Wednesday, I got an email from Groupon for 30% off your stay at Great Wolf Lodge. I have never been to Great Wolf Lodge, but I did feel like my family needed some time all together but away from home. Charlie has been asking to go on an adventure for weeks and the kids have never left Indiana since their birth, so I decided to check it out for Friday…yup 2 days away. I am not a spontaneous person. I am very much a planner, so this was just an inkling I had that we had to go that weekend. I barely discussed it with Jim before I called and was able to get a family suite for 2 nights in Mason, Ohio for 30% off. We were heading on a road trip...wahoo!
My first order of business was to talk Jim into it without revealing I already booked it. I mentioned it in passing and once I was on the phone, I scheduled to get the great deal. (I’m not a horrible wife we could always reschedule per their policy). Anyways, it was not an easy feat. Needless to say, he was frustrated with me. I finally convinced him we needed this trip and that we would have fun. His response…”I don’t have a swimsuit.” I was on the case. The kids didn’t have swimsuits either. I would have to do some major quick shopping. As I got home Wednesday night, I realized some friends have given me clothes for the kids. I started digging through boxes and was able to find a swimsuit for both kids and flip flops for Charlie. I took this as a sign that our trip was meant to be.
I got right on packing and organizing the trip. I started with the kids, once I had the swimsuits, the rest fell into place, and they were easy to pack. Easy but they require lots of stuff. I brought 4 different types of diapers (Regular, Overnight, Swim and Overnight pull ups for Charlie)! I also had to pack toys, and snacks and beverages and lovies and well the list goes on. And I still had to get swim trunks for Jim. Everywhere I looked there they weren’t. Kohls, Target, Walmart. No swimsuits yet. I finally found one that came same day from Amazon. Halleluiah! Everyone had a swimsuit, and we were ready to hit the open road. Or so I thought…
Check-in time was 4pm at Great Wolf Lodge. My plan was to be there at 4pm so we could waterpark a little and then have dinner. I did not explain this fully to Jim Drury. He had been running all day and when he finally got home to pack it was almost 3:30pm before we left. Jim wanted to quickly fill up my windshield washer fluid…I was so ready to go. Ok fine fill it up. He pops off the cap and it disappears into the darkness of the engine. It was lost forever. Now he was worried that the wiper fluid would splash out. So what I thought. We fashioned a cap out of a hair tie and a Ziplock bag and I thought we were ready to grab the kids from daycare and head out. No, we stopped by an auto parts store, and they did not have a cap, so we went to another auto parts store and got a cap that ended up not fitting. At this point it was 4pm, the time we should have been pulling up to the lodge, but we hadn’t left Indianapolis.
We kept the makeshift cap, grabbed the kids and Jim realized he forgot something at home. We ran by the house, and he ran in and out and we were on our way. Just kidding. As we drove away, I noticed our back gate was open. Arg! We turned around and went home (again). At 4:20 we hit the highway and headed for the horizon. We were finally, after much frustration from Jim and I, on our way. Everyone was tense as we headed for Ohio. Once we were 20 minutes from Ohio, it was like the frustration and tension just melted away. The kids could barely stay in their seats they were so excited. At a little after 6pm we pulled up to the Great Wolf Lodge. We made it! Finally!
Well from then it was a whirlwind of food and games and waterpark fun. We had a blast! Charlie was such a daredevil going down all the waterslides we had to put a lifejacket on him because he wouldn’t slow down. Cora enjoyed the little ones’ area and even went down the slide a couple times. After 4 hours of waterparking on Saturday, everyone was exhausted. As we were sitting in the wave pool, Jim looked over at me and said “I’m so glad we did this!” We spent time together and made memories and had a relaxing weekend away from the stressors of home. We played the rest of the day away playing glow in the dark golf and checking out the arcade. We were in bed early that night and had sweet dreams. The lodge was awesome and the waterpark was so big we couldn’t get to all the slides!
As we headed from home Sunday morning, we were all tired and ready for some down time. The kids held their souvenirs and almost fell asleep in the car. It was a fun time I won’t soon forget. Maybe the trip was a little inconvenient, but it turned out the way I imagined. We had a great weekend and I think we will plan more of these mini getaways as the year goes on.
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