Christmas present

We continued our tradition (started only last year!) of not giving the boys a Christmas adventure, rather than toys or 'stuff' for Christmas. They both decided over the summer that they wanted to go to Great Wolf Lodge. James and I weren't all that interested, so we told them to save their money and they could pay for the trip themselves. We figured that would be the end of it, except that they both diligently started saving up. Around Thanksgiving time, they had nearly enough in savings.

They were SO excited to go. We didn't feel right about having them use their hard earned money for a family trip. We also didn't have any other fabulous ideas for our Christmas adventure, so we booked a night.

We gave them new monster beach towels at our family gift exchange. We told them how proud we were of them for saving their money, but that our Christmas present to them was a night a GWL.

We just got back yesterday. Of course, they loved it! We all had fun, but James aptly compared it to Las Vegas...a fun, loud, overstimulating place where you feel slightly robbed of your money, and where you don't feel a burning desire to return to anytime soon.

That makes it sound terrible, and it really wasn't. It was perfect for one night (not sure we could have done two!)

The new monster towels:

There were several small issues with our basic room, so they upgraded us to a KidCabin. The boys were so impressed with the bunk beds!

They each got to pick out one game in the arcade. Rudy picked the motorcycle race and I got to play air hockey with Brady. I love air hockey and am so excited for the day the boys are old enough that I can 'rationalize' buying an air hockey table for the house :)

We didn't get too many pictures. The lighting wasn't great and, obviously, it was very wet and splashy! Rudy loved these little slides. Up the stairs. Down the slide. Wash, rinse, repeat - for hours on end!

Rudy did try some of the other, bigger slides. By the end of our visit, he was willing to consistently go down one of the mid-sized slides. He went on one of the big tube rides with us twice, but did not really find it to be an enjoyable experience!

Brady wasn't too impressed with these...not nearly exciting enough. He did agree to race his little brother a few times though. Brady preferred the tornado and other tube rides.

We spent a long time watching people on this bodyboarding 'ride'. I was schocked that both boys agreed to try it out. Brady said he would do it if James would, so they went to get in line. Rudy waited with them while I grabbed the camera. When I came back to get Rudy to wait with me, he declared that he was also going to try it.