I LOVE family vacations, such a great time for us to just hang out, no worries about places to be or things that need to get done.  This was not one of those vacations.
We were blessed with friends giving us a substantial gift card to Great Wolf Lodge (Thank you!!!) and decided to take the crew, play hooky for a school day and have a little pre-Thanksgiving getaway.  Started out with excitement, then it went downhill with arguing and fighting in the car.  By the time we got there, I was more than a little frustrated w our people.  Check in took forever, as we were there with friends and supposed to be on the same floor (a request made when we booked the trip) but they somehow messed that up and didn’t do it.  We got a complimentary breakfast instead but all that took time.  So, we finally get to the room, ask the kids to get swimsuits on and then the complaints come about what suit I brought and yadda yadda yadda.  (Insert mama speech about gratitude and spoiled kids here).  We became “that family” with the parents hushing the kids, kids arguing a whining and mama finally losing it, sending Dee down with the kids were behaving and me staying in the room w the one who continued to be less than stellar.  Gave him another chance to pull it together, didn’t happen, so he sat out while the rest of us swam.
Onto problem number two – the water was COLD.  Not good when you have a 2 year old, poor girl was frozen.  Swimming at GWL didn’t last too long that evening, we decided we’d wrap it up early, grab a bite to eat.  Had a beer in the room w our friends and hung out awhile (fun!) then went to the main restaurant instead of waiting for the nicer one.  Figured a 25 minute wait w crabby kids was less than desirable.  Glad we had a $50 meal voucher from when we booked the trip, because that $65 meal was crap.  The kids didn’t even eat much.  Went back up to the room, put on pjs and a movie and put that day to rest in hopes that day two would be better.  I wish I could report that it had been – two boys decided to throw out the attitude, missed out on the first 20 minutes of swim time.  Then when the two pulled it together, the other boy decided to be tough.  Erin was lacking in GWL endurance and, even though she was having a ball, we were done.  Got food, headed to the room and packed it up to go.
We did, however, get to spend time with our dear friends and that was fun and got some great pictures!  All in all it was a vacation I was disappointed in but they all can’t be winners, right?!
Here are the pics!

The boys had the chance to be a part of an ongoing photography project by the great Cameron Karsten again!  This one about American Gun Culture.  The pictures came out amazing, as always, and the boys had a blast having a massive Nerf War in the living room.
We are looking to have a day with friends over soon for a giant Nerf War in the field…let me know if you want to be a part of it!