Great Wolf Lodge

I want to start off this post by saying that Lonnie has been blessed with some amazing friends.  I love all of them.  They are each unique in their own right and I am so glad that they are a part of our lives.  I am also so glad that the ones that are married chose such great women.  I have been blessed through Lonnie's friendships to create my own and I am so thankful for those relationships.  

That leads me to our annual vacation with the Perroni's and McKinney's!  Four years ago we started a vacation tradition with both of these families.  One year adults only, next year kids included.  So far we have gone to Jamaica, Sea World, Las Vegas and this year Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas.

  

I can't believe between the three couples we have 8 kids!

Hudson(7), Morgan(5), Bella(about to be 5), Mallory(7), Kate(9), Hannah(5), Abigail(7) and Case(2) down front

Due to the fact our families have grown, Memorial Day weekend was the only weekend all summer that we didn't have some sort of conflict!!!  This was our first trip to GWL and it was a ton of fun.

C and B.  Seriously could Bella be any more gorgeous...look at those eyes!! Watch out EP.

Perroni sibilings

Lonnie and Case

Mommy's cabana boy!

A & M

We were cracking up at the one tooth wonder.....dad McKinney pulled it out that weekend :)

So cute

Of course we had a silly picture.  I can only hope that our vacation tradition will continue throughout the years and that our kids will remain life long friends!!!

The fellas

Morgan and Mommy and EP in the back with the scary facial hair!!

Silly, silly

Mrs. M and her girls

We got a picture of each family serious and silly.  I wanted to get one of everyone together but we will have to do that next trip.  Hard to coordinate all of us in the same spot at one time 

The McKinney Family(really Mallory....)

The Perroni Family

The Madison Family

As you can see the GWL is a water park.  It is both indoor and outdoor.  The indoor part remains 84 degrees all year and includes a wave pool, lazy river, toddler area, hot tub, a huge climbing structure with dump bucket and 5 tube water slides.  The outdoor has a pool and two tube slides.  The girls went on every ride and had such a blast.   Case was not feeling his best and has been in a very clingy, mommy phase so he was pretty much not having much of anything!

In the resort there is a Starbucks, pizza hut, salon for the kids, arcade, ice cream/candy shop, etc....no shortage of things to do.  One of my favorite parts of the hotel however had to be the themed rooms.

We had a "wolf den" suite so when we walked in the room this is what we saw.

This "cave" included a set of bunk beds and a TV for the kids

They LOVED this area and it was nice for the kids to have their own space while we had ours to nap, watch TV and just chillax.

They are howling like wolves!

Watching Mal play the DS

Precious!!!  

A few other things I liked about the resort:

* Each room has a mini fridge and a microwave

* You can bring an ice chest to your room.  We ate cereal each morning and lunch in our room each day to save some $.  Plus had lots of snacks!

* Your room key is on your wrist band for the water park...GENIUS!  You can also get your credit card linked to your wristband so you don't have to carry any cash to the pool or a key.

I would 100% go back but probably during a little less crowded time and when the kids were just a little older.  If we went just our family it might have been one thing but with 8 kids, ages 2-9 it was a little stressful keeping up with everyone in such a big crowded place.  I think it would be great to go when your kids are at the age in which you could say meet me back at the pool in 3 hours....we are not there yet!

Thanks again to our best friends....can't wait for next year, Cabo gets my vote :)