For Ani Rose's 2nd birthday, we spent a weekend in the Poconos at Great Wolf Lodge. Everyone told us how great it was and how expensive it was, but we were looking forward to a mini family vacation after working way too hard all winter long. This post is extremely picture heavy because not only are our kids incredibly photogenic, but there was so much to do in this one building. It was kid heaven. As for the grownups, Todd and I made sure we had a nice room with a king size bed and a whirlpool tub and then proceeded to spend the weekend stuffed on ice cream and completely waterlogged.
The birthday girl in the special crown her teachers made at school.
The indoor water park.
Our room.
Getting ready to swim.
The bracelets we had to wear gave us access to our room, the water park and gave us the ability to charge things to the room. Ani's wrist is so tiny she kept shaking hers off. So, a couple times during the day, I would show her my bracelet and ask her if she was wearing hers. This worked so well that she wore that bracelet two days into the week and said, "oh, no!" when she lost it in the sleeve of her jacket.
Norrin posing with Wiley the Wolf.
Nursing Ani Rose in the lobby. I couldn't resist this fancy chair :).
Breakfast time.
Oliver the Raccoon went around to all the tables saying hi and giving high fives to all the kids. Ani cried when he got to our table, so he covered his face like he was scared of her.
The staff member walking around with the raccoon tried to give Ani a card with a picture of a squirrel on it to distract her.
But long after that raccoon had walked away, she refused to take her evil eye off of him.
And she felt the need to voice her displeasure again to her mama.
There was an arcade that we spent a whole lot of money in at least twice a day.
Norrin played a special game called Magiquest where he got to pick out his own wand and walk around all the lobbies using his magic to activate screens and treasure chests. He loved it so much.
Ani Rose took a nap- one of two on her busy birthday day.
There was glow in the dark miniature golf.
Ani's dress glowed to match the carpet...totally not planned, but so awesome. Can you find her in this picture?
There was also a cool mini bowling alley. The lanes were shorter and the balls smaller so it was more like playing skee ball, but it made the game accessible to all of us.
Ani Rose took us to the Cub Club and forced Da and I to draw.
Please note the satisfied look on her face after she got us both drawing on either side of her.
There was also a corner where she forced me to read one or two pages of a book before she'd grab it out of my hands, run it over to Da and put a different book in my hands to read. Then, the cycle would repeat and I'm pretty sure this happened for maybe six or seven books.
Norrin colored in a t-shirt while Ani Rose bossed her parents around.
There was cotton candy for lunch...
And ice cream for lunch.
The main restaurant was a buffet and I got a method down for it. We'd go to our table and give the waittress our drink order, then I'd ask Ani if she wanted a piggyback ride. She'd say yes, climb on like a little monkey, I'd lock her in and then I was hands free for gathering food from the buffet. This worked beautifully, but I didn't think of it until our second day :).
And the place our kids had the most fun? In the whirlpool tub with a ton of bubbles added and the jets turned on :). They could have spent hours in there.
Our last day and the birthday girl was none too happy about it.
