It’s that time of year again, Great Wolf Lodge time. We went last year in early February. This year, mid-March. And the first time we went, early May. I’m pretty sure this is an official annual trip now. I know the kiddos will count on us going again next year. And we’ll go.
The plan was to go for two nights. Arrive at Great Wolf late afternoon Tuesday, spend all day Wednesday there, and leave Thursday morning for the Hands On Children’s Museum in Olympia. And that’s exactly how it went.
After arriving Tuesday, we took all the kiddos to the waterpark. This was Saige and Baby’s first time there, and they both immediately took to the water. Saige found the water slides and became obsessed; Baby liked floating in the water. The big kiddos were patient, hanging in the little kid section before I took the little ones for ice cream. Rather, I bribed the little ones with ice cream so Brian could take the big kiddos on the larger water slides. We all met back at the room around 7pm and then left to get the wands… the overpriced wands.
This time we bought the big kiddos a Paw Pass for $80 so the wands and game were included in that price. Saige got a wand also, and I brought an older one from home for Baby. We walked around for the game a bit before calling it a night close to 9pm. Everyone was tired.
The nice thing about Great Wolf is the room options. They have a section of the room walled off with bunk beds. It’s perfect for larger families, or even just two-kid families where the parents want the kiddos tucked away. We still played musical beds and a few of us ended up in a different bed come morning. But we all slept, hard.
Wednesday was spent entirely inside Great Wolf. I take that back; I walked to the car to get Chapstick. A whole four minutes outside maybe. That’s the one thing about these inclusive indoor waterparks… there’s no encouragement to get outside. It’s not like they keep you prisoner or anything but there’s no real need to leave. Our day inside included waterpark play and checking off all the things on the big kiddos’ Paw Pass.
Wednesday night I slept terribly and was ready to leave come Thursday morning. We were up and out by 9:30am, and on our way to the Hands On Children’s Museum in Olympia. It’s probably my favorite kiddo museum. We had gone after our first trip to Great Wolf Lodge back in 2014 and I have been wanting to go back since.
The museum is geared toward all kiddo ages. Although, at places like it, even the oldest kids turn into little ones. We spent about three hours there before hitting the road for home. We made it back early afternoon, with enough downtime to relax before the big kiddos went to dance class. One of my favorite things about this homeschooling thing we do… we can do whatever we want, whenever we want. Mid-week trips are the best. No crowds and we still get weekends.
We didn’t take too many pictures since we mostly left our phones in our room. That’s another trick they play on you… your wristband is your room key and linked to your credit card, so it’s easy to carry nothing and spend whatever. We did pretty good this trip, bringing food instead of eating out too much. Buffets are gross anyway.
Waterpark Play
Hanging Indoors
Hands On Children’s Museum
Until next year.
Jumping Raccoons 