Great Wolf Lodge - Day 1

Today we went to Great Wolf Lodge (www.greatwolf.com). It's a super fun family hotel with a huge water park built right inside! There are 10 of them in the US, and just one in Canada (in Niagara Falls). This one (Grand Mound)is just south of Seattle, about 3.5 hours' drive from home for us. A friend had told me about it and we've been wanting to come for a while now. Our plans to come in July fell through and since Holly & I didn't make it to Hawaii this year, we thought we'd take an overnight family trip and check it out. There are a number of different sections to the water park. . . the shallow kiddie section with small fort, and slides. . .



















The larger fort (Fort Mackenzie) - with a 1000 gallon water bucket on top that continuously fills up and dumps out every few minutes (you can see it in mid-dump here). . .














In Fort Mackenzie. . .



















In the wave pool - this section was great - the deep end is only 5 ft, so I could stand. The waves come after you hear the wolves howl - first they are gentle rolling waves, which last for a few minutes. After a break, the next set of waves are stronger and rougher. . .



















Paul under the giant bucket - getting 1000 gallons of water dumped on him. . .



















This part of the park (called Big Foot Pass) had a water basketball "court" and some floating lily pads and animals to sit on. . .















Stepping on a water spray - can you tell she's having fun?!. . .




















At the top of the big stairway, we are about to ride on the River Canyon Run - a 6-storey high water slide, which you ride on a circular raft that holds up to 5 people. We got Holly on it once (after about 10 minutes of coaxing from me) - and then she refused to go down it again. . .














Back to the little kids' section (slides more Holly's speed). . .



















Also in the toddler section - little watercraft with sprayers you can aim - and they even had water spraying out the back - very realistic!















After spending some time in the waterpark (we got there too early to get into our room), we stopped at the Bear Paw Cafe for some popcorn, which Holly could smell on our way in.



















We finally got into our room - one of the Kid Kamp Suites with a "tent" in the middle of the room and bunk beds for 2 children to share (and their own tv, too!). The walls have pretend windows painted on them with outside scenery and other paintings of things you'd find in a tent, like a lantern and pair of binoculars.





















Because it's the week before Hallowe'en, guests were encouraged to bring costumes and let their kids go trick or treating in the hotel. We got a map and 4 places to find and get treats from.



















I'd mentioned the lodge to some friends of ours and they decided to come down for 2 nights - a complete coincidence that we booked one of the nights on the same date! We met up with Claire and Sean to go trick or treating.



















This is the Clock Tower, where the scene comes alive for a 10 minute show several times a day - an animatronic show, like you'd see in Disneyland or some other theme park. After the show at 8pm, there is also Story Time, where the kids are encouraged to come in the pj's to hear a bed-time story and meet Wiley the Wolf.

Bowling Party

Today was Jaden's birthday party - first we went bowling . . . it was Holly's first time and she had a blast! They had bumpers out for the kids and ball ramps so they could just push their balls down the lane.


















Here is a video of Holly bowling:


Jaden, the birthday boy . . .














Jaden and his family (Janet, Tallulah, Tommy) and one of his little friends.

Hallowe'en Party

We went to the adults only Hallowe'en party at Holly & Cassie's school, with Cassie's parents, Mimi & Jeff. Paul let me know at the last minute that he was going to be in town for the party - since he didn't have a costume, I borrowed one from Mimi. Last year, they went as Thing 1 & Thing 2 from "The Cat in the Hat". Paul went as Thing 1 and had a lot of people ask him, as I'm sure you are too, "where is Thing 2?!" Well, I had decided earlier in the week to go as Minnie Mouse, because I had all the props for it - which were in storage because of our renovation - so I went to the storage locker with Holly after school one day and spent about 20 minutes fishing it out of the very back of our storage unit - so after all that work, I felt like I had to go with my original plan (and I didn't want to go as exactly the same Things as Mimi & Jeff did last year). This year, Jeff and Mimi were Bacon (NOT the Union Jack) & Egg!

Hallowe'en Craft

Today we went to Michaels before our ballet class to decorate a Hallowe'en pumpkin. This is Holly's creation . . .

First School Photo

Holly brought home the proof of her first school picture today. I like the first one (I took a picture of the picture, so it's not the best quality) . . . and I can't wait to see her first class picture and the picture of the entire school, too!

Poi Balls

Today was my grandfather's 96th birthday celebration. Holly also went to her second hula lesson - we missed last week's class because we went to Claire's birthday party. During the first lesson, they used poi balls for about 5-10 minutes. All the new students were measured for their own poi balls and Holly used hers for the first time today. After only 2 classes and less than 30 minutes of practice, I think she's doing quite well. At first all kids start out able to turn the balls backwards, but after today's class, Holly is also able to go forwards (which is the proper way). Poi balls originated from the Maori in New Zealand, but now a number of different cultures, including Hawaiian and Chinese, have incorporated the balls into their performances. Check out the short video, too!

A Day with the Foxes

We spent the day with the Foxes . . . . .

Claire invited Holly to her gymnastics class because it was "bring a friend" day. After some initial trepidation, Holly joined in and had a lot of fun.















Susanna & Dexter met me at gymnastics to pick up their Entertainment books. They rode their bikes, so Holly and I hopped onto Susanna's to check it out.














We then went to Tim Horton's for lunch with Claire & her family, and then headed to ballet. After ballet, all 6 of us (Claire, her brother Sean and their parents) walked across the parking lot to the Fire Station for their open house. We saw this van that had been involved in an accident . . . . .















. . . saw this vintage fire truck from around 1929 . . . . .















. . . met Sparky the Fire Dog . . . . .



















. . . and after the kids made some fire hats, they took turns "driving" in the big fire truck! After all that, the Foxes mentioned they were going to see a movie later and asked us to join them. We did - seeing "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". It was cute - we hadn't seen a movie since last year's "Kung Fu Panda" outing with our friends, and it was Holly's first 3D movie. Holly & Claire (both 4 years old) didn't wear the glasses much after the first 30 minutes, but they still seemed to like the movie!