Great Wolf

Putting Jack to bed tonight, after our vacation to Great Wolf Lodge and Water Park, I mentioned that maybe he should do a journal entry or draw a picture of one of his favorite things from the weekend. And Jack said, "A journal entry; I like writing more than drawing." Which was mildly surprising, but OK. And I started to think, if Jack were writing this blog tonight, it might go something like this.

We ate breakfast and got into the car to go to Great Wolf Lodge. I was going to miss playing Wii, but the water slides looked pretty cool in the pictures Daddy showed me. Plus we ate lunch at McDonald's! They had a big play area there where me and Kate ran around. Daddy joked that we would just skip the waterpark and stay overnight at McDonald's. Silly Daddy.

Arrived at Great Wolf Lodge. Busy. Wooden animal carvings everywhere. They had this game called MagiQuest. You got your wand in a store, then ran around the lodge waving it at paintings and treasure chests of gold. It was awesome. Kate and I waved our wands and collected gold and ran around for about an hour before Mommy and Daddy reminded us there were a bunch of water slides.

We all got in our bathing suits and went into the water park. It was like being in an indoor baseball stadium or something. I was so excited I ran off on my own and scared my parents, who were still trying to find some place to put our towels down, half to death. After that, we started out in this little wading area with small slides. I thought Kate would be scared, but she went down a couple of decent-sized slides all by herself, throwing her arms up as she went and laughing happily as she splashed into the water at the bottom of the slide. "I did it!" she yelled to us, proudly. My sister is only 4. Later, Daddy told us that he and Kate went to a pretty high slide which he thought he could do with Kate, but found out at the top they had to go separately. He thought about walking down the stairs, but instead asked Kate if she wanted to do it, and she, her little mouth tight, nodded. And she went down on her own, and though I know she was really scared, liked it so much she wanted to do it again. And smiled proudly.

Daddy and I went up a long staircase to do a pretty big slide. We carried up a two-person raft to zip down on. As we put it in the water, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it. "Uh," I said "I'm not sure...." Daddy said, Jack, I'm right here with you, it will be fine. And then there were people behind us and we had to go. First I yelled, then I yelled some more. Then I laughed and laughed, and as we crashed into the water at the bottom, the first thing I said was, "That was GREAT. Let's go again."

There was a big wave pool, which was like being at the ocean, except the water was even warmer. I kept swimming out, letting the waves bring me back in, and swimming out again. Laughing and laughing. Floating on inner tubes, getting capsized, crashing into the water again and again. And going back for more. There was another pool where Daddy and I played basketball, and another where we just floated downstream while buckets of water dumped on our heads every so often. It almost looked like Daddy tried to get hit by the water because he knew it'd be funny for us, but probably not. It was funny.

At night, there was storytime, where we all wore pajamas and gathered in the lobby and somebody dressed as Violet the Wolf and another girl read bedtime stories. Incredibly, I worked my way through about 200 kids to get into the front row. Daddy and Mommy were way in the back with Kate up on their shoulders. Kate had her stuffed Violet the Wolf doll with her, and badly wanted to show the big Violet her toy that looked like her. When she couldn't get close, she cried. A lot. She was a little overtired from staying up late, waking up early, and not napping for a few days. (I wasn't at all tired, although in pictures on the last day my eyes were about 3/4 of the way shut.)

Before storytime one night, there was a lady making balloon animals. I made it up to the front while Daddy waited. When she asked me what I wanted, I asked for a dragon. She said she couldn't make that. I told her to ask somebody else. When it was my turn again, I told her, "I'm still thinking." Daddy seemed to groan. I ended up stepping out of line without getting an animal. Jack, what's up? Daddy asked. "I've moved on," I said.

There was a "Story Adventure" thing where you got your picture taken in a variety of poses and they put you in a book with Wiley or Violet the wolf. Daddy talked about how Kate did huge smiles and threw her arms up into the air to show excitement and all that. Sometimes she can be shy so it was pretty impressive.

I've got to say the thing I'll remember most about the trip was actually NOT the water slides, even though I went around and around and jumped in and out of the water again and again. The thing I liked most was the MagiQuest game. At one point I had to open a chest on one side of the hotel, then get to the other side in 30 seconds to open another one. Daddy laughed that there was a sign that said, NO RUNNING. I completed a whole bunch of quests and at the end there was a video that told me I'd earned Master Magi. Mommy said I beamed with pride. As I said to Daddy, "I can't believe I can do all this with just a wand and a computer! And I made MASTER MAGI!!!!"

At the end, I did an adventure, where I had to fight a dragon. I tried to kill him twice but couldn't. Very hard. Next time!

I don't know if that's exactly what Jack would have written. But I think something like that is about right. I took a picture of him after he completed one of his wand quests. This is about typical of his smile, part happiness, part awe, part accomplishment, for most of the vacation.