Spring Break 09! Great Wolf Lodge

We decided a month or so ago that it would be fun to get away for a few days. The girls really enjoyed Great Wolf Lodge a few years ago so we decided to give it a try. We left Wednesday morning and headed to Cincinnati. Throughout the entire morning, I had to coax and prod to get the girls to move. They didn't want to get up out of bed, they didn't want to put their clothes on, they didn't want to finish eating at Cracker Barrell, etc. However....this picture was taken about 45 seconds after we got into the room. Swimsuits on and ready to go!
I didn't take many waterpark pictures from day 1 because I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the camera down there or not. Here is a picture from the carousel in the arcade.

Here are Morgan & Daddy listening to the story at story time. The kids all come down in their jammies and watch.

Emma wanted her picture taken with this particular wolf. Not sure why.

And of course, what one child wants....the other must have.

Morgan wanted to take some pictures....

After storytime, Wiley the Wolf was available for pictures.

This was something between Morgan and Daddy, not really sure what was happening.

(**this part is long, feel free to skip....and if you skip, here is the jist of it. Carter cried, Emma cried, Emma fell out of bed, only Morgan got any good sleep, we were up early**)

Nighttime was what I was dreading the most. I was worried that Carter was not going to do well in his pack and play and in the room with all of us. He is a great sleeper....but he is a good sleeper of the put-me-in-my-crib-and-leave-the-room variety. Makes it perfect when you're home, but not so great on vacation! Chris and I decided that I would take Carter back to the room while he and the girls stayed downstairs for movie night. This would give Carter enough time to fall good and asleep so by the time the girls came upstairs (having been threatened with their lives not to make a sound) he wouldn't wake up and we could all just drift peacefully off to sleep in silence and comfort with our halos all aglow. We even patted ourselves on the back as we thought to put the girls in their jammies before they left and had them use the bathroom downstairs before coming to the room. That was the dream.....this was the reality. Carter screamed for 40 minutes. He started out with his I'm-mad-at-the-world-and-I'm-going-to-make-you-suffer cry, transitioned into his I'm-mad-at-the-world-but-I'm-getting-tired-so-I'll-settle-for-making-you-uncomfortable cry, which relatively quickly morphed into his I'm-so-tired-but-I'm-trying-to-make-a-point here whimper. Soon, he was quiet. Camera pans to me: I am crouched in the corner, sitting in total darkness with the laptop on, shielding the light with a pillow and a blanket trying not to breathe too loud. Then, horror of all horrors, my cell phone alerts me with a text message. *NOooooOOOOOOOooo* We start the entire process over. I pick up my phone and put it on vibrate but quickly realize it is useful to have it nearby. It can be used as a makeshift flashlight! 20 minutes later, Carter is back to sleep and I am done on the laptop and exhausted. I decide I'll just go ahead and go to sleep too when I realize I hadn't thought ahead to brush my teeth or take my medicines or go to the bathroom. D'oh. I decide its more important that Carter sleeps so I cut my losses, and ever-so-gingerly ease into bed with a grimy stinky film on my teeth trying hard not to make any noise. A few minutes later, the girls come back with Chris. They momentarily forget the don't-make-a-sound-if-you-want-to-live-to-see-your-next-birthday discussion and want to tell me all about the movie they just saw. I promptly shush them and put them to bed. I put the kibosh on their requests for water, stuffed animals on the other side of the room, and Morgan's request to use the bathroom because she was too afraid to use the downstairs bathroom with the automatic flusher. *sigh* Soon everyone was laying down quietly when all of a sudden I hear annoyed whines from the hideabed. Morgan doesn't like Emma "touching" her in the bed. Instead of trying to figure out a way to separate them in the bed, I let Morgan come get in bed with me. All is quiet again. Then Emma cries. She's scared over here all by herself! She's all of 5 feet away. We tell her to suck it up and all is quiet again. No sooner were we all quiet and in our beds was there a very loud noise outside our room. Carter screamed. Emma cried because Carter cried and it was "hurting her ears." Heaven help me. Chris attempts to soothe Carter by standing up and rocking him back and forth. We also decide to move his pack and play to the opposite side of the room away from the door in case it happens again. Now, its Chris' turn to be horribly uncomfortable. Since he can't get Carter to go to sleep, he sends Emma over to lay down with me in my bed and he lays down in the hideabed with Carter. Carter falls asleep on top of him but Chris can't move or the hideabed squeaks. I lay there for a few minutes before I can't get the thought of Chris falling asleep and crushing Carter out of my head. Against my better judgement, I decide to try to move sleeping Carter into the pack and play. Chris has a theory that a baby has a sensor that alerts them anytime their body is tipped more than 15 degrees in any direction....as was the case with Carter. So, now, we're all in the dark with our dirty teeth, we have to pee, we can't move for fear of making too much noise, and we're all listening to Carter scream. Except Morgan. She is asleep and sleeps right through it all. We decide that the only thing we can do is let him cry it out again and pray it doesn't take as long as it did the first time. Thankfully, it took only about 10 minutes this time. It is about 11:30 and all is finally quiet. It was about 1am when I was awoken by a loud THUD followed by a scream which was Emma falling out of bed. I think to myself that this is the longest night ever in the history of my life. I scoop Emma up and dart into the bathroom where I am in the dark, on the floor, pleading with her not to cry too loud to wake up Carter. After that, we all went back to sleep...and by "sleep" I mean in a relaxed state where every once in a while we would drift out of consciousness long enough to realize it and jolt back to reality. I was actually relieved when Carter woke up at about 6:30 because it meant I could at least make a little noise. Once we were all up and showered, we headed out to Bob Evan's for a yummy breakfast.....

Emma's curly straw at breakfast!

Trying to get a picture of all 3 kids in their swimsuits. This was attempt #9 or 10 but I finally stopped deleting them because I realized I was never going to get one!

They didn't want to sit still for a picture but they were anxious to show me their "booties" Aren't they classy little ladies?

Here we are again at story time, and I put this picture here to show you the progression of Carter and his camera face. Just a few weeks ago, he started this new thing where if you take your camera out or even a cell phone, he makes crazy faces thinking he's getting his picture taken. The actual face varies a little but is usually something like this....

or this....

or this scrunched up variety....

or scrunched up variation.....

or this......

or this one with scrunched up face AND eyes closed....

this one was taken as I was trying to wait him out and he opened up one eye to peek to see if I was still watching with the camera....he is rotten.

Back down at the water park! Emma wasn't really into too much although she did go down a couple of big slides with Chris on the last day.

Morgan was AMAZING. This is a tiny little kid slide but to put this in perspective...the last time we were there, I tried to force her to go down this one just so she'd see that she liked it and she SCREAMED! This time, she just ran around to all the slides and did them ALL. Even one that is like a roller coaster kind of. She did them with Chris, with me, by herself...you name it.

On Thursday, Morgan was in the water park from 10am until 6pm. Chris and I rotated out with the other kids a few times, but she was there the whole time. Her little fingers were so wrinkly!

Chris & Emma on the lazy river. Emma didn't even really care for this because there were buckets that would dump water down. We tried to steer her around them so she didn't get hit and that seemed to make it ok.

Carter had this look on his face most of the 3 days we were there. He was in heaven. He just went from place to place and thing to thing. If someone was standing there, he'd walk right up to them with his arms out. He'd go right up to chairs where people were sitting and say "HI!" which is even funnier when you hear him say it because he says it like "HI-eeeeeee" He literally just went 90 miles an hour all around the water park and Chris & I just followed him most of the time. We'd grab him when he'd try to get into something he shouldn't. It was hilarious. I swear he aged 3 months in 3 days! He acts so much older now.

I surprised him with this picture so I got a non camera face shot!

Morgan hanging out in the hottub. I think she is now part fish! Don't be fooled by the life jacket, she was just as fearless without it!

One last trip to the hot tub before heading out on Friday.

Daddy caught this non camera-face picture in the hot tub just as we were leaving. See my leg behind Carter under the water? That is the only picture you'll see of me in my bathing suit! :)

My handsome fellas!!!!!! (this is the silly face Chris makes when the camera comes out)

One last attempt at a picture of all the kids with Daddy's help. Still no luck.

Even though my headache was back in full force and I felt pretty awful most of the time, it was still a super fun trip!!!!!