the Olive Grove: Great Wolf Lodge

Sterling turned five this summer! Five has been good to us. He has grown A LOT. Not in just height (he is a tall boy) but in communication, boundaries, patience, responsibilities, etc. This tenacious and energetic boy has brought us a lot of joy and has ultimately taught us more about God's unfailing love. Because of Sterling I have a better understanding of the Lord's love for me as his own child. I will always be grateful that he is who God entrusted to us. He gave me the title mom. We love you Sterling!

To celebrate our S-man, we went to Great Wolf Lodge. It was our first time there and I must say that I highly recommend it! Though it's a pricey one night stay, we decided the money we would spend to throw a party would be pretty equal. It was nice to be low key and have a memorable family trip. Capri was only 2 1/2 months old so the thought of throwing a party was a little haunting. The boys had so much fun and still talk about the hotel room and the water slides.

If you are going to go to Great Wolf Lodge here are my tips:

1. Check in time to the hotel is around 3 or 4 but you can check in by 11 am for your water park passes and use the water park! We were there by 10 (we were a little excited) but the lobby had fun activities like hula hooping contest, coloring, bubbles, etc. We were in our bathing suits and in the park right at 11. The front desk called my cell phone to let me know our room was ready by 2 - score!

2. Take food. There is a couple of restaurants available but of course expensive...and greasy :) There is a fridge and microwave in every room so we took popcorn, sandwiches and some other snacks.

3. There is a Starbucks in the hotel. Nice.

4. There is a really cool arcade so take your quarters! We let each kid take a bag of quarters from their piggy banks at home. When they ran out....they ran out.

5. Check out the next day is around noon but you can continue to use the water park till 10 pm on checkout day. We had an extra bracelet so we invited my mom down to come and swim with us till dinner time!

6. It is REALLY warm inside the water park area. Capri and I were sweating. I think they keep the temps around 80 something degrees.

7. They have all the life preservers you could imagine. You don't need to take your own.

8. If your kids are under five, one night is plenty! When our kids are older and can do the water stuff more on their own we will probably go for two nights. Our littles were worn out after two days of water play.

What surprised me most about this trip was Boone's lack of fear of the water. He kind of freaked me out! He went down water slides on his own like it was no big deal. He would stand in line with teen aged kids waiting patiently until it was his turn. He would sit on the slide and look up at the life guard until he/she would say go. A life guard would have to pull him out at the bottom. Oh my. He thought it was awesome.

Bathing suits on and ready to go!

Here is Boone coming down the slide. He somehow would get turned head down every time. He would run to Justin and I for a hug or thumbs up.

This is one of the big slides that Sterling was tall enough to go on! Boone and I waited patiently for their exit on the tube! Sterling's face says it all!