Great Wolf Lodge - Day One!

 Since October and every Thursday since, the kids (and Steve and I) have been working a paper route together - around 200 papers and if we are all out, it takes us about an hour (longer when it is snowy and cold!).  When we reached $500 we went to Great Wolf Lodge for a night!  The route paid for GWL, our gas and our food.  Here we are this past Wednesday on our way to Niagara Falls.

 We stopped in Burlington at IKEA to wander and stretch, use the bathroom and eat a super cheap lunch... also to enjoy the IKEA experience.  The kids had a lot of fun checking things out and wondering what kind of store this was.  Eli really wanted to buy one of the fake x-box props :)

 Pretend lunch in a pretend kitchen - cheers!

 Watching a movie in the pretend bedroom.

 And! here we are at GWL!!!!!!!  We got a room with a kids cabin - super cute and fun.  The four kids were in here and Reuben was on on the pull-out couch.

 The wave pool was the absolute favourite.  It was also our "home-base" and where the kids played the most between water-slide spurts.

 The four oldest were old enough this time to pair up and go on slides together without Steve and I... although we most often went together - some rides were for two people but several fit three or four together.  Judah and Reuben paired up, Nadine and Eli, Eli and Reuben, Nadine and Judah and then Steve and I with the kids.  Silas could go on three slides but since he was fighting a cold (slightly feverish and sleepy) he usually stayed back with one of us.  I enjoyed this part with Silas just because it was good to be at the home-base and people-watch :)

 Silas and Steve chatting.

 We headed back to our room to change and head for supper!  Nadine was super happy whenever she saw a deer.  There were lots of deer.

 Talking tree.

 Talking bear.

 Supper was a buffet and was SO delicious!  It was the kids first time at a buffet and they did very well.  They had good selection of kids food AND adult food - Steve was going crazy over the braised lamb poutine with goat cheese :) 

 Back at our room, the kids watched some screens (in their little cabin) and Steve and I caught up with some emails - hi Hannelle!

 I got at least two pages into my book! :)

 I took the three boys back to the waterpark for some late night swimming before bed.

GWL ends the evening with songs, stories and a little show.  SO many kids and families made everything very cosy and familiar and normal.

And that was our first day!  The night went ok.  Silas had a little coughing fit every one-and-a-half to two hours which woke half of the family up every time.  The other half didn't even hear him.  Steve and I both got up with him and we were all up by 7:30 and ready for the next day.  I like the feeling of us all sleeping together all cosy and close and am glad for these times when we are together.