Day 4 Mt. St. Helens

Today was for Scott. The eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 occurred the morning of Scott's birthday party so it has always been a very memorable moment for him. Since we were going to be in the area we thought it would be great to go and see MSH. I had only ever seen it once from a plane.

We drove the 1.5 hours to the Johnston Observatory. On the drive up (to 4000 ft elevation) we stopped at a few observation points to look at the river bed. It was incredible to see these hills made during the land & mud slides that had trees randomly sticking out. The destruction of the area was massive. The Observatory had great presentations. The kids got to play with a seismograph. The best part would have to be the movie of the eruption and then the screen rises up, the curtains open and there is the mountain. It is amazing how powerful the event was.

On the way back to the hotel we geocached. Scott added 9 more caches to bring his total to 226. The kids had fun helping him make the finds.

Great Wolf Lodge Day 2 & 3

Day 2 saw us up at 6:30 (that would be 5:30 @ home) and ready for breakfast before we hit the water park. We headed down to the breakfast buffet. It was a really nice spread and the kids really enjoyed all of the fresh fruit.

The Water Park. This place is great! There is a wave pond that we played in first. Then we headed to the slides, the small ones. The kids and I rode on those quite a few times. Even after I stopped the kids kept going. Then we went into the pool to play with the climbing toys.

We spent about 2 hours at the park then it was time for lunch. We headed back to our room and got everyone showered and dressed. We headed down to Centralia and the Taco Bell. Then it was a big event for Katie. She got her ears pierced!! She was such a trooper, no tears at all. I got to shop a bit @ Lane Bryant and Scott took the kids on a geocache quest.

We headed back to the GWL and had some fun in the arcade while Scott took a nap. Then it was Pizza Hut for dinner and bed.

Day 3:
Same breakfast & water park fun as day 2. Then I got to go to the SPA!! The kids and Scott went geocaching and then Katie got to visit the kids-only spa. She had a great time being pampered. We did some more Magi-Questing had dinner and some quiet time in our room.

Tomorrow we are headed to Mt. St. Helens.

Great Wolf Lodge & more

So in my normal fashion of getting ready for a trip, I have been diligently reading all of the blogs & reviews of the Great Wolf Lodge that I could find. Now, I have to be very careful when I do this because most of the time when people post a review it is because they have something negative to relay. Despite the reviews I was still very excited for our trip.

Day 1: The kids & I arrive in Seattle and meet up with Scott (who had spent the weekend in Fairbanks) at the gate. We had the best agent at the rental car place, she got us a bigger car after the typical (Wow, how tall are you?) conversation. Did I mention that she gave it to us for the same price as the smaller car? We headed off to the Museum of Flight (next to Boing Field).

First stop was Toys-R-Us, I managed to forget the kids booster seats...
Second stop was Red Robin --YUM!

Then it was off to the Museum of Flight: This place is amazing. I thought of my dad a lot while here, this was right up his ally, a history museum with lots of interactive displays. The kids really liked the interactive stuff, they got to sit in the cockpit of 2 fighter jets and they got to play in a simulator of a WWI fighter plane. I loved looking at the flight attendants outfits from years gone by.














Great Wolf Lodge...Here we come!
We arrived at 4:45 on Tuesday afternoon and walked into the lodge to an empty check-in desk. This was fear #1: beware of horrid check-in lines. No Problemo! We got checked in and up to our room. We got a Kids Cabin room. The kids have their own area with a bunk bed & TV. We ate dinner at the lodge. I had really good cheesy noodles with mushrooms & pork. YUM! The kids liked their macaroni & cheese. Scott had a good taco salad. The kids got souvenir wolf ears that they have been wearing ever since.
Next on the agenda was the Magi-Quest game. The kids picked out their wands and off we went to begin the game. This is a scavenger hunt - harry potter style. Finally it was time for bed.