am - Still going . . .



11:30 am (after lunch in the room) - Our first MaqiQuest experience. The cost of the wands makes me want to cry. I try to channel my inner "happy" wolf.



12:30 pm - The older kids divide into two teams, whereas T and I work together. It's up to me to figure out how the game works because all T wants to do is wave his "magic" wand at everything he sees (which, honestly, is sort of adorable). I quickly learn that MagiQuest is an exercise in walking in circles (up and down, back and forth from floor to floor), luckily I'm wearing my fitbit so this is fine with me.



1:30 pm - Return to the room for some "down" time. As you can tell, they're exhausted (oh wait, it's me that's exhausted).



2:30 pm - Waterpark round 2. P and her cousin decide to buck the system and walk through the lazy river, while hugging (of course?).



3:30 pm - More MagiQuest with T. I'm really getting the hang of it now. F and her cousin, on the other hand, are ranked #4 and trying desperately to climb into one of the top 3 spaces, so we don't see them much before dinner.



5:00 pm - Return to the room for more downtime. The kids are actually tired (woo-hoo! we did it!), everyone realizes that walking in circles is exhausting (our room is also about 0.25 miles from the waterpark/lobby, so that is a trek in itself). I try to read on the balcony while watching the rain (so so glad we picked the dreariest summer day to spend in a gigantic indoor cave).



7:00 pm - Buffet dinner, which tastes wonderful after a day of playing (is this the right word? not sure of the appropriate verb.)



8:30 pm - The kids zone out to TV show before bedtime, while I drink wine with my in-laws, who are toasting and celebrating the fact that they will never return to GWL. (Honestly, I couldn't thank them more for this trip, the kids were in heaven and it really helped to have extra adults to supervise all the ins and outs.)

Final fitbit steps = 18,344; 7.21 miles. And I never left the building. I'd guess most of the kids walked twice that. Turns out GWL is one crazy workout.

Now click on over to Not-So-SAHM and Where the Watermelons Grow to see how they spent August 12.

Places to Go (Vacation) - 24 Hours at Great Wolf Lodge (Williamsburg, VA)

For the last year or so my kids have begged (over and over again) for a trip to Great Wolf Lodge ("GWL"), as this place seems to be all the rage with the grade school crowd. But I kept putting it off. First of all, a huge indoor waterpark didn't sound like that much fun (on this, I was totally wrong). And second of all, T isn't much of a water kid, so I wanted to wait until he was older to bring him (on this I was totally right). Then, right before Xmas, GWL announced a winter sale where weekday room rates plummeted to about $125 a night (weekend rates are often between $300 and $500 dollars, though prices fluctuate like crazy). So we decided to surprise the kids for Xmas. Dan couldn't take much time off work, so we planned on wetting our feet with a one night stay (Sunday) and we convinced some of our more seasoned GWL friends to join us.

Upon arrival, the place was more crowded than I anticipated for a Sunday afternoon (apparently I am not the only one who took advantage of GWL's reduced rates). Upon check-in we learned that the hotel was at 85% capacity. At 2 pm, our room was not yet ready, so we changed into swim suits and headed to GWL's GIGANTIC indoor waterpark. (Guests can use the waterpark anytime between 1 pm on the day of check-in until closing on the day of check-out, which is a pretty sweet deal).

Oh, the waterpark, it felt sort of odd to walk into a lukewarm room full (and I mean full) of half-clothed people in the middle of winter. But slowly I adjusted. Dan took T, while the girls and I headed with friends to the waterslides. After a 25 minute wait, we boarded a huge raft and drifted down the neon-lit "family slide". Okay, so that was sort of fun. A little cold. But fun. Then we moved onto GWL's premiere attraction - The Howlin' Tornado. It plunged, it swirled, I screamed. Over and over again. In summary, it's f**ing amazing. Crazy fun.

Eventually, I had to relieve Dan, who spent approximately 1 hour watching T go down the toddler slides and the next hour circling the lazy river with T ("it's just so fun, mom, why would I want to try another ride? The river actually moves, I want to stay here all day."). Luckily, even the lazy river proved relaxing enough, especially when interspersed with the family hot tub. And finally, after literally hours, T decided to venture onto the tube waterslides, where I felt like an Olympic athlete (sarcasm) as I climbed the stairs over and over again, huge tube in tow.

We could have waterparked all night (literally), but eventually everyone needed to eat. So after 4.5 hours or so, we finally checked into our hotel rooms, changed, and made our way to the dinner buffet. I was surprised that the food both tasted good and was reasonably priced (kids are only $6, adults were somewhere in the high teens). And while my friends and I relaxed over beers, Dan took all the kids to the "clock tower show" where animatronic trees and woodland creatures discussed the importance of protecting our environment (oh the irony).

By 10 pm, the kids were (finally) asleep. And then the next day, we did it all over again. I could have kept going (warning, the Howlin' Tornado is somewhat addictive), but around 1 pm, the fuss and yawns became overwhelming. So we changed into our normal clothing and ventured home. The kids spent the first half of the drive looking for help wanted signs, so that Dan could find a job closer to GWL. Seriously?

All in all, I was much more impressed with GWL than I thought I'd be. After years of watching the kids do things, it was fun to go somewhere close to home where we could all scream in fear together. Since we only stayed one night, we didn't check out the hotel's other offerings. MagiQuest, in particular, is their big attraction, where purchased "magic" wands unlock some sort of secret games throughout the hotel. Next time we visit (and, yes, there will be a next time), we will probably check it out, though I find the prices rather absurd (the wands cost approximately $20 and up, not including the $15 activation fee).

So if you're looking for an easy Disney-esque, close to home vacation, then GWL is the answer. In the summer, the also have a huge outdoor pool, so you don't have to spend your vacation "in the bubble". For more info, click here.