Great Wolf Lodge Recap and Meal Plan Week 48

So, we were ALL sick last week and the Meal Plan went down the drain… because, stomach bugs do that to ya… We are all well (finally) this week and I finally have a meal plan to share!

But, first I wanted to share some photos from our trip last weekend to the Great Wolf Lodge!

Last weekend, we went on our second trip to the Great Wolf Lodge! Last year we went over the long MLK weekend and this year we went over President’s Day weekend. Due to ALL of the sickness that has spread through our family in the last 3 weeks, this was probably not our favorite trip of the two. Brian was getting over his illness, Nathan was fine, Autumn was starting to get sick and had some asthma issues during the trip AND I was healthy. Amazingly, Autumn acted fairly normal… but, knowing how their asthma can go sometimes, I was pretty stressed out the entire weekend while trying to keep her asthma under control. So, boo to that… BUT, it did stay under control and Brian managed with some over the counter meds. Another complication to the trip was that on Saturday evening, the forecast completely changed and we found out that St. Louis was supposed to get EIGHT inches of snow on the day we were supposed to head home. I really thought we were going to get snowed in another day, but St. Louis only got 2 inches and we landed up doing a 2:00 p.m. check out and were able to drive home on clear roads. Whew. 

So, what did I learn from all this? Even though our first trip to Great Wolf Lodge went smoothly and it was during the winter… I will probably be a little more cautious planning a winter trip next time. I think I will probably book the trip a couple days ahead (if they aren’t fully booked, which they usually aren’t during the winter) and then I can gauge if the family is going to be well and if a winter storm is due to blow in. I am one that likes to plan ahead and to be overly cautious. Now, I know that sometimes illness pops up overnight, but we have been falling like dominos over the last 3 weeks over here… SO, if we hadn’t of had this trip booked, we wouldn’t have went and would have done it over Spring break. OR, we may just plan it over Spring break next year. But, in any case… it is fun to do a little trip during non-summer months! Great Wolf Lodge does let you reschedule a trip one time, too… and we almost did that, but we knew the kids would have been SO disappointed… so, we decided to go. Now, time for some pictures!

The night before our trip, Brian surprised me with my Valentine’s gift. A gold bar cart from Target! He also got me some red roses and I always keep the cards he writes when I receive flowers from him and I have most of them on our refrigerator. 

Brian also surprised me with my first piece of jewelry from Stella & Dot. I have been wanting this spiky gold bracelet for ages! I have tiny wrists and it fits perfectly!

I also made the kids some small Valentine gifts. I always get them chocolate from Chocolate Chocolate.

And, we arrived… The Great Wolf Lodge! The kids were so excited and asked me to take a photo of them by this wooden bear bench.

The VERY first thing Autumn wanted to do… before anything else… was to go to the gift shop and get Violet! They have sort of a ‘build a bear’ type thing in their gift shop and Violet is one of the characters that roams around at the Great Wolf Lodge. We had told her no last time, so of course she has been asking for Violet for a year now. I couldn’t say no a second time. Nathan got a red dragon, I think it is the dragon from their Magi Quest game.

The kids got little red Valentine wolf ear headbands, Autumn put Nathan’s on Violet.



After we checked in, we didn’t have time to swim before dinner like we did last time… we sort of got a late start to the day. We decided to do what we did last time and went to T-Rex for dinner. OH boy, was it crowded due to Valentine’s Day. There was a 95 minute wait… but, plenty for the kids to do while we waited. Since we’ve done T-Rex two years in a row, we may skip it next time and try one of the other restaurants in The Legends.



Since we had such a long wait we let the kids build Dino’s… uhhh, yeah… they are SO spoiled!

They also got their picture with a Dino! After that, they had a ‘dig’ area and the kids played in the sand and dug up bones for over an hour. I think what made it more fun was they made friends with some of the other kids, otherwise I think it would have been a LONG wait.

Brian and I on Valentine’s Day… we really need to get one of those selfie sticks!


After we finally got to our table, Nathan asked for a slushy in a bone and he got it! Autumn got one, too.

I got this last year, its a cotton candy martini. Mmmm!

After dinner, it was pretty late… so, we headed back to our room and called it a night. We got the Kids Cabin room, which includes a private bunk bed area with the kids.

Autumn brought a TON of toys from Grandmas house and we read a book to them.

After the kids were in bed, I surprised Brian with a chocolate tasting, complete with wine! Happy Valentine’s Day to us! You can find the free printable and directions by The Dating Divas by clicking HERE.

The next morning we got up early and decided to do a little site-seeing in Kansas City. We did their Legoland last year and decided to check out the aquarium this year. The Sea Life Aquarium is right next door to the Legoland.

Nathan next to a sleeping shark!

The kids under an aquarium!

I have always wanted a salt water tank. They had the Sea Life Aquarium divided up into two sides, fresh water and salt water.

After the Sea Life Aquarium we walked over to the mall across the street and had lunch at Fritz’s. Fritz’s is so neat and we ate their last year, they have trains that drop down a little lever with your food! I got more photos of this place last year… but, the burgers are really good. AND, they had cherry limeades on the menu!!!! I got a 32 oz’er! YUM! I got the same burger as I did last year, it had cheese, onions and hash browns on it! SO good!

The kids grabbing their food off the lever.

Autumn and I were being silly at lunch.

After lunch we went back to the hotel and rested for a good hour and a half, before heading out to swim for about 3 hours in the pool!

Nathan was so excited that we was tall enough to go on ALL of the water slides this year… I think he was a little nervous about the biggest one, though… because, he said he wants to wait until next year to go on it. LOL.

The water park! Oh, I will be so excited when the kids are big enough and I can lounge at a table and read a magazine while they play. It is fun, but I got a little cold near the end! Luckily, Autumn loves to go int the hot tub every now and then… lol. I really love their lazy river ride. After we swam, we got pretzels and drinks and sat by the pool and ate. Swimming always makes me SO hungry!

When we got back to the room, we ordered pizza directly to our room and went to bed.

I was so happy when I woke up to see that Kansas City didn’t get much snow… St. Louis got more, so we did a 2:00 p.m. check out.

The kids always love to play Magi Quest at The Great Wolf Lodge and it seems we always get to it on the last day. I thought I had grabbed Nathan’s wand from last year, BUT I had grabbed a hollow wand that was to Brian’s costume from a 10k. OOPS. The lucky boy got a new wand and topper (and they aren’t cheap!).

You wave the wand and you finish certain missions with it. There is an entire book… and, we got through four missions last time and finished the rest of them on this last trip. Although, Brian says there is more… which doesn’t surprise me!

Nathan got to finally play against the red dragon and killed him! It took him several tries and we were starting to run out of time, but thankfully he killed the dragon minutes before we had to start packing up our things! Yay!

Headed home… I love this bridge/structure in Kansas City.

On the drive home, Autumn needed a bandaid for her finger and I pulled out this huge first aid kit that I didn’t even know I had in my glove box. Well, we realized I also had all kinds of bandaids in it… so, she started a little bandaid craft. LOL. What you’ll do to entertain kids on a long drive!

Well, that is it! If you want to read about last years Great Wolf Lodge trip, click HERE and HERE. Autumn is already asking when we are going to go again and I told her… well, we do have a trip to Disney first. LOL. The kids always have so much fun at the Great Wolf Lodge… maybe one of these times we should go during the summer, so we can see their outdoor pool, too! It was such a cold trip this last time, but memories were definitely made! Sorry for the photo overload… I was going to do this as two posts, but decided to just do one post for the entire trip!


Now… are you ready for this weeks Meal Plan? 

Meal Plan Week 48

Sunday – Order Pizza
Autumn has a girl scout thing, so we will probably order pizza or get something to go.

Monday – Easy Baked Ravioli with Garlic Bread, recipe HERE

Friday – Three Ingredient Cinnamon Rolls with bacon, fruit salad, recipe HERE