Waterpark Warrior

A few months ago, I purchased a deal to a waterpark from Living Social. We tried a waterpark years ago and it was a disaster. But this summer, Olivia was able to go up and down the waterslide all by herself at my Dad’s lake and at the local (small) waterpark so I figured it might be worth a try. It was too good of a deal to pass up: 5 waterpark passes for 2 days, a suite with a log cabin inside for the kids and dinner…all for $150. We never do things like this and I thought it would be a nice winter surprise.

For Christmas, we have an advent calendar. Each day in December the kids take turns choosing a small gift or an activity from a big bag of stuff. They love it. We are seriously on Christmas crack over here between the Elf and the calendar. On Sunday, it was Matthew’s turn, and he had to choose this small jewelry box. He opened it and it was filled with letters they had to unscramble. He was mega disappointed to finally get to pick and it was letters. Gabe finally unscrambled them and they were ecstatic to learn where we were going—Great Wolf Lodge. Olivia jumped up and down with excitement. I was excited too, but a little apprehensive because I just never know how it’s going to go with her.

No worry needed. She was an absolute warrior!

The first day she lasted 3 hours in the waterpark. That is unheard of for her! Here is a virtual tour of the park so you can see how high it was and how many stairs she had to climb. I didn’t take my camera because, with Olivia and water, there’s no way to take pictures without ruining your camera or having her drown. She climbed up 6 flights of stairs multiple times and went down the slide with no problem. She swam in the hot tub, the regular pool and the kiddie area. It was awesome. The lifeguards were wonderful—signaling each other when she was coming down so they could help, helping her go down the slide, smiling and chatting with her. I’m going to be writing a glowing letter to the manager…it was that great. I also focused on Olivia and didn’t even notice any stares.

She slept through the night (also unheard of on the first night somewhere new), woke up the next morning and said she needed to use the potty. You’ve never seen me get out of bed so fast! She was dry and used the potty! Matt and I were overjoyed. We then went to the waterpark for 4 more hours. She went up and down the slides at least 10 times. I was able to wait at the bottom to help her out while Gabe climbed up with her. I couldn’t believe it! She didn’t complain, get tired or fuss. I didn’t have to make the boys leave early because she was done. We laughed, we squealed, we clapped and we had a blast.

On the way home, I was telling Matt that when she was born I would have thought this type of an experience would be out of the question with Olivia. Totally impossible. But here we were, almost 12 years later, enjoying a wonderful stay at the waterpark. Never say never!