Great Wolf Lodge (Take 2)

This past weekend we drove up to Traverse City to attend our second annual family vacation at the Great Wolf Lodge of the North with the kids. Although the park has remained the same during the past year, our children’s abilities have definitely grown and matured when compared against the previous year's mental metrics.

Last year, Joey was adamant about not going down any of the park’s larger slides when we were there in April of 2007, but after a rather forced trial experience this time, he made the return runs in an almost constant vigil.

Jessamyn had been our more adventurous child previously and this time she kept her daring side flaring as she too attempted even larger slides and met the challenges with positivity.

Even our little Jocie experienced her first ride down the slides!

This year we were met at the park by our good friends the McClish’s. Their children, Maddie, Logan, and Kennedy played hand-in-hand with our children as they pushed each other's abilities in games and challenges that I would never have expected them to do on their own.

Joey and Logan began game of ‘jump in’ where they both pretended to be firefighters that were busy rescuing imaginary victims from the pools.

Jessamyn and Maddie took to the park’s massive fort and descended the slides time and time again as they ran happily through its structure.

As parents, we enjoyed having friends to share the experiences with this time as well as employing a “group parenting” strategy to manage the six children that ran like wild beasts through the forty thousand square feet of water park.

I look forward to next year’s visit and can’t wait for it to come.

jp