Sunday, January 22, 2017

Great Wolf Lodge

The kids recently had both Friday and Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, so we coordinated with Jeremy and Kylene and family to stay at the brand new Great Wolf Lodge in Colorado Springs, to beat off some of those winter blues!
We've obviously stayed at a GWL before in Charlotte, NC, so the kids (as well as myself) were totally excited! You could check-in at 1 p.m., so we got there right on time so we could have as much time as possible to play at the water park. The lobby had this gorgeous panoramic view of Pikes Peak off in the distance. I just love Colorado Springs!
As soon as our room was ready we dropped off our stuff and quickly changed into our swimming suits. This little girl didn't remember the GWL from NC of course, but she totally fed off of Zach and Lucy's enthusiasm. She couldn't wait to get her little puddle jumper on and hit the kiddie slides!
There was a HUMONGOUS splash-pad-jungle-gym-thingy that I couldn't keep Lizzie away from. There was a huge bucket that dumped water about every 20 minutes or so, and I had to pay some serious attention to the little warning bell that would ring right before it did so we didn't both get waterboarded by it.
We found a much more kid-friendly splash pad over by the kiddie pool. Much more her speed!
Although the water was heated, it still felt pretty chilly-- and those little kids would freeze running in and out of the water and I'd have to wrap up the little Shorty in towels every so often to get rid of those blue lips! 
Lucy and Zach mostly stuck to the slides you can see in the background. They have some super fun ones, with the pies de resistance being the "Wolf Tail," thanks to its death-defying drop and speed. It's no joke!! You start by standing up, in a little tiny tube with a door (almost like a coffin), and then they push a button which counts down from "3, 2, 1" and then the bottom completely drops out from underneath you.  It's a nearly vertical 20 foot free-fall, followed immediately by a 360 degree high-speed loop and speaking from personal experience, it's CRAZY. We'd count from up at the top and it took no more than 7 seconds for the rider to get from the top to the bottom.  Proud to say, by the end of our stay BOTH Lucy and Zach tried it. They are little dare-devils!!
We swam all afternoon, and then stopped by the Dunkin Donuts in the lobby for a treat on the way back to our room to change.  Those kids were starving!
To kill some time before Jon could meet us down there (he was working until 6 p.m.) we wandered around the other stuff they had to do, and wound up meeting one of the wolf mascots, Violet.
They had a fun tree-fort to climb on, miniature golf, bowling, a huge arcade, lots of restaurants, and a ropes course you could pay to do.
After a not-so-nutritious pizza dinner, things got a bit complicated as Jon finally arrived, but I had to head back to Parker in order to teach the 100th release of Body Pump the next morning (it was an international Launch date and kind of a big deal in the Les Mills world). I took Lizzie with me, figuring she'd sleep much better in her own bed, the kids would certainly sleep better at the hotel, and Jon would only have 3 kids to watch the next morning until I could come back. They watched the "Bedtime Story" show that night right before bed.
The Launch went great, everyone slept well, and we reunited with the family as quickly as we could in order to spend the rest of the day at the water park!
These guys were the "Three Amigos" and if you found one, you could find the others. They looked like little ducklings following whichever adult was in charge of them. They LOVED the wave pool!
We decided to just get lunch at the water park so we didn't have to leave and come back, which as you know with wet kids and wet clothes would be a huge ordeal. Surprisingly the food was really good! Jon and I shared a burger and it was delish.
By mid-afternoon the littles ones were winding down and I caught this cute picture of Leah and Sophie watching a movie together. While Zach and Lucy, and the adults took turns riding some more water slides, we slowly got changed, packed up, and ready to hit the road back to Parker. The kids were exhausted from their two days of swimming and playing, but so happy we'd gotten to have a little staycation! We can't wait to go back!