Great Wolf Lodge

I have been wanting to take Ryan to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine for a while. It's a little pricey, so when there was a really good Living Social deal for the fall, I jumped all over it. One of our hesitations was that Ryan may still be a little young and another being that he has literally spent 4 nights in a hotel in his 2 and a half year old life (bad parents I know, we just prefer to travel sans kids - at least until this point where they are old enough to really travel well). I was worried he wouldn't sleep well and just be out of his element, but I was SO wrong and definitely underestimated his ability to adapt!

We loaded up the car on Saturday around lunchtime, after he and Wes went to the grocery store and STOCKED up on junk food. We got about 30 minutes out of town and decided to stop at the yummy Wings N More in Conroe, definitely a great start to the trip. This was by far the furthest car ride he has ever been on, so we were trying to time it with his nap. Unfortunately, on the way there he only slept 1 of the 4 hours, but he was a trooper and didn't get too antsy. Our plan was to stop by the State Fair in Dallas because I have never been and really wanted to try some of the fried foods, but the weather was a little rough and we weren't sure if it would be worth it with Ryan's mood and short nap. So, we checked into the Embassy Suites near Grapevine to stay Saturday night (the deal for the GWL was for Sun-Thur), so we wanted to be in the area so we could make use of all of our time and not spend half a day driving.

Ryan was so cute when we first got to our room because he kept saying, "is this our new house?" (since we were in the thick of remodeling our house) It was pretty funny. He just loved the hotel room and was running around all over the place. We set-up his pack n play and then he became very curious as to where we would be sleeping and if the door would be open, etc. Wes took Ryan down to the pool, which Ryan was pretty pumped up about since he hasn't been swimming for fun in the past month. Wes went and picked up dinner and we just hung out in the room the rest of the night. That could have been what we did the entire 3 days and I think Ryan would have been perfectly content. He loved the "happy hour" and the fish pond, you would have thought we were at Disney World. He went to sleep fine and other than waking up a few times for a minute or two here and there throughout the night, he slept really well.

After breakfast Sunday morning, we headed to GWL. Supposedly, check-in is at 4, but Wes used his charm and got us checked into our room at 11 which also meant we were able to head straight to the waterpark. This place is seriously any 2-12 year old's dream. From the massive indoor waterpark, to the arcade, storytime, arts and crafts, spa, ice cream parlor, this place seriously has it all! Ryan was definitely impressed with all of the slides, splash pads, lazy river, etc. We spent about 3.5 straight hours before deciding it was probably time for Ryan to go take a nap. The rooms are pretty sweet. They have little log cabins built into the rooms fully equipped with bunk beds, tv and gaming systems. We had to improvise with some makeshift blinds and doors by using towels and blankets, but other than that it was perfect! This was actually his first time ever in a big boy bed, so needless to say we were a bit nervous. Much to our surprise, he did awesome. Once we put him in, he didn't make a peep and just went to sleep.

After naps (yes, we took naps while he did because there's not much you can do when you're all in the same room trying to be quiet so he could sleep!), we went to take part in the Arts and Crafts for the day which was pumpkin painting. Ryan loved it! He kept saying he was painting it for me which I loved.

He always does this when he is concentrating really hard on something. I think he has done this for as long as I can remember and I still think it is pretty darn cute.

This is another somewhat newish development. Over the past few months, whenever he is trying to be very convincing with his "ideas," he cocks his head to the side and nods while telling me what he thinks we/he should do. Even his teachers at MDO have already caught onto this and brought it up at the parent teacher conference. It makes me laugh.

 Nice model pose :)

We made a brief stop by the arcade afterwards. He has never played any type of video games, etc so we weren't sure what he would do, but he caught on pretty quickly. Needless to say, the next day we spent a solid hour or more playing games. His favorite game was this shoot 'em up game where you shot at locusts and creepy things flying at the screen, go figure. Here he is focusing once again.

 

We ate dinner both nights at the main restaurant, which surprisingly was very good and nice that we didn't have to leave the hotel at night. They even gave him these sweet cub ears at dinner.

 

When we got back up to the room, it was only 8pm, but I think he may have been a little nervous about his impending bedtime, so he asked that we all go into "his room to snuggle." I think he thought by getting us all in the beds, that maybe we would sleep with him. He was having so much fun hopping back and forth from bed to bed, talking about the murals on the wall, saying that the teddy bear on the wall was a nice bear (what!?), and that he wanted the squirrels to come out and play with him.

Not too sure about this new sleeping situation once we left!

Once we got him to bed, we very quietly got ready for bed and then watched the Texans game on practically mute. It wasn't too bad, he went to sleep with no problem and we all got some decent sleep. he only woke up a couple of times a little scared, but went back to sleep no problem. The next morning, we had breakfast downstairs where Ryan got to enjoy his new favorite treat of Orange Juice, he loves the stuff. 

 

We headed straight to the water park for the day and got an early start, so it wasn't too crowded. I brought my camera down this time to capture some of his crazy antics.

 

  

 He loved spraying other people on these jet skis. So did every other kid in the park, so it was always an unwelcome surprise when freezing cold water came at your back!

I think he did this slide probably 100+ times over the course of the weekend. He got bold and would start going head first (which the life guards did not like, but how do you reason with a 2 year old?!?), lying flat on his back, sideways, you name it. Every time he would come down, he would immediately ignore us and dart back up the slide to do it again. We'd have to snatch him up and carry him away to go and do other things.

He loved the little water fountains at the end of the wave pool too. Wes would show him how if you plug up on spout, the others go higher, so he was forever trying to imitate him. He would basically get mad at the water and just start smacking it.

He loved laying in the inner tubes while the wave pool was on as well. We spent quite a bit of time just floating in there and the lazy river. Wes even did some of the big kid slides (not going to lie, I totally would have too if I wasn't 7 months pregnant). We took a break for lunch so Ryan could have his staples - lemonade, corn dog, and Cheetos - lunch of champions. Luckily, he has only associated this type of lunch with waterparks, so we haven't had too much of a fight at home :)

 





 







After lunch, we headed back for naps in which he did not resist at all this time. We played arcades in the afternoon where he loved to "swipe the credit card" (or the preloaded game card), and ran up and down the hallways with dad which he thought was just too much fun. He was funny because every time we got on the "elebator," he knew which floor was ours and then proceeded to head straight to the correct room number. We got ready for dinner and tried to get one actual decent pic which wasn't really happening.

Right before we left for dinner, Ryan was trying to put his shirt on his head, walking around with his head down, and rammed right into the solid wooden dresser. It literally knocked him right on his back. Just one of a few bobos during the trip. Dinner was a very interesting experience the second night. Besides our waiter never coming by our table and then proceeding to mess up our order, I think Ryan had too much fun during the day mixed with a bunch of junk food and a minor head trauma so once he got a little too big of a bite in his mouth - he just threw up at the table. Oops - parents of the year right here! So, Wes took him back up to the room to clean him up and we went on our merry way.

We stopped by the storytime downstairs, but it was kind of hard to hear the storyteller - so we opted for cupcakes and milk in bed.

He slept awesome the 2nd night and didn't budge the entire night. The next morning we packed up and got ready to head to the waterpark one last night. We had a nice surprise when we changed him the next morning. There was a soggy sweet n low packet in his diaper, nice! Just another mishap from dinner the night before. We clocked in another 3 straight hours at the park, and when it was time to leave, somebody was not ready. I think the tag line of the trip was "Oh My Goodness." He said this to just about everything, but in an old southern lady accent. He's crazy. He slept a solid 2.5 hours on the way home and when he woke up he asked if we would be going to the waterpark that afternoon. Needless to say, he has talked about going to Dallas, and on vacation, and asked for the waterpark just about everyday for the past 3-4 weeks. I think it's safe to say his first real vacation was a success and we will be going back next summer!! I don't think there are many better things in the world than seeing your child truly have so much fun and just love life. It was pretty fun just watching him all weekend :)