Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Cedar Point/Great Wolf Lodge

At some point last winter, Dad emailed Jason and I and asked if we'd like to do a vacation in the summer to an amusement park. Since it's very rare that I get to hang out with my brother and my dad at the same time, I was all for it. We chose Cedar Point since it seemed like a good meeting place somewhere in the middle of Indiana and Pennsylvania (Dad got the short end of the stick with driving).

Jason found the Great Wolf Lodge while we were on the phone one night discussing hotel options. By the time we ended our conversation, we'd booked the rooms and I was really excited to see what the fuss was about with this resort.

Here's a picture from our balcony. We overlooked what could be considered the highlight of staying here...the indoor waterpark. The entire building to the left housed waterslides and pools...we spent an entire day there!
The first day, we went to Cedar Point amusement park. It was awesome...so many rollercoasters! Because we were all with kids, we didn't end up getting on as many rides as I would have liked, but we did hit some amazing coasters. I ended up chickening out for the very last one...too much time spent thinking about it...so Jen and I indulged in milkshakes while Dan, Jason, and Dad rode it. Maybe we'll get back out there at some point, and I will find the courage to do it :)

The best part of the trip was seeing the kids interact. Emily and Owen don't see their cousins much, but when they do, it's like they see them all the time! Emily is enamored with Isabelle...she wants to do everything Isabelle does. She also seemed to "adopt" Schuyler as her baby brother, while Owen and Isabelle really hit it off.

The second day we spent at the waterpark. I didn't know how the kids would like it since they'd never been on waterslides before. Well, I need not have worried. Both of them were scurrying up and down the slides, and we all had a blast. Emily especially loved watching the bucket of water fall every so often from the water fort.


We had an amazing vacation...it was so nice to see my Dad and Shirley and my brother and his family and just spend some time with them. While the drive out and back seemed endless (a toddler and a preschooler have to pee an amazing number of times on a drive with limited rest stops), it was definitely worth it!