Wolf Pack

 This year for Christmas God gave me the idea to take my grandchildren To Great Wolf Resort in Concord, NC as their Christmas present.  Now our budget for Christmas is very tiny; some might say Scroogelike.  But it just felt right when God said it.  We couldn't manage to coordinate all six grandchildren's schedules so only four went.  I so wish it had been all six but Grandma's don't always get their wishes.

 Caitlin Watts and Hannah Chapman are our girl wolves; Connor Watts and Gates Chapman were our resident male pack leaders.

                                         This is Violet greeting our kiddos.  Her mate Rowdy was there but I failed to get a good picture of him.  He is a Reindeer.  I'm really not sure if Violet is a squirrel, chipmunk or ???  I must not have been paying attention.

 Our room at the lodge had a cabin built inside it with bunk beds and a single bed.  The kids played fast food drive-in window through this hole. In this pic Gates and Connor are working at the fast food place and Caitlin is a customer.

 A lot of time was spent climbing up and down the ladder to the upper bunk.  There is a flat screen tv on the wall of the cabin.  All four cuddled in the top bunk to watch tv for at least a nano second.  At bedtime we only had one child willing to sleep in the cabin.....go figure.  Daughter Gabby had to take one for the pack and sleep in there.

At 8 pm all guests are instructed to come to the lobby in their pjs and slippers for story time with Rowdy the Reindeer.  After his story it started snowing in the lobby.  Not that fake paper stuff they use in the movies and on tv but a very realistic looking and feeling fake snow.  Kids and adults a like looked up with amazement.

I do recommend a trip to Great Wolf Lodge for those with children or grandchildren under 14.  It is pricey $400 plus a night....no meals included.  We went across the street to Chik Filet, and Five Guys for meals. There were at least 25 restaurants within a two mile radius.  There is a Pizza Hut and a Dunkin Donuts in the Lodge.  The Wolf Lodge Restaurant meals were $15 each for children no matter what age and $30 for each adult; they were buffet.  They do have an arcade, a magic quest and other add ons you can do for a price but we only did free things and the kids were fine with that.  I haven't mentioned the indoor water park which is the Main Attraction.  It had many different areas and the kids loved all of it.  I enjoyed the Howling Tornado and all the other water park rides.  Gates could do all but the Tornado due to height restriction.  So think about a trip to Great Wolf Lodge..... I definitely would avoid any major holidays (prices go up on holidays) but it was not overly crowded for us and it was the first weekend after school let out for Christmas.  Some people I talked to said their whole family of adult children and kids were rendezvousing there.  Ask for a AAA discount when you call for reservation for a discount.