This Weekend We // Great Wolf Lodge Birthday Celebration

This weekend we drove to Williamsburg, VA listening to back episodes of This American Life to celebrate Gus and his friend Felixs' birthdays at The Great Wold Lodge. On these winter weekends, it seems like most of the Eastern seaboard is also celebrating birthdays there The place reminds me of Chuck-E-Cheese on massive steroids. The chaos. The expense. Manic children as far as the eye can see. Parents watching in various states of nervousness.  We ran into the boys from Ocracoke and a family from the community theater. The warm, humid park lets us all pretend for a moment that we have flown south, but truth be told, it does make me wish we had a more laid back option.  If only the East Coast had an Ace Palm Springs  equivalent. Some place parents could still feel the least bit hip and relaxed while their children swam and splashed.

Swarms of kids buzz around the hotel with magic wands in hand on some sort of magical quest. We Weavers walked around barefoot, although no one else appeared to do the same. Most of the time Sena and Gus were off with their friends, while Tom followed around an uncharacteristically enthusiastic Arlo, who clutched onto his velociraptor and robot most of the time. Alamae spent hours walks around the perimeter of the baby pool.

We packed food for most of our meals, in part to pretend to be a little healthier, but also because my cheapness goes out in full force in such environments. "They want how much for a cocktail?!" "That freakin' wand is thirty dollars!!" In an effort to save money, I went on a late night slide expedition with Sena because she wanted to forgo the arcade trip. Those moments walking up the fake log steps with her might have been my very favorite on the trip. Also, going down waterslides is a whole lot of fun.

By the time we got home on Saturday afternoon, I was more than a little exhausted, but Gus had requested bangers and mash for his birthday meal, and so I held on a little while longer before crashing hard with them as we watched Jurassic World with a couple of neighbor kids (birthday boy's choice).

Sunday was spent recuperating, begrudgingly doing loads and loads of laundry, taking a short break to head to the beach for a while before the rain chased us off. Tom and I snuck in a few episodes of Love on Netflix. Claire and Andrew came over for dinner. A slow end to a fast weekend.

Great Wolf Lodge pictures with the same crew from almost exactly three years ago. 

Time, you are a cruel mistress. 

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