Living in Texas: Weekend at the Lodge

That sounds kinda fancy.  Wish I had pics of some hoitie toitie Ski Lodge in Aspen.
But think more along the family-fun Disney-esque lines....
It's the Great Wolf Lodge!

Have you stayed there?
We gave it a whirl over the Thanksgiving and overall it was a success.   It took forever to drive from Austin to Dallas but the kids were such patient troopers in the car.  And when we walked into the lodge and they saw all this....pure giddiness.  Wow!  They were full of gasps....while Casey and I chuckled over the silly music playing on loop in the parking lot, "welcome to the lodge, welcome to the lodge" (or something slightly more clever).

 Cool acorn/leaf carpet? Check.

 Beautiful big lodge with a huge fireplace and Tree?  Check.

 Little staged canoes and cozy lodge-y decor?  Check, check.

But the real draw to the Great Wolf Lodge is that it's a hotel with an indoor waterpark!  Yipee!  They heat the water area to 84 degrees so it's warm and balmy in there even on a cold winter day.

There are different areas for all age ranges.  And they have some really cool TALL waterslides for the adults.  Next time we visit, we should go with friends and take turns watching kids so Casey and I can go on the big slides together.  Serious speed.

Lucy's school teacher sent her home with Corduroy for the weekend.  So he joined the fun as well, from a dry spot.

 We brought along some snacks.  And of course, enjoyed the snackbar.

 And every 15 minutes it was fun to watch the big bucket drop on victims below.

 Lucy and Owen could play on about 1/2 of the areas and actually loved the medium-size slides (once we convinced them to give it a try).  And Clara surprised me too.  She was so easy! Just crawled from here to there, exploring.  I loved seeing her diaper bum in a suit again.

And of course there's always the excitement of sleeping a hotel room.
Mama bear and cubs.

 The hotel had kid's activity areas and overpriced drinks.

And a life-size gingerbread house!  Seriously, this thing was so cool!  I'm not sure the icing was edible but everything else on it was. 

What kid wouldn't want to live here?

The other highlight of the Lodge was playing the MagiQuest wizard game.  You purchase these magic wands and wander the hotel in search of special clues, treasures, etc.  And all the other kids are doing it too.  It's the perfect night-time entertainment. 

I'll be honest, it wasn't the kind of vacation Casey and I would choose.  But the kids were happy so we were happy...and we topped off the trip with some In-N-Out, the Czech Stop, and an hour at the Lego store.  Thanks for a fun weekend Dallas!