Thursday, December 9, 2010

Happy Birthday Emmeline and our stay at Great Wolf Lodge


My Baby turned 5 on December 6. I cant believe how fast these last 5 years have flown by. It seems like just yesterday I was heading to the hospital, all nervous and excited to have my first baby. Brett and I went out for a pancake brunch that morning. In the afternoon I took a long luxurious bubble bath. Then we headed off to the hospital. And now 5 years have passed. It has been so much fun (fun might not be the right word. . .wonderful, incredible, . . .) to watch Emmeline grow. She is becoming so independent and smart. She is kind to others. She works hard at projects. She loves to dance, sing, laugh and enjoy life. What a special girl.

Brett and I planned to take the kids and stay at Great Wolf Lodge for Emmelines birthday. The lodge has an indoor waterpark and we'd heard that it was a super fun place to take the family. We were all so excited for the trip. We would be staying at the hotel Monday-Wednesday (we got a super sweet deal but it didn't include the weekend). Since the hotel is only 20 minutes from our apartment we were still planning on taking Emmeline to school in the morning and Brett was going to go to work each day.

It turned out we didnt need to worry about taking Emmeline to school. On Sunday she started throwing up and she continued to throw up through the night. On monday (her actual birthday) she laid around all morning and watched movies. . .when she wasnt throwing up. Brett and I debated whether or not to even go to the hotel. But we had all been so excited and our reservations were non transferable. We decided to go. After Brett got home we settled the girls in the car. . .Emmeline with an emergency "spit up" bucket in her lap.

We were so glad that we just decided to go. We had so much fun. We brought Em's cake with us and sang to her in our room. She didnt want to eat any that night so we saved it for the next day. She opened two presents and then decided to save the rest for the next day as well. (just goes to show you how crappy she was feeling to not open all of her presents!!) Then Emmeline camped out on the bathroom floor for the rest of the night. Mabel and I went to the lobby and enjoyed the indoor snowstorm and the storytime. We also looked around a bit.



The next day Emmeline was feeling much better!! We hung out at the waterpark for awhile and then had lunch at the hotel restaurant. The girls each got a pair of wolf ears with their lunch and they were pretty adorable if I do say so myself. After lunch, we were so tired that we all slept during Maddies nap. Brett woke us up when he got back from work and we took him to the waterpark. He was able to take Emmeline on some of the BIG waterslides. She felt like such a grownup going on the BIG waterslides.






While we were there, the lodge was doing a fun Christmas activity for the kids. They called it the North Pole Academy and if the kids accomplished certain tasks (attending the storytime with Roundy the Reindeer, coloring a picture in the Kid area, going on the wolf walk, etc) they got a prize. The prize included some hot chocolate and 10 free tokens in the arcade. The girls were so thrilled about this. They had wanted to go play some of the games before but I had said no. With the free tokens, however, we got to go in and win some prizes. :) The lodge also had a show three or four times a day with music and "snow" falling throughout the lobby. My girls LOVED this. Especially considering the fact that snow is just about nonexistent here in Dallas.







We had a wonderful time. And despite the sick beginning, Emmeline had a wonderful birthday.

1 comment:

Kayla said...

I've driven past that hotel many times, but I've never actually ventured within it's walls. It looks like tons of fun! We might have to go there some time!