We loaded up and headed out to Dallas on Friday afternoon after Anna's Camp Invention Inventor's Showcase. We knew we would be in late but wanted to get on the road anyway. Thanks West Memphis, Arkansas for continuing to have AWFUL construction (going down from three lanes to one lane) for about 5 miles after we exited the bridge from Memphis. This literally cost us 45-60 minutes. Lovely way to start the trip. We ended up not eating dinner until 8pm that night but thanks to games and DVDs in the car and lots of good snacks that I packed we all survived. We ended up arriving in Dallas around 11pm on Friday night. Kids were asleep in the car and never really woke up which was great. Saturday was full of fun things for sure.
Saturday started the Tour de France....a FAVORITE in our home. The cyclists that Gary cared most about were at the end of the prologue so we waited until they were done and then headed out to Great Wolf Lodge. This is a place I was not famliar with until my brother suggested we go while in Dallas. It is located near the Dallas/Fort Worth airport in Grapevine, TX. It is a resort of types with an indoor and outdoor water park. You have to stay on the property to use the water park (of course my sister, sister-in-law and I are such crooks we were trying to determine if we kept our wristbands on if we could get back in at a later date!). We arrived at 1:30pm and by 2pm had it all figured out and were in the water. Of course Anna, tall giant that she is, measuring almost 53 inches could ride anything there. Jennifer's twins (lucky ducks!!) and Blake were tall enough for everything but the two largest slides and that left Caroline and Drew (each 1 inch too short) and Henry (many inches too short) to the smaller slides. All of the kids (and grown up kids, I might add) had a blast. I cannot even remember the last time I was at a full blown water park. We were remembering Adventure River in Memphis growing up but that has been since high school.
We spent the night after a full afternoon of water activities and tired faces, ate plenty of pizza and headed off to bed. The next morning as Gary and I were packing up the car and the kids were behind in the hotel room with their cousins we decided to sneak in a quick ride on the Torndao Ride. It was insane with a huge drop in the dark. We were one of the first ones on that morning and had very little wait. We enjoyed a good day on Saturday as well. Kids were getting tired by mid-afternoon so we headed back to my brother's house. Enjoyed some fajitas for dinner and noticed that the parents were WAY more tired than the kids.
Highly recommend Great Wolf Lodge. Lots to do but cannot imagine staying more than 1 or 2 nights. We heard of people going for a week....have these people heard of Disney World? It costs about the same if you stay that long!!! Many locations across the country but none really close to where we live, so definitely a treat!
gary with caroline after one of her MANY trips down the smaller water slides....FEARLESS.
shooting the water pistols, probably at perfect strangers
anna with me after going on one of the big slides....she was super brave and went on every single thing multiple times. she was definitely up for the challenge.
the whole crew
gary and anna in a double float on one of the outdoor slides
external view of the "torndao" slide that starts and ends indoors but takes a trip outside as well. very crazy ride with a large drop in the DARK! 
1 comment:
Wow...I have heard of GWL before and tried to figure out when/where to go. There are some in Michigan, I think. Very cool!
Post a Comment