Great Wolf Lodge Getaway

Nate & I decided we should do a little end of summer getaway.  I told him right now the bigger 2 aren't too bad to travel with and Kendry is just little enough that he's pretty easy too.  We decided to do just a short little getaway to Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee Mills, IL. 

It was about a 2.5 hour drive, so we woke up, loaded up + hit up our favorite brunch spot before heading out.  This video makes me laugh so hard...Maddox LOVES pancakes and gets so excited every time he gets a chance to eat them.  

We got to the lodge and their computers were down, so we couldn't check in. BUT they gave us wristbands + wolf ears 😊so we could still swim (so thankful for that!).  Their credit card machines were down too, so we grabbed Culver's down the road, then came back and swam until it was dinner time.  

The water area was SO nice.  I loved that they have lots of areas for little kids.  My boys mainly swam on the 2 little kid slides, and they had so much fun there.  They liked the lazy river and the wave pool too, but the slides were definitely their favorite.  I wasn't mad about sitting down, drinking a margarita and chatting with Nate while Kendry dozed off and boys were playing in the water!  There were actually a few moments of relaxation...and that's rare with 3 boys 3 and under, whether on vacation or not! HA!

We ate dinner and then there was "Story Time".  After story time, they got to meet Violet (the "girl wolf" as Coby called her!).  Maddox was scared, but Jacoby was so excited.  Maddox didn't really cry, but kept covering his eyes #proofinthephoto

We hit up the candy store before heading back to the room.  We stayed in a room that had a queen bed and then it had a "wolf den" that had bunk beds and a TV in a little room.  It didn't have a door, so they could hear us and see us, but it was a little nook/den and they thought it was super cute. Plus, they're used to bunk beds so it felt like "home" a little more.

The next day we hit up the swim park for most of the day.  We came back for naps and then hit up dinner, putt putt (which was a complete disaster), the arcade (another disaster... I mean, it's bound to happen when you have tired toddlers, right?), and story time again. 

 Jacoby was extra excited this time because he would get to meet Wiley (the boy wolf! 😉).  Maddox as much more open to Wiley since he kind of knew what to expect. 

The next morning we packed up our room for checkout and then were able to swim some more in the late morning.  We visited the arcade before we left, with promises of better behavior from the boys.  They redeemed themselves and had fun earning a few little prizes. Gurnee Mills has a lot of shopping and so we hit up Dick's after to get Jacoby his soccer stuff since it on Monday.

Then we ate lunch and hit the road home.  It took us over 3 hours to get home because of a detour due to an accident and then also we hit some Chicago traffic. The boys all did great on the car ride.

You know what was really nice though?  Since we did this trip Wednesday-Friday, we got home Friday evening and still have our whole weekend ahead of us to recoup. One of the reasons we went during the middle of the week and in the middle of August was in hopes that it wasn't super busy and it worked.  There were other people but it wasn't busy at all, and we could already tell there were more people in the water area on Friday, so I'm really glad we went mid-week.

Oh, and Kendry was kind of along for the ride.  He dipped his toes in the splash pad a little bit, but mainly slept or looked around like "what in the world is this?" haha.  He's a dream baby and was a trooper the whole trip.  He even slept like he always does at night! 

First family of 5 vacation, and although it was short, it was super sweet!

xox,

Naomi