The Odegaard family: in progress: Family vacation!

Vacation time! Unfortunately, the beach was out of the question for a weekend family getaway, despite Kalina's best efforts to convince us that it would be entirely doable. I love her spirit, if not her logic. The next best thing was an indoor waterpark called Great Wolf Lodge. We settled on the location because it fit our criteria of being kid-friendly and relatively easy, without requiring us to constantly negotiate traffic and search for parking spots to do fun stuff. In the end, what really sold me was its woodland animal theme--there's not better way to guarantee a good time to my children than to put bears and squirrels and such in the picture.

We left for Kansas City Saturday as naptime approached. No matter: no one slept on the way. The trip was pleasant, nonetheless, and we enjoyed the scenery, whether we were counting cows or spotting the skyline:
Us: Look at the tall buildings!
Elise: Knock! (them down)
Us: Look at the pretty buildling!
Elise: Knock!
Us: Look at the tall tower!
Elise: Knock! Giggles.
Upon arrival, Kalina immediately glued herself to a friendly wolf statue, and a tired/cranky, yet enthusiastic, Elise immediately wanted to do so as well. Which she couldn't, so she screamed through turn-taking while Matt checked us in. We're here, Great Wolf Lodge! Hear us howl.

Kalina and one of her new
best friends.

We visited all the stuffed animals throughout the lobby, trying to teach Elise to say, "hooowwwlll" instead of "woof" when we asked her what a wolf said, and fumbled our way to our room. It was large and nice and clean, and we couldn't wait to get to the pool. The toddler has been begging to play in every fountain she sees for the past month or so. I'm ready! an eager Elise insisted. I have shoes on! Actually, you need a suit, Hon.

Once we arrived, both girls waded. And waded, and waded, until the littler, tireder one settled on being held. Don't you want to play in the fountain, Elise? No. Try a slide, Kalina? No. But we had lots of fun wading, and eventually floating down the lazy river and wandering through the activity pool. The biggest hit was the giant bucket that dumped 1,000 gallons of water onto anyone below every three minutes or so. Kalina still misses that bucket.

We then gorged ourselves at the dinner buffet because we were on vacation and starving and, after all, we weren't planning on swimming again until the next morning. Both girls were given souvenir wolf ears at the restaurant, and left them on the rest of the night, much to the delight of anyone who saw them.

Almost cuter than fuzzy wolf ears was the sounds coming from the bedroom half of the hotel room as the girls settled themselves, and each other, down for the night:

Elise in her pack-n-play: Gah, deh, fwh. Goo! (Rustle, rustle rustle)
Kalina: Shhh, Elise, it's time to sleep!
Elise: (Rustle, swish, rustle--standing up, no doubt) Boo! *giggles*
Kalina: *giggles* Elise, shh!
Elise: Boo! *giggles* [It's now a game of peekaboo.]
Kalina: [Silence]
Elise: Boo! *giggles* (Rustle, rustle)
Kalina: (Rustle)
Elise: (Rustle) *Giggle* Coo, gah, deh.
Kalina: Shhh!
And so forth.

Elise woke the room at 5:45, despite her late-night settling. Good thing the pool opens at 9:00. But what to do before then? We scrounged through my snack supply for breakfast before heading out to explore the hotel and its environs. We caught a "clock tower show" at 8:00, with (really annoying) talking and singing animals (off-key, but what do you expect from a moose?), and then walked across the parking lot to the majestic Cabela's just across the way. Kalina and Matt both drooled at the boats ("Let's get this nice red and white one for Daddy for Father's Day!"). Elise, on the other hand, couldn't get over the giant deer statue, nor could she get enough of mock 4-wheeling. And Kalina would like it to be known that she found a spider in the paddleboat. We chased a pair of rather compliant ducks halfway back, and were at the pool shortly after it opened.

This second day at the water park, Kalina tried a blue kiddie slide, and Elise insisted on going down, too. Kalina uncharacteristically went once more--Elise, on the other hand, slid down with eyes wide open and teeth gritted shut into Matt's waiting arms. She, also uncharacteristically, was done. Matt and I both took turns trying some slides, too, and the girls enjoyed watching for us to pop out the bottom almost as much as sliding themselves.

One of our ulterior motives for choosing an indoor waterpark as our vacation destination was to get Kalina used to having water splashed in her face, and possibly coach her a bit in swimming. Somewhat reluctantly, the girl eventually consented to paddling and kicking around the pool while being held up by a life jacket and/or our arms. Elise happily followed along with her cute little version of a puppy paddle. Overall, our efforts paid off: in the bath, lately, Kalina has been wiping off her wet face with her wet hands. This is a very big deal.

We braved a hotel naptime with both girls, and a weary Kalina even consented to being tucked into her bed and lay quiet while her sister fell asleep. When it became apparent, however, that the bigger girl wasn't going to doze, I got her up to read whispered stories by a thin strip of light coming from the mostly closed bathroom door. We didn't want to wake up her sister at all costs, and Kalina both understood and complied.

Elise loved sitting on this
caterpillar.

Matt had found his way back to Cabela's during naptime, but returned just as Kalina and I were itching to go explore more of the lodge. We enjoyed a lovely Kalina/Mommy date, complete with the treat of her choice from the sweet shop (involving two chocolate chip cookies and waaayyy too much frosting, if there is such a thing) that we munched on while watching the giant bucket dump on people (her favorite pastime), browsing toys in the gift shop and setting up a pretend campfire on the campfire rug in the playroom with all the stuffed animals there.

Kalina's pretending to be a spider!

And when Elise awoke, we all set out for the brand-new aquarium in the Crown Center area. Only to find that the line was prohibitive. Hoping to make the best of our adventure, however, we explored the Crown Center and arrived at a really neat animal-themed play area that was on its last day of operation, after being extended a week, before being closed for a few weeks and then replaced by a not-quite-as-cool dinosaur play area. What luck! The girls bounced like kangaroos, rode a lion, slid down a penguin's slide, tunneled like ants, bear-hugged bears, and much more. Matt and I briefly discussed redoing our basement in similar form.

Me holding Elise's cup properly this
time.

A train-themed restaurant, complete with trains that actually delivered your meal using a lift system, couldn't be ignored by any of us: it became our dinner plans. Everything but the meal was a success--while Matt and I enjoyed the food, Elise spilled milk all over (my fault for not holding her cup properly) and the girls only nibbled at their hot dogs. But on the plus side, everything but the meal was a success.

We exited the building and saw that after our two-hour hiatus, the line to the aquarium had cleared out--not to mention the fact that we had a good two hours or so before we felt like we needed to be back at the hotel for storytime and bedtime. In we went.

Who can resist the touch tank? Not
my three. (Elise insists on wearing
a hat, sometimes.)

The aquarium proved to be almost too exciting for our over-stimulated, ultra-enthusiastic youngest child. She alternated between adamantly running ahead, or persistently turning back, to demanding to be held so she could suck her thumb in peace. But she loved the fish, as did our oldest. Kalina astonished onlookers (her parents, anyway) by asking a question of a keeper: "How do the fish get out?" The keeper, who had probably never had that question before, did a nice job of expanding on the fact that while the fish are put in from the top, which is open, they don't jump out, nor does anyone take them out. The tank is their home. Kalina seemed satisfied, as were we.

There's a seahorse in there, I promise.

Both girls loved the seahorses and, as such, returned home with identical stuffed seahorse key rings. We could not convince Elise to pick something different, although we tried (and persuading Kalina to would be like asking a tree to uproot itself and move next door). Now, we often wonder, "Is this my seahorse or Elise's?" Someday I'll get around to tagging them somehow--right now, it's just easier to say, "It's yours, Sweetie." To Kalina's credit, she never asked for another souvenir.

Back at the hotel, and it being our last night, we decided to completely run the girls into the ground by attending storytime. It was great: all the kids wore their pajamas, Elise sat happily and watched, and Kalina participated--something Matt had never seen before. Before the story, the reader asked everyone what they'd done that day: had they been to the Cub Club? The arcade? Eaten at Camp Critter? Kalina raised her hand at all the wrong times and none of the right times until I poked her in the back. Elise didn't appear to be listening until they got to, "How about the waterpark?" The little girl ecstatically jumped to her feet, faced the crowd, and performed her signature, "Deh, deh!" with a tummy-pat that means, "Elise too! Me!" I guess she was following along after all.

After the story, character wolf, Violet, made her appearance to a raving crowd/Kalina/Elise. Kalina nicely lined up for a hug, and Elise joined her at the last minute, just as Kalina was wrongly answering questions the leader asked about where she'd gotten her seahorse (the leader believe Kalina won it in the arcade). Ever the caretaker, Kalina held Elise's hand the whole time, leading her up to the pretend wolf when it was her turn. They posed for a photo, and raved all the way up to our room. While storytime did nothing to get the kids drowsy for bed, it sure was a fun 20 minutes.

An hour or so later, after lots and lots of cute, but eventually tiresome, settling, both kids were asleep. The next morning started far too early for our tired girls, but we made the best of the yawns so we could have a bit more fun before hitting the road for home. The mood was quieter this Monday morning after a bustling weekend, and Kalina was the only one in attendance at the "wolf walk," a tour of the lobby animals, but that was okay, as she was a bit young for it anyway. The leader helped her make an origami wolf, and then we went to the pool one last time.

On this third day, both girls tried the red waterslide. Less steep, but more turbulence. Kalina admitted it was fun, but declined the opportunity to try a second time. Elise, again, demonstrated her "deer in the headlights" look. During our "swim lessons," I convinced Kalina to stick her ear in the water to hear what the fish were saying about her: only good things, of course! We all waded and splashed some more before dashing up to the room for a quick cleanup before checkout.

The return trip wasn't all bad!

Kalina was sad to say goodbye to the giant bucket, as were we all, I imagine. We also voiced our reluctant goodbyes to the lobby animals, virtually dragging the kids to the car. Back on the road, Elise was asleep within 10 minutes, and most of us avoided getting cranky with each other until the last hour or so. At home, the children entertained themselves for a good hour while Mommy and Daddy unpacked and unwound. Either that, or they repeatedly mentioned how sad they were that vacation was over. Us too, Sweetie!

The week following our trip has been anything but restful, and at least one of us misses Great Wolf Lodge several times a day. We've mentioned the possibility to Kalina that we might be back. And who knows, maybe we will!