(The “Moana” soundtrack is stuck in my head…MAKE WAY, MAKE WAY!)

“Holy cow, this place is huge!”  I said to the wife as we pulled up to the entrance.  I felt a little like Clark Griswold pulling up to Wally World.  A 50 minute drive had taken almost two hours thanks to a snowstorm and a potty break, but we had finally made it to the Great Wolf Lodge in Colorado Springs, CO.

The wife had booked a night’s stay at the 50,000 square foot indoor water park as part of our “buy more experiences and less things” mantra of 2018.  Our oldest loves the water, so we thought this would be perfect.  The weather was perfect too.  There was a snowstorm happening outside and it was a balmy 84 degrees inside.

They do the wolf theme very well at the Great Wolf Lodge.  The minute we stepped into the lobby, the staff put wolf ears on the kids.  They immediately formed their own little two person wolf pack and began howling at each other, the first of what seemed like hundreds of times in a 24 hour period.  We checked in and went up to our room on the 7th floor.  The kids had their own wolf den to sleep in, complete with bunk beds and a TV.  It was the first time our kids were going to sleep in the same room, so in the back of our minds we were wondering how that would go.

After getting settled in there wasn’t anything left to do but put on our swimsuits and dive into the fun.  I don’t know if wolves like the water, but ours did.  This water park had everything.  It had a kiddie pool with slides, a wave pool, a huge climbing structure with intermediate water slides attached, and some big water slides for older kids and adults.

The highlight of the big slides is called “Wolf Tail.”  You step into this vertical launch pod that’s shaped like a tube and the lifeguard closes the door.  As you’re standing on a trap door, the sound of a heart pumping faster and faster is played.  The lifeguard gives you a thumbs up through the clear tube and a countdown from three begins.  Finally, the floor drops out, hurling you into a nearly vertical 20-foot free fall followed immediately by a 360-degree, high-speed loop.  You barely have time to think as you speed down the slide.  I had to try it out.

The wife enjoyed the Howlin’ Tornado.  It’s a super-fast thrill ride in a raft built for four.  You speed through twists and turns before dropping into a six-story funnel of fun and then splashing down at the end.  The kids were too little to hit the big slides, but they had fun on the smaller ones.

The highlight for our family was the wave pool.  Every 5 minutes or so, an alarm sounds signaling the starting of the waves.  All the kids in the pool cheer as the water starts to churn.  Our kids loved it.  Our 4-year-old loved to dive into the waves and our almost 2-year-old loved to float as the waves moved her up and down, up and down.  The wife and I took turns hanging out with the kids while the other went on some of the big slides.

Like I said earlier, this place is huge.  The water park is the main attraction, but there are tons of other things to do.  There are restaurants, a mini golf course, a ropes course, a climbing wall, and adventure park, a bowling alley, and our kid’s other favorite attraction, a video arcade.

If you would have given me a list of things to do at Great Wolf Lodge, the last thing I would have picked on list that my kids would enjoy was a video arcade, but they were mesmerized by it.  We’re not talking about video arcades I grew up with that included Pac-Man and pinball.  This arcade was like a laser show on steroids.  Flashing lights, loud sounds, games you sat in; this arcade had it all.  Our girls didn’t even play the games.  They were happy just walking around climbing on everything, and sitting in every game they could.  Their senses were on overload.  I think we spent an hour in there before we had to carry them out.

Finally, we were able to grab something to eat before heading up to our room to get ready for bed.  They were wrecked.  Between the drive, the pool, the arcade, and dinner, they were totaled.  We gave them a bath and they were down for the count.

The funny part about being parents is when we plan a day that we know will tire out our kids, we forget how tired we’ll be.  After we got the kids down, it was about 8pm.  Our intention was to spend some time together and watch a movie or something fun like that.  I remember looking at the clock.  It read 8pm.  I looked at the wife and said, “Okay, it’s only 8?  I feel like it’s 11!”  She said, “I know!  I’m ready for bed!”  We didn’t give in that easily though.  I managed to go downstairs and get some ice cream, Triple Caramel Chunk, and we had some while we watched part of a movie before finally turning in.

The next morning, our little cherubs were ready to go!  We put our swimsuits back on, got a breakfast buffet, and went back to the pool for some more fun!  We left right before  afternoon nap.  The snowstorm had passed, the roads were good, and it was a quiet ride home as the kids were tuckered out again.  It was a great little weekend getaway with the family.  The kids loved it and the wife and I had fun too.  We’ll definitely be back.