Great Wolf Lodge

 For Gwenevere's (and Papa's) Birthday we decided a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge was in need.  The night before Gwenevere's birthday, Gwenevere stayed up late to help me make a star rainbow cake.  We cooked 6 cakes and put them all together to make a fun rainbow cake.

Gwenevere showing me she's turning Four

3 of the 6 cakes cooked and it was time for Gwenevere to go to bed.

The next morning James took Gwenevere and Grace for their wellness checkups while I packed for our vacation.  We met Jenni and Preston at the REI in Tacoma and then we took off to the great wolf lodge.

Can you tell the kids are excited.?

 The fearless leader 

 The happy co-pilot

We got to the Great Wolf lodge around 2:30 and our room was already so we got to check in early.  This made it perfect.  We went up to our room, unpacked our groceries, assembled the birthday cake and met up with Max and Rebecca.  We then got on our swimsuits and went to explore.

I started to assemble the cake but James said I was doing it wrong so he took over.

Gwenevere was his assistant so she could taste test the frosting as she needed.

Here we all are ready to PARTY

I didn't take the camera to the water park the first day but we had a blast.

We first played in the Toddler swimming area; exploring water slides and jet skis. 

Then James, Preston and I went down our very first water slide.  It had two big bumps and that was the end of Preston's water slide with a tube experience.  Gwenevere was 4 inches too short to do any of the water  slides with tubes but she didn't seem to mind.  We also tested out the wave pool and enjoyed watching the 1000 gallon bucket tip every 10 minutes.

When Tummies started to growl we decided to head back up to the room for dinner and birthday cake.

Rebecca brought a delicious home make Mac and Cheese casserole to share.

Preston and Gwenevere disappeared for a while as they played together on Preston's computer.

Grace and Charlie played/picked on each other while us big kids visited with each other.

After dinner it was time for Cake.

The Birthday Kids

 It was a pretty impressive birthday cake if I may say so myself.

Then it was time for presents

After dinner we cleaned up while the kids played.

Then Max and Rebecca watched the kids while James and I had a little date night at the water park.

BEST PRESENT EVER!

We may be getting older but we still party like we're young.

James and I thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

We got back to the room by 8pm 

Grace and Charlie where asleep so Max and Becca took off to a little water park date while we watched the kids.

Preston fell asleep quickly but our little Gwenevere was so excited about her birthday she fought sleep.

James enjoyed relaxing at the end of the day

For the most part everyone slept well.

And we woke up to a beautiful sunrise.

We ate breakfast, packed, put on swimsuits, made sandwiches for lunch and check out of our hotel room by 

10am

Morning sunshine and the toddler area.  

I spy Preston

I Saw this sign and thought of Grandpa Roemhildt

I just love this picture,  (wish it wasn't so blurry)

Grace loved her Life Jacket,

 it was hard to get her to take if off for lunch and when we where leaving.

"Everyone get Uncle Max"

the Splash area in the toddler section was

Gwenevere's favorite place to hang out.

Charlie in the splash area

Preston's favorite place to hang out (at least the first half of the day.)

Grace is our adventure seeker,

Here she is taking papa down the slide

Now she wants me to go down the slide

Charlie going down the slide

the large splash area

Max, Becca and Charlie getting the bucket dump.

Gwenevere loved pulling all the ropes and dumping water on everyone

 

Several times throughout the day Gwenevere would come up to me or Papa, give us a hug and kiss and repeat: "This is the best birthday."

I'm so glad we did it.

Throughout the morning Becca and Max, and Me and James switched off watching kids in the toddler area and taking turns going down the big slides.  Max and Becca made this trip complete.  I don't think we would have had as much fun if we did this trip by ourselves.  Thanks Becca and Max for coming with us.

Going up to the BIG Slide

Grace just laxing 

Playing in the wave pool

Right before lunch Preston came up to me and said he was ready to go down the Red Slide.

We'd walked up to the top of the line a couple times but he wasn't ready so when he said he was ready I didn't really think he'd do it.  But this time he was ready.  He jumping in line and went down no hesitation.

So cool!

He went down three more times and would have gone again but I told Preston it was time for lunch.

One Happy Boy

Grace waiting for lunch.

Beautiful Ladies 

Lunch time!

And then back to the slides

Gwenevere waiting at the bottom of the slide for Preston

A terrible picture of the red slide Preston went down over and over again.

At the end of the day we finally got Gwenevere to try the big slide,  She flipped around so many times that once was enough for her.

Finally tummies started to growl again and only then where we able to get the kids out of the water.

We changed our clothes, picked out penny souvenirs, took a couple of last minute pictures with my camera and then went to Mac Donald's for dinner.

Happy Birthday Gwenevere