As I mentioned in my Easter post, we spent the weekend on vacation at The Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine TX (about 2hrs from home). This place is a wonderland for kids and a blessing for parents. Besides the enormous constantly 84 degree indoor water park attached to the hotel there is a arcade, activities, candy shop, Starbucks, huge gift shop, spa, kids spa, 3 restaurants, electronic toy room called GR8 space for teens and the best keep the kids busy and let the parents rest for HOURS virtual reality wizard scavenger hunt/game. The game requires a wizard wand and a team name (if you have a team) and it is spread out on all 8 floors of the hotel. Each floor has it’s own name and is decorated accordingly so the kids can use their magi-guide to find the stuff in the game. We were on the 4th floor again, in the Enchanted woods. 
The halls of the lodge are littered with talking pictures on the wall, treasure chests, crystals, and little rooms that are activated with the games magi wand. My understanding is that it takes 8 run the child ragged hours to finish the game and then, that’s right there is more, they continue playing to try to gain gold and points. Well if you have two very responsible gamers like we do, you just give them the cell phone, tell them to bite the snot out of anyone who tries to touch them, be respectful, and send them on their way. They will return when they are hungry or thirsty and then be on their way again. How do you spell relax, MAGIQUEST (name of the game), that is how I spell it. I will give you the rundown of the weekend.
We arrived and checked in on Saturday at 12:30, check in time is 4pm but we were lucky our room was ready. When you walk in the lobby there is a Gigantic fire place and the place is decorated like a lodge, all wood walls, doors, treehouse etc. Here are the kids in front of the fireplace.
One side of the lobby is all glass and you can look down and into the water park. You can see this in the picture below. This picture was taken from the lobby. You can only see the kiddie area but you get the idea.
We hauled all our stuff to the room, a Wolf Den room this time. During our last visit in spring of 2008 we just had a basic room with one queen bed and pull out sofa. This time we upgraded and the room was nice and roomy with a pull out sofa, table, queen bed, microwave, refrigerator and the kids favorite a wolf den. The den was a separate little bedroom decorated like a wolf’s den with bunk beds and their own flat screen tv. Here is a picture of the room we were in from their website. The kids wolf den is the little cubby on the right with the door and a window.
After putting stuff away I took the older boys to the magiquest store to buy their wand and play while we were waiting on Erin and Terrance (sister and brother-inlaw) to arrive. They live very close to the lodge so we wanted to spend the day with them. E&T got there around 3pm and we headed to the water park. I wrote about some of the experiences that day in a earlier post on Easter Sunday so check that out. At 9pm we went back to the room and the boys continued their Magiquest. At 10pm we called them to the room for bed as we were all tired. Daimen had been yelling so much he got laryngitis and could not talk without straining (of course he did not let that stop him and continued to strain his voice).
The next morning was Easter Sunday and it was cute watching all the parents come in all wet and cold from the storm that was pounding down with bags of Easter goodies to prepare for the children before they woke up. I was ahead of the game and brought our Easter stuff with us. The eldest kids got up, opened their Easter stuff and had nutritious chocolate donuts and candy for breakfast. There is nothing like kiddie crack to start the day. Then at 8am the lodge had a Easter egg hunt IN the water park in which the boys enjoyed immensely.
The baby decided that fun = sleep(smart kido) so Jer stayed with him in the room and I took the boys to the water park. It was not very busy so we rode all the slides and wrestled in the lazy river and wave pool. Then we grabbed the baby and Jer and enjoyed another couple hours at the park. Gage’s favorite ride was the wave pool, he sat on my stomach while I draped my backside across a tube and Jer drove us over the waves. Every time we went over a wave Gage would giggle, it seemed to be hilarious to him. Looks like a water bed may be in his future adult plans.
We ended the water festivities around 1pm and went to the Camp Critter bar and grill conveniently located on the same floor as our room for lunch.
Future photo blackmail of our silly eldest boys during lunch.
A railing was used instead of a wall on one side of the restaurant which gave a great view of the lobby as pictured below.
The boys wanted to continue their Magiquest after lunch and Jer, myself, and the baby wanted to start a napquest so it all worked out well. The boys played all afternoon and late into the evening, 11pm to be exact. They were more than thrilled that their team the “Wolf Bros” were 
Packed, loaded, and ready to go we sped off to the airport to sadly put Kollen back on a plane headed for Ohio. We will miss you son, but will see you soon, June 23rd to be exact.
The halls of the lodge are littered with talking pictures on the wall, treasure chests, crystals, and little rooms that are activated with the games magi wand. My understanding is that it takes 8 run the child ragged hours to finish the game and then, that’s right there is more, they continue playing to try to gain gold and points. Well if you have two very responsible gamers like we do, you just give them the cell phone, tell them to bite the snot out of anyone who tries to touch them, be respectful, and send them on their way. They will return when they are hungry or thirsty and then be on their way again. How do you spell relax, MAGIQUEST (name of the game), that is how I spell it. I will give you the rundown of the weekend.We arrived and checked in on Saturday at 12:30, check in time is 4pm but we were lucky our room was ready. When you walk in the lobby there is a Gigantic fire place and the place is decorated like a lodge, all wood walls, doors, treehouse etc. Here are the kids in front of the fireplace.
One side of the lobby is all glass and you can look down and into the water park. You can see this in the picture below. This picture was taken from the lobby. You can only see the kiddie area but you get the idea.We hauled all our stuff to the room, a Wolf Den room this time. During our last visit in spring of 2008 we just had a basic room with one queen bed and pull out sofa. This time we upgraded and the room was nice and roomy with a pull out sofa, table, queen bed, microwave, refrigerator and the kids favorite a wolf den. The den was a separate little bedroom decorated like a wolf’s den with bunk beds and their own flat screen tv. Here is a picture of the room we were in from their website. The kids wolf den is the little cubby on the right with the door and a window.After putting stuff away I took the older boys to the magiquest store to buy their wand and play while we were waiting on Erin and Terrance (sister and brother-inlaw) to arrive. They live very close to the lodge so we wanted to spend the day with them. E&T got there around 3pm and we headed to the water park. I wrote about some of the experiences that day in a earlier post on Easter Sunday so check that out. At 9pm we went back to the room and the boys continued their Magiquest. At 10pm we called them to the room for bed as we were all tired. Daimen had been yelling so much he got laryngitis and could not talk without straining (of course he did not let that stop him and continued to strain his voice).
The next morning was Easter Sunday and it was cute watching all the parents come in all wet and cold from the storm that was pounding down with bags of Easter goodies to prepare for the children before they woke up. I was ahead of the game and brought our Easter stuff with us. The eldest kids got up, opened their Easter stuff and had nutritious chocolate donuts and candy for breakfast. There is nothing like kiddie crack to start the day. Then at 8am the lodge had a Easter egg hunt IN the water park in which the boys enjoyed immensely.
The baby decided that fun = sleep(smart kido) so Jer stayed with him in the room and I took the boys to the water park. It was not very busy so we rode all the slides and wrestled in the lazy river and wave pool. Then we grabbed the baby and Jer and enjoyed another couple hours at the park. Gage’s favorite ride was the wave pool, he sat on my stomach while I draped my backside across a tube and Jer drove us over the waves. Every time we went over a wave Gage would giggle, it seemed to be hilarious to him. Looks like a water bed may be in his future adult plans.
We ended the water festivities around 1pm and went to the Camp Critter bar and grill conveniently located on the same floor as our room for lunch.
Future photo blackmail of our silly eldest boys during lunch.
A railing was used instead of a wall on one side of the restaurant which gave a great view of the lobby as pictured below.
The boys wanted to continue their Magiquest after lunch and Jer, myself, and the baby wanted to start a napquest so it all worked out well. The boys played all afternoon and late into the evening, 11pm to be exact. They were more than thrilled that their team the “Wolf Bros” were listed on the score boards with the 2ND highest points totals and the 1ST for the most gold collected. 
They felt accomplished and wanted proof of their achievements so look for the “Wolf Bros” on the pictured score boards.
They even got a picture with the Magi-wizard and a badge to wear proudly.
Monday we had to pack it all up and load the car but not before getting some great pictures of our 3 wonderful children with the Great Wolf Lodge resident bears. First in short fat one in front of the candy shop (my favorite)
And then that tall pesky plastic fella in front of the Arcade.
They even got a picture with the Magi-wizard and a badge to wear proudly.
Monday we had to pack it all up and load the car but not before getting some great pictures of our 3 wonderful children with the Great Wolf Lodge resident bears. First in short fat one in front of the candy shop (my favorite)And then that tall pesky plastic fella in front of the Arcade.Packed, loaded, and ready to go we sped off to the airport to sadly put Kollen back on a plane headed for Ohio. We will miss you son, but will see you soon, June 23rd to be exact. Look at the beautiful yet very tired family picture.
We look and gosh I feel like we, NEED A VACATION!
Oh my gosh! Meg, it sounds like you need a vacation!! I love the pictures, you guys sound like you had soooo much fun. Can you tell I found you?? You have a beautiful family.
ReplyDelete