A couple weeks before Christmas, Brian and I sort of simultaneously came up with the thought that we should take a mini family vacation to the Dells for some indoor water park fun. During the Christmas of 2007, we were in the Dells and took the older boys to a water park. They were, at that time, 2 years & 9 months and 17 months. Now we have a 3, 4 and 5-year-old…time to really have some fun! Brian always takes off 2 weeks around Christmas and we weren’t traveling or hosting anyone this year so it was good timing.

I suggested a cabin we’ve rented before, but Brian had been checking out rates on Great Wolf Lodge. We found a perfect room there and booked it up. We left Wednesday, December 22nd and arrived back home on Friday, December 24th. We had a total blast (despite the fact that Brian was super sick on the day we arrived…driving there with a fever of around 101…he was much better by Thursday though – phew!).

The coolest thing was that the boys only knew that they were getting “a big surprise” (Logan guessed a puppy) and that it was coming on Wednesday morning. We had several clues wrapped up for them as we made our way into Wisconsin and to our final destination.

A picture of all the surprises I wrapped. Yes, the 3s look upside down, but they aren’t (weird Cricut cartridge). Red bows for Brady, Green for Logan, White for Aiden.

Unbeknownst to the boys, the bags were all packed in the car along with the other clues…we covered everything in the trunk of a van with a blanket and then put our snow sleds on top as a misleading clue in case Logan leaned over his seat to peek in the back.

Here is the first box:

It was full of road-trip gear: snacks, juice boxes and the movie Despicable Me (which we had already seen and then watched at least 4 times during the trip)

We stopped about an hour from home for breakfast and then let the boys open the second clue which contained 2 pairs of PJs and a new snoopy toothbrush set for each of them. The hint: we’re sleeping somewhere away from home for 2 nights! I didn’t take a picture of the 3rd clue which they opened about a hour after breakfast, but each one contained: the boy’s bags that they already have with their names on the them (smooshy backpacks) filled with: one of their bathing suits, their goggles and new bathrobes we found the week before at Costco sold as swimsuit cover ups (in the middle of winter? how lucky!)

Arriving at the hotel / indoor water park:

Exploring the lobby

The coolest part of the room: a 3-bed cabin tucked into one corner complete with it’s own TV just for the kids!

The rest of the room

After a 3+ hour drive while sick, daddy needed some down time. I was pretty nervous to take the boys all by myself, but the 4 of us headed to the water park. Here they are, ready to go in their new robes (these were so awesome too…they feel like towels and were perfect for walking to and from the park)

Exploring our options: there are 3 rooms to the park. This is the first one. We were walking through and heading to the back room which had a great play area that all three of them enjoyed plus the wave pool and some water slides we did with Logan the next day (he was the only one tall enough to go ALONE on most of the rides)

After a nap, daddy made an appearance and even did some of the slides with the older boys.

Me and my boys

Every night, they have stories in the lobby. I had to take a picture of the great decorations from the stairs leading to the 2nd floor:  

Aiden watching the Clock Tower Show

The animals on the clock tower sing and then some animatronic people come out and sing more songs. It’s cute. Then they read a story, give out prizes for coloring contests etc. At the end of the usual show, the animals sang a 12-days of Christmas song that included “drifts of snow in the lobby”…at the end of that song, they spray these tiny bubbles (or something) from way up in the 3-story ceiling and it actually does look like it’s snowing in the lobby. The kids loved it!iaedn

We just missed getting a shot of Logan throwing his arm around Aiden.

mommy and Bear

daddy

Brady hugs a fake snow penguin

Logan met Rowdy the Reindeer

The next morning we bought a “paw pass” which gets you a bunch of stuff including art projects in the craft room, a game of Magiquest, a “stuff a pet” from the gift shop and tokens for the arcade. Here we are heading to check out Magiquest:

There is a building sort of adjacent to the main hotel that is 4-stories high and filled with all these crazy chests, pictures that talk, screens with animated people on them etc. You use these wands to make everything work and go on “quests” which are mini scavenger hunts. After you finish the quests you can do an adventure like kill a dragon. This is a picture taken of one of the 3 giant screens from the second floor.

This is a big tree with tv screens in it:

You point your wand at one of the screens on the big tree and get the instructions for your scavenger hunts:

We found some treasure! The wands make the chests open up and glow inside.

Back in the room, eating left over pizza from the night before, chilling out in the boys’ room and watching Christmas shows on the Disney channel (I think we went to the water park again after this)

crafts in the craft room! Together we made a sand-art thing to bring home for our “art from travels” shelf and then the boys did the coloring contest. The next day, before we left, we went back and painted some stuff :) I think they could live in this room for a few days!

At the arcade:

After dinner that night, we decided to watch a movie in the room (I brought a ton of food including popcorn). I decided that we needed chocolate so Logan and I made a visit to the fudge shop in the lobby. I was saddened to find out that there was NO dark chocolate to be had anywhere! I had to settle for peanut butter fudge :)

Before we left on Friday, we had to quickly finish our quests so we could go kill the dragon. It took a couple tries, but we got him. Brady was terrified of this guy (he’s an animated dragon on a screen, but it’s noisy and big!)