O.K. Don't tell Mike, but I get what he says about it's not really important WHERE you go together as a family, but it's just the experience of being together. We took the girls to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend. And don't get me wrong, it was surely fun. But really, what made it so fun? Hanging out as a family and going on an adventure together, Mike and I getting good talk time in the car, the girls jumping on the beds together, all being freaked out at the "Howling Tornado" water slide.... I can see, though, that we can have just as much fun going up to the Card cabin together - swimming in the lake, going to the pool, skits around the campfire, and playing board games on all the those rainy days! Really, the real enjoyment isn't where we were at - it's just that we were together, all getting along, and having fun!
That being said, there is still something about the adventure of going somewhere you haven't gone before. Very first thing we did when we walked into the water park was head for the steepest, scariest ride. Ally DID NOT want to go on the Howling Tornado. After we climbed like six flights of stairs to get up to the slide, we stood in line, freaked out and scared. Mike tried to reassure the girls that it wasn't going to be that bad. Too bad they've been reading since they were four and Ally promptly read the sign to us that went something like this: WARNING! This is a high adventure ride with steep drop offs, fast moving water, and IT WILL SCARE THE PANTS OFF YOU! DO NOT go on this ride if you don't like thrills.
so much for reassuring anyone. Luckily we were all committed to go (too many stairs to climb back down!) and all started giggling hysterically as Mike laughingly said, "Ally! Don't read that!" Mike and Ally went down first. I went down next with the twins. Not only was it fast, it was dark! The twins were screaming (or was that me?) And then to top it off it totally drops off like 40 feet! Me, being slightly heavier than the twins put together, was on the downward slide of this and I felt like they were going to flip over me! Then the slide spits you out into this big funnel shaped part of the slide where you are flung up the sides a few times before continuing down more dark tunnel. The looks on their faces when we came off the drop off and were being flung on the sides of the funnel were ones of terror! "I don't like this!" yelled Katie. Liz obviously felt the same way. As a Mom, I wanted to rescue my kids, but could do absolutely nothing and felt the very same way! Then we went speeding down the rest of the slide (which was nothing compared to the beginning of the ride) and shot out into the pool at the end. And all of a sudden everyone was smiling and saying, "That was fun!" We're all crazy. I still thought it was a bit too much. But even Ally liked it, which surprised me!
They did this magical quest adventure in the hotel. They went around following clues and doing quests and at the end slayed a dragon. Except we ran out of time and didn't actually slay the dragon (he killed us three times!) but instead went to watch "How to Train you Dragon". It was the first movie any of us have seen in the theater in 3-D. We all LOVED the movie and I thought the 3-D was amazing. We thought it was ironic that we tried, unsuccessfully, to slay our dragon, but instead learned how to train it.
It was a great time together. I love our family!
And I take it back, I think it partly so fun because of the adventure of where we went - scary water slides, magical quests, and 3-D movies! So we do need to go to Disneyland after all!
