last weekend brett's van was in the shop for service and ended up needing another day, monday. ...which meant he couldn't do any jobs, which meant we needed to take advantage of that because understandably the potential of working takes high priority which tends to keep us home... which MEANT we we're pulling the kids out of school monday and heading to Great Wolfe Lodge indoor waterpark in less than 24 hours!

i had been researching the park for months and not wanting to go on a weekend was keeping it on the back burner until now(!). boy was it fun to be mentally prepared (i knew to bring some of my own food/beer/crocs and didn't need a life jacket/towels) and go so spontaneously. plus, we didn't breathe a word of it to the kids and they found out we were going when we pulled in.

there was no way i was bringing my good camera and i'm out of practice with the other so these pictures are really weak, and i didn't bring it into the water park so none of us there. how some people managed to remain dry in there is a mystery to me because many ppl did have cameras. maybe they didn't have a 2yo?

this place is expensive and you must stay overnight to use it so that's how they get you. it was totally justifyable to me seeing brady's permagrin since shooting out of his first waterslide (ever!), colin's excitement fighting the 2 foot high spraying water, and hearing aiden say 'mom, thanks for taking us here in case i forget to tell you later' when we finally took a break for a bite to eat. in fact, i know we're going back the question is just whether we'll make it an annual thing or not.

i didn't get a pic of it but to the left are the 4 water slides that A&B could go down completely independently. i just kept my eye on them while i was with C in the pool they ended up in. Col went down 1 too but aided by brett at the top. the pool is about 2' at it's deepest and colin volunteered to wear a provided lifejacket. having never worn one i wondered if he'd be against it but i suppose seeing the other cool -2yos wearing them made him want one too.

that happy family below are posing behind the spraying water, colin's favorite.

above right is the wave pool.

a bucket held what 700 gallons? of water and dumped every 5 minutes after a warning chime getting a whole lot wet.

in the background is an orange waterslide brett took a solo run on. he could have gone on it all day i think. :P oh and a lazy river we all enjoyed which aiden mistakenly refers to as the "crazy river".

i personally don't like arcades, but of course cannot escape them. i must say, this arcade was huge and filled with tons and tons of nice games and in excellent condition. colin would be able to enjoy himself without the use of one token if so be.

aiden dropped many a token in what else, a star wars game. i must admit i won the majority of our prize getting tickets on a favorite game. an old school one from my early days at asbury park where the quarter, nowadays token pushes others and so on. another of my favorite was air hockey with aiden as colin was on my hip.

the rooms are nice, and clean too. the boys had their own room.

aiden took the below pictures of the rustic decor.

it's always an adventure when we "co"sleep. one rustling here, one heavy breathing there, brady talking in his sleep "aiden, you're stupid!..."

memories made.