Dallas Trip (Great Wolf Lodge)

You know you're on vacation when mommy lets you order a milkshake with your dinner.

Story time

When she finished she said "I did it without Mommie's help!!"

Who can argue with a free popsicle on a hot (and I mean hot!!) day

We decided to do something a little different for vacation this year. As you probably already know, we usually go to the beach in the summer. But we have had one to many summers of being at the beach and our children wanting to be at the pool the whole time. And they think that all beaches have pools. I think that Regan would play in the sand if that was all there was, but Addison has very little love for sand. She has definitely improved from when she was a baby, but it's still not her idea of fun. That is not to say that we won't go back to the beach next year, but we decided to try something different this year. Variety is the spice of life, right? So we went to Great Wolf Lodge. It's a resort with a water park inside. It was fun for the kids, although we were probably there one day to long. On the last day Regan said she was tired of the water, which are words that never pass my children's lips. I think it will be more fun when they get older. I think we'll definitely go back in a few years, but we'll try to go with another family. Addison was to young to do most of the stuff, which was fine with her because she has no interest in big water slides. She says they'll make her dizzy. She even does a motion with her body to emphasize her point. She does, however, enjoy a good lazy river. She particularly liked the one at this place because she could stand up in it. She and Regan also really liked the wave pool. Addison loved diving into the waves, which gives me hope for the future in regards to the beach. Poor Regan was forced to ride the slides with Matt and then with me. She was a good sport about it but by the end she told Matt that she didn't want everything she did to be on a slide. I particularly liked riding with Regan, because while I was whoo hooing she was providing a running commentary on what was coming next. We only used the outdoor pool once, because it was unbearably hot. The ground literally burned the skin off your feet and I had to completely cover the chair to be able to lay on it. Which makes me think next time we'll go in the colder months. The lifeguards do walk around frequently outside and give out free Popsicles, but that still didn't make it appealing for the kids.

I couldn't help but compare this water park with the water parks that I went to as a kid. This one was highly regulated with lifeguards and red/green lights to let you go when it was safe. I know there were lifeguards at the one that my cousins and I went to, but I don't remember ever seeing them. There were definitely no red/green lights. We would purposefully load up together and fall on top of one another. Much more fun than the regulated way, but not as safe. Ah the good ole days!