Our last vacation as 4!

We decided it would be nice to get away for a few days for a little mini-vacation before we are back in the routine of life with a newborn. Don't get me wrong, we are very excited for our little miss to join us, but as with everything, a new person creates a new dynamic and new norm! So we thought a few days when we could give Ella and Aubrey lots of undivided attention would be fun for everyone. And off to Great Wolf Lodge we went!!

Now we thought that if getting away for a few days would be fun, surprising the girls about the entire thing would be even more fun! Well, the best laid plans don't always turn out exactly how one expected =(

Before we left town, I tried my hardest to get the registration and DEQ taken care of for our new van. We had been waiting for the title to arrive so we could start the process and in the meantime, we were driving around looking like we had a hot van! (No plates, no temp tag [too cheap to pay $20 for less than 2 weeks!!] and not even a dealer logo where the plates should be.) I was getting a little nervous to drive to another state with a vehicle looking like this. Aubrey and I set out Wednesday morning feeling like we could easily do DEQ and DMV before it was time to pick up Ella from school, after all it was a random Wednesday morning in the middle of the month. WRONG!! Us and 50 other people were at DEQ this Wednesday morning. Then at the DMV it only got better. We had to leave DMV 2 numbers before our turn to get to Ella. Bummer! After lunch, we were able to pack the car very inconspicuously without the girls even noticing. Everyone loaded up under the assumption that we were off to DMV. As I walked into DMV, I knew our quick stop was not going to exist! I left earlier with 2 people ahead of me...now there were 35, and only 2 people working!! Long story short, after over an hour at DMV with the girls waiting in the car with Neal, we were off for our vacation.

Due to the extra long delay getting out of town, neither girl slept or even rested in the car on our way to Great Wolf lodge. Ella began whining she wanted her bed, Aubrey was so tired she just cried....it wasn't the surprise we had hoped for!!! Fortunately when we got there, the girls got excited that we were actually staying at Great Wolf lodge and not just driving by it ;-) Again, we had figured middle of April in the middle of the week would be a great time to go up there-spring breaks were over and it should be fairly empty. WRONG again!! Seattle has spring break extra late we found out so the place was packed. But we had finally arrived, surprised the girls and this was going to be our fun mini-vacation before the baby comes!!!

Without further ado, our vacation photos!

Evening storytime with Violet!

Aubrey didn't like the purple slide much, she said it was scary. However, the yellow slide that was longer/faster/and spun her around backwards was FUN! And she is such a ham for the camera =)

The lily pads were tons of fun for Aubrey the monkey! Daddy helped keep the lily pads stable but she worked hard too. And just like her sister, she LOVED swimming and playing in the wave pool.

Ella liked going on the really big water slides, but I wasn't able to get the timing down for a picture on those. She humored me and went down the red slide so I could get a picture! These were a select few photos that I was able to get her to slow down long enough to get a picture of her smiling face instead of the back of her head ;-)

Ella did really well on the lily pads, she even got to the point where daddy didn't have to help hold the lily pads much!

Storytime on night 2 with Wiley and Oliver.

Each time we passed Sprinkles the bear (which was every time we went to the water park!) we had to stop and take a picture!

Daddy even made a stop with Sprinkles!

On our second night, the girls slept together on the pull-out bed. Then Ella read Aubrey a story before going to sleep!
{Insert melting Mommy's heart!}

Family time!

Aubrey and Ella sliding together =)
Ella and Aubrey both using their magi wands to make the creatures of the lodge come to life.

Great Wolf Lodge Vacation 2012