Play the days away

"Remah BIG wa-fah?" Miles asks as we drive away from the grocery store."I do remember the big waterfall," I respond.  "Wasn't that so fun?"
"Yeah.  Remah ding-ding-ding an watsh BIG wa-fah?"  I smile.  I like hearing him work in his limited vocabulary to have a conversation with me.  His trunkated words and missing phrases don't bother me... I know exactly what he's talking about.  In my mind, I hear the warning bell ding-ding-ding and watch the giant bucket start to tip... slowly at first, and then faster as the 1000 gallons of water pull the bucket's weight over the tipping threshold.  Ever wonder what it would look like if 1000 gallons of water came dumping out of a giant bucket?

This was only one of the many super fun things at the Great Wolf Lodge.  We took a little overnight family vacation and spent two full days playing in the water park, feeling water-logged and trying to ignore the strong salty taste whenever a splash made it to our tongues... looking around at all of the sweaty bodies packed into there, I felt it was best to just not think about it.  (I later learned that some waterparks actually use salt instead of chlorine to keep their water clean... this is a much more comfortable thought.)

We had a slight casualty the first day,

and for about 3 minutes I thought we were going to have to drive to the nearest ER - but after we found Dr. Brian, he assured me that the cut wasn't quite deep enough to warrant that. 

Plus, he didn't seem to be very affected by it... so, after the bleeding stopped, we threw him back into the water and didn't think about it again until I snapped these pictures later that night after dinner.  Lesson learned: If you go to the Great Wolf Lodge, just make sure to keep your face away from the edge of the waterslides... especially that vicious tiny one in the kiddie pool. 

Lucky us that the restauraunt had a special going on: a free kids meal with the purchase of an adult one.  A good deal seeing that the kids meals were $7.99 for something measley like a grilled cheese sandwich or two chicken fingers. I was almost not going to eat there based on principle alone... deal or no deal. $7.99 for a kids meal? Come on! But when the meals came out with fuzzy wolf ears it all made more sense and we were happy to have gotten them for free.

(Poor Carson - I'm not sure he closed his eyes more than to blink the whole time he was in the water... and by dinner time he couldn't keep them open more than a few seconds.  They were very red and watery and the next day he made sure to close his eyes more when he dove into the waves.  Does this picture make anyone elses eyes water?)

The kids were very successful in acting like wolf cubs that night - lots of wrestling, lots of growling and scuffling around after the lights were off... well, what could I expect when they got to sleep in their very own Wolf Den?

My camera mainly stayed tucked away in the hotel room or in the van - - - who wants to keep track of something like that when you have a wave pool to attack, or water slides to fly down?!  I did take it into the park for a few minutes on the second day to bring home a few memories:

 

Hey Miles, remember that time when Daddy told me to stand at the bottom of the slide to get a picture of you as you came down because you were laughing and having so much fun?