We decided since it was a relatively short drive (3.5 hours) that we weren't going to panic trying to rush out the door to get there. I was starting to come down with a cold, so I wasn't feeling all that peppy anyway. We let the kids sleep in a little then ate breakfast and loaded up the van. We packed a picnic lunch and stopped on the way up at a park just on the other side of Greenville, South Carolina. Though chilly, it was a gorgeous day and the park had lots of pretty landscaping and fresh blooms. I'd forgotten a jacket for Audrey, so she elected to wear her swimsuit coverup instead of my jacket. The kids played on a really cool playground that had a lot of rock climbing walls and then we ate our lunch in the sunshine. We let them run around a little more before we required potty stops and then hit the road again.
At the gorgeous park where we stopped and picnicked
When we arrived at the Lodge, the front desk was slammed with people checking in. I took Audrey and Luke on a quick tour of the main lobby and then to the gift shop where we bought a jacket for Audrey. I almost wasn't able to pay for the thing because I was using a credit card and they required ID. I realized I'd left my driver's license at home, I didn't have any cash, and they wouldn't take a debit card without identification either. After a minute of both the saleslady and I trying to figure out what to do, another employee walked up and simply verified my identity by asking Audrey what my name was. Smart...unless you teach your kid to lie for you!
We met David back at check-in and got our wristbands and room number. I requested a quiet room off the main drag, and they weren't kidding around in granting my request. We went up a floor and then walked and walked...and walked until we got to our suite. The kids oohed and aahed over the standard two-queen plus pull-out couch accommodations. Doesn't take much to impress them! They immediately wanted to sit out on the balcony that overlooked the parking lot. David ferried the luggage up while I put away a few things (bonus points for personal growth: I did not unpack any clothes at all! Four people for two days = much easier to live out of our suitcases!)
Since the forecast was calling for rain the next day, we decided to go ahead and get in an outdoor putt-putt game. The course didn't have the goofy-golf type obstacles, but it was still pretty fun. There were only 12 holes, which was just about right as the frustration seemed to be mounting between Audrey and Luke the longer we played. She actually did great and beat David on the first three holes, but as her beginner's luck faded and it took a lot more strokes to make it in, she lost some of her positive attitude.
We checked the clock and decided we still had awhile before dinner, so we opted to change into our bathing suits and do the waterpark for a bit. The kids started small and did the little kiddie playground section, but quickly worked their way up to the huge play area and even did the two long waterslides off of it right away! Since lap riding wasn't permitted, I honestly thought it was going to take more cajoling, but they must've felt experienced enough having done our neighborhood pool slide. We splashed around a little longer before getting into the giant wave pool. We decided to save the bigger slides for the next day. I think the Disney World rollercoaster experience where we scarred the children for life was still fresh in our minds. We weren't going to push them into anything too soon!
Large play area at the indoor waterpark
After about an hour and a half, we went upstairs and changed back into dry clothes for dinner. We started at one restaurant inside the resort, but realizing there was only salad and veggies on the buffet for Audrey, we went next door to another where we could order off of a menu. Audrey got a hamburger with a gluten free bun, fries, and fruit. Luke had the same, David had some sort of rib platter, and I ate a chicken sandwich. Before and after we ate, the kids were mesmerized by the windows that overlooked the waterpark and we just enjoyed people-watching for awhile. Other than Luke being a little tired and whiney from skipping nap, it was a really nice dinner just chatting and playing the "would you rather" questions off the kids' menu. (For the record, we would all rather have a giant bucket on our hand than on our foot, we would all rather wear our pants backward than wear our shoes on the wrong feet, Luke was the only one that wanted to befriend a real vs. a cartoon wolf, and we were pretty split on whether we'd rather ride a dinosaur or a spaceship to school.) We paid the bill and went downstairs to the arcade.
After multiple potty interruptions, we finally got into a groove at the arcade and let the kids spend about thirty minutes doing any games that didn't cost too many tokens. They cashed in their tickets. Audrey had earned 50 and Luke had earned 52...amazingly close enough to not cause a fallout. Unfortunately 102 tickets doesn't buy you much these days, but Audrey got a plastic too-big ring, Luke got two tiny plastic army men, and we got one sour patch kid and a tootsie roll. We let the kids get ice cream and we all sat in the lobby while they ate it and watched the crowds passing by.
Fun at the arcade
Though it was only 7:30pm, we knew the kids were exhausted and elected to get them ready for bed at a near-normal bedtime. As the kids were brushing teeth, Luke said to Audrey: "Hey Audrey. Know how we were nice to each other today and didn't really fight much? Let's be like that again tomorrow." She agreed and David and I grinned. It was a noble goal on their part. We read stories and tucked everyone in, but it still took quite awhile after the lights were out before I could hear Luke quit fidgeting and his breathing rate slow down. David and I laid in bed in the dark reading on our phones. I decided just after 9pm that I was ready for sleep, too. Audrey called for us from the pullout couch around 10pm, but David soothed her back to sleep and the rest of the night was uneventful.
I woke up around 6:30am, which is sleeping in for me. Luke and then Audrey woke up around 7:15am and we ate breakfast in our room. I took a hot shower hoping to loosen up my sinuses and clear my throat. I didn't feel too bad, but I was froggy and it did help some. I went down to grab some coffee from the Dunkin' Donuts in the lobby and the kids watched cartoons while we waited for the waterpark to open at 9am.
We got there just a few minutes after the doors opened and decided to let Audrey try the lily pad ropes over the regular pool while it wasn't so crowded. After she conquered those a few times, we headed straight for the big slides while there wasn't a wait. We tried a four-person one first and the kids had a blast! The slide was all inside a tube and we sat in a big circular raft. We all laughed and screamed the whole way down. They were ready for another turn as soon as we hit the bottom. The second time around, I offered to let David sit in the back so that he could face forward and I would be the one facing backward with the kids on each side. This turned out to be a huge mistake. Sometimes I forget what my childhood full of motion sickness was like, but let me tell you that I remembered it well that day. I didn't know whether I wanted to throw up or pass out first, but it took me over thirty minutes to get my legs to stop wobbling, my head to stop spinning, and to even feel close to normal again. Note to self: Do not face backwards going down a twisty, topsy-turvey water slide! What a wuss, huh?!
Audrey hadn't had the best experience on the slide the second go-round either, so she was very reluctant to try any more. We cycled through the wave pool, the regular pool, the kiddie area, and the big play area with long slides for the next hour and a half. David and Luke did a couple of turns on a two-person raft slide, but Audrey was still not having any of it. Finally we forced her to choose either the four person raft we'd already done or the two person raft one. To my horror, she chose the four person raft. I managed fine facing forward, but wasn't too disappointed when they wanted to head back to the wave pool afterward. Audrey and I invented a game where we start almost at the front of the pool and then let each wave shoot us backwards again and again until we're nearly out of the water completely. It was so much fun just giggling and having silly fun with her. We got out and dried off so we could break for lunch.
The gluten-free pizza we'd heard about was harder to come by than we thought. I finally figured out where in the resort to order it but discovered it was going to take thirty minutes, so we let the kids do some more playing. Luke desperately wanted me to try the two-person raft slide with him and, since this is vacation and we were really trying to limit our "nos", off I trodded trying not to be nervous. I handled it well and then took him back to David and went to fetch the pizza for lunch. We ate in the waterpark next to the big play area. Every time the giant bucket at the top would start to tip, we would have to hold onto our plates and napkins so the after-splash breeze wouldn't blow them away. At one point I caught David's eye to nod towards Luke, who was nearly falling asleep while eating. We talked through the afternoon and evening plans and agreed another forty-five minutes to an hour at the waterpark was all anyone could handle without risking major meltdown or injury from exhaustion.
After lunch, we did the long slides off the play area and then headed to the wave pool again. After a while there, David and I made the executive decision to make Audrey do the two-person raft slide. I squatted down next to her and explained that you don't come to a fun place like this for vacation and then leave without trying it all at least once. Luke's sibling pressure helped too as he calmly repeated to her how fun it was. We were telling her to just give it one try and felt very strongly that she'd have a blast. She begrudgingly took my hand and nervously climbed what felt like a million steps (in reality it was probably only a half million) up to the top. She wanted to ride with me, so we loaded up in the figure-8 raft and I locked my legs around her. We went down one tunnel slide while the boys went beside us in an identical tunnel. We hadn't even gotten out of the raft at the bottom before she was exclaiming how awesome it was and begging to go again! We all gave her high fives and told her how proud we were of her, especially for being willing to admit that she'd been wrong about her reluctance. She could've simply lied and said it wasn't fun and she didn't want to do it again in order to protect her pride, but she came clean and I pointed out how many adults couldn't even do that!
We went on that one at least five more times before David and I cried "uncle." The massive staircase coupled with my stomach turning uneasy again meant we needed a break. We let the kids do another round on the long slides on the play area and then let them splash and play while we gathered up our things. We hit the room for nap time and some rest. Luke was out within five minutes of hitting the pillow. Audrey played on the Kindle and David snoozed through watching the Masters on his phone while I blogged and read.
Around 3:30pm, we woke up Luke and all showered and got ready for dinner. We had a little time to kill and decided it would be a good opportunity to do some souvenir shopping. Luke immediately gravitated towards the giant swords, but we were able to redirect him to a pair of binoculars. Audrey chose a fancy pen and then they each picked out a leather bracelet and had it engraved with their names. At the last minute, I remembered to buy our traditional Christmas ornament keepsake. It would've been a bummer to make David turn around and go back, but I totally would've done it.
After our all-important selections were made, we decided to branch out and left the Lodge to drive about .2 miles to a Carrabba's, which offered some gluten-free pasta choices. We placed our order and then played the games on the kids' menus and a little tic-tac-toe while discussing the day's events. The food arrived and we scarfed it down. Doing all the stairs to get up to the water slides works up quite an appetite! We finished up and apologized to the kids that we were going to make them have dessert two nights in a row. :) They squealed and we left for the frozen yogurt shop.
We carefully sampled several choices before everyone was sure of their decisions. They got their toppings and we sat down inside away from the strong winds outside. We had the best time cutting up with each other and laughing. Audrey was trying to remember the word for "gazebo" and the closest she could get was "goatigo." We joked that that was where you went to get a goatie and more silliness ensued from there. When we finished our dessert, we went outside and let them dance around on the "goatigo" and took a few pictures with the pretty sunset in the background. It was such a simple evening, but it was one of my favorite times during the trip. Just us, being goofy and real, truly enjoying one another. The best.
Lights of my life
We made it back just in time for the kids to put on their pajamas and head down to the grand lobby for story time. We got a front row seat and waited patiently for the animatronic show to begin. It lasted about fifteen minutes and had talking and singing animals, trees, and people. Truthfully the story and sound quality left a little to be desired (and was honestly a bit freaky...I'm not a fan of animatronic stuff) but the kids seemed to enjoy it. At the end, a Great Wolf Lodge employee came out and introduced Wiley the Wolf in costume and read Mo Willems "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus"...a favorite in our house. They did the "Wolf Howl" and then everyone lined up to meet Wiley and take pictures with him. Luke was a little reluctant, but we all stayed right with him and he bravely went up and gave him a few high-fives. After story time, we headed up to the room for bed. We got everyone settled and it wasn't long before I heard them quiet down and fall asleep.
Audrey and Luke with Wiley the Wolf after story time
Time to head home
David wanted to see the Charlotte Motor Speedway before we left town, so we drove a couple of miles up the road to sneak a peak. There wasn't too much you could see from the road, but it seemed to appease his curiosity. We drove through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru for lunch and hit the road.
The ride home was fairly calm. I had a supreme parenting moment when I embarrassed the heck out of Audrey by doing the Mack-truck honking motion until one acknowledged me and let out a long horn blow. She was mortified in the backseat despite us pointing out that the truck driver was thrilled about getting to do it and no one else saw but us. Luke egged me on to do more, but after a few more attempts, no other drivers noticed and I let it go. It's going to be way too easy (and way too much fun) to embarrass that girl as she gets older. I will take my job to do so, and thereby keep her humble, very seriously.
We arrived home late that afternoon and, unlike when driving seven or eight hours after a beach trip, we actually had a little energy left to unpack. David hit the grocery store while I got everything put away and started laundry. We made nachos for dinner and watched Tangled. Everyone went to bed early and undoubtedly dreamt about water slides and Wiley the Wolf.
It was a fantastic trip with so many fun memories made. I'm so thankful we were able to go and spend the uninterrupted time together. I've said it before, but these ages are so great for going and doing stuff together like this. We're entering the "golden years" where everyone is potty trained and missed naps don't mean a ruined evening but the hormonal teen attitudes haven't started yet. I miss those chubby babies, but seeing their bravery at trying new things and laughing belly laughs with them as their senses of humor evolve is just the best. When they are grown and gone, I know I will treasure trips like this one with all of my heart.
Here's hoping for many more to come before that day!
A wonderful vacation!
