Great Wolf Lodge October 2013

This week (tue-thur) we were able to take a mini family vaca to Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. And let me tell you it lived up to expectations and then some!

Took J sometime to warm up to the water but N jumped right in even going down the big slides with daddy!!

Cutie Patootie 

For the month of October they had nightly trick-or-treating around the lodge, and "spooky" bedtime stories. J was Charlie Brown and N was Linus.

Their costumes costed me less than $10 to make! Two shirts from Hobby Lobby at $3 a piece, a pair of white socks from Target and some yellow and black paint.

I purchased ahead of time the breakfast buffet at $9 per adult (children eat free). Since we were there during the week there wasn't enough people to have a buffet and they let us order off the menu. We ended up getting around $35 breakfasts each morning for only $18! So yummy and everyone in the restaurant was very accommodating to children.

Storytime occurs every night, during October they read "spooky" stories and encourage the kids to come in their costumes for a costume parade following. J was very intrigued by the pretty girls and sat down next to them all on his own :)

They have a bowling alley that is half the length of a normal alley with "one size" bowling balls at 5lbs. and a strict "no rental shoes" policy :) 

I was so excited for Nicholas to go bowling as he's always playing with his little tikes bowling set and loves to bowl on the wii with daddy. He had an absolute blast!

First time in an arcade! Boy my little man sure is growing up fast!

Every morning at 10am the kids get to "turn on" the waterpark by turning this wheel. Nicholas thought it was pretty cool! We missed it the first morning as we all slept in, but I set the alarm the next morning to be sure we didn't miss it!

I managed to break a toe while climbing up a rope ladder lol guess i'm getting old!

More trick-or-treating fun!

We ate a couple meals in the hotel room. I brought the crock pot and had taco soup ready and waiting for us after a morning in the waterpark. and yes I brought sheets from home to "slipcover" the couch and cover the table... lol everything else gets a clorox wipe down.... believe it or not i'm getting better though! 


Click to watch the video below! 

When I made our reservations I paid an extra $7.50 to have Wiley the wolf bring fresh cookies and milk at bedtime. Boy was N surprised to see Wiley at his door! This smile was priceless!!! (and the cookies were delicious!!)

Isn't he so handsome? :)

The effects of three fun days at the indoor waterpark!

We can't wait to go back to GWL I don't have a single complaint about our stay everything was perfect and we all had so much fun!

Big Decision

Our sweet boy made a very big decision on Thursday, October 10th 2013 at 3.5 years old.
Here's how it started.... I was in the kitchen canning grape juice and Nicholas was "reading" his bible story book from our home school supplies. When he got to the lesson on the crucifixion he noticed the photo depicting Jesus on the cross. His questions then were.... "momma why is he doing that?" "momma why does he have nails in him?" and, "momma is this a happy picture?". 
WOW this momma was not prepared to have this discussion quite yet.  Sure we have talked about Jesus' death at Easter time and quickly changed the subject to the fact that He rose again which is what we are celebrating.  How do I tell my little love that our beloved Jesus died? The way I pictured this conversation ending? With him in tears over Jesus' death. 

I quickly finished up what I had to at the stove and we grabbed our school book and a couple other of his children's Bibles. Went to his bedroom and read about the Crucifixion and Resurrection  in all of them. Afterwards I asked if he had any questions about what we just read..... oh boy did he! I explained the best I could to a 3.5 year old about why Jesus had to die to save us from our sins, and how this means we get to live in Heaven someday. There were some minor misunderstandings like "mommy will you go to the cross with me?".  But also the sweetest questions like "mommy will you be in heaven too?".  I told him that all he had to do was to ask Jesus into his heart and acknowledge that he died to save us from our sins.  Still not at this point thinking he was understanding much of what all this meant.. To my surprise he said he wanted to do that!!!!! I quickly called daddy at work and he came home so we could pray this together as a family. 

Our baby boy made a very grown up decision and this mommy is so proud of him. I can't begin to say how blessed I feel that I get to be home with our children so that I can teach him about these things and witness firsthand his little heart understanding and coming to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Also, that Daddy works right across the street so that he can come home quickly for something as important as this. Finally, thankful that we found (thanks to a friend) an awesome home school curriculum!