Great Wolf Lodge

For Christmas this year, I asked the boys if they were willing to get less gifts so that we could go on a family trip.  They were all in!  I found a groupon for Great Wolf Lodge in Colorado Springs.  I tried to find days that wouldn't conflict with our schedule; however, that was nearly impossible.  

We ditched school and drove up to Colorado on Thursday morning.  We arrived just in time to check in and hit the pool.  It was so much fun.  We went on all the rides.  We almost talked the boys into going on the scariest water slide.  It dropped the bottom out from underneath you before heading straight down going as fast as a speeding bullet!  

Stephen and I rode the scary water slide.  It was awesome.  The boys played for hours in the wave pool.  Edward said, later that day, that he still felt like he was in the wave pool.  HA! I remember having that feeling as a kid.  I loved the wave pool at sunsplash.  I would spend hours on the edge of the wave pool where the biggest waves could be found.  Edward and Nolen did the exact same thing.  They staked out their spot near the wall and found the best waves.  

There was so much to do at Great Wolf Lodge that we have very little down time.  If we weren't swimming we were using our "paw passes" to rock climb, do a ropes course, bowl, mini golf, do a magi quest, or play in the arcade.  The fun was endless.  I would almost say this was more fun that Disney land.  No lines and it was all day fun.  We did take some time out to watch the new "How to Train Your Dragon" movie on Friday.  

Friday evening, we drove up to the southern part of Denver to have dinner with Stephen's nephew Tarek.  We haven't seen him in YEARS!  It was so fun to catch up with him even if it was for only an hour. Nolen gave us a strict time limit and he had all he could stand.  It was pretty snowy when we headed back to the hotel so it took a bit longer to get back.  

All in all, the boys said their favorite part of the trip was swimming.  We went on the Whirling Tornado at least 20 times.  It was the most fun water slide and it fit a family of four perfectly.  Edward's favorite part out side of the pool was doing the Magi quest.  He was even knighted!  He completed almost all of the quests.  Nolen's favorite part outside of the water was rock climbing.  He climbed to the top of each of the courses at least 15 times.  I am so glad we bought the paw passes.  We were able to do all of the fun things inside the hotel with out the extra expense. 

We spent every single day at the pool.  We even went Saturday morning before check out and went on all the slides again as a family.  I think this was the perfect family bonding trip.  We spent hardly any time in the room and we did almost everything together.  The only down side to this trip was that I was sick.  (I am still sick).  I am VERY sick.  I haven't been this sick in nearly a year.  I tried not to allow this cold to bring me down.  I did fall asleep at 9:30 on Thursday night and slept hard until 6 AM.  Sadly, I passed this terrible cold on to Stephen. Now we will have to suffer through it for the next week.  OH, I didn't bring my phone with me very many places so I didn't take a ton of pictures, but that meant I was more in the moment.