When the holidays approached this year, my sister suggested we try and get something that we could do together. The whole family.
Sister: No one needs another $20 thing that will be donated to Goodwill after 2 months.
Me: Yes! (I had spent the summer purging out basement, so I was super on board)
Sister: So what do you want to do?
Me: Yes! I have no idea.
Sister: Well, think.
Me: Like, see a movie or something?
Sister: Think bigger.
Me: See a double feature?
Sister: Seriously? That's all you can think of?
Me: I'm uh, like I need some rules.
Sister: It has to be something everyone from the 3-year old to the 19-year old kid wants to do.
Me: ...
Sister: And it has to be something we can coordinate together NOT at Christmas because it's too busy.
Me: ...
Sister: And it should take at least 1 day to do together.
Me: Wait. I'm thinking of something ... can we all finish my basement? The 3-yr old can use the table saw and the 19-year old can hammer...
Sister: I'm not sure that's what we're thinking of...
Me: We can call it something catchy like "Downstairs Reno" or "Really Exciting New Objects" so no one figures it out until it's too late.
Sister: Ok. Uh, sure. We'll put that in the brainstorm cloud. But what else?
See, last year, we'd left all that brainstorming up to my sister, and she came up with getting tickets to the PanAm Women's Soccer final in July. It was fun, it was together, it was a day, and it was awesome.
I was kinda hoping she'd take the lead again this year, I'm not gonna lie.
Luckily, my unhelpful brainstorming forced her to come up with a new plan. And, sure enough, a week or so later, she submitted for approval: The Great Wolf Lodge. The rest of us were just happy to have an option presented, instead of having to come up with someone ourselves, so we jumped on board.
At Christmas, each kid opened a gift with several random letters in it. Those letters all rearranged to spell out Great Wolf Lodge. It was inspired. lol
Just kidding. But, it was hilarious to watch the high schooler and college man furrow their brows with letters like G, W and F (can I buy a vowel?) and the non-readers just dance around to the coloured paper. Ha. And then, after 15 minutes of "What does Wolf and Great have anything to do with? And what's the next word?" and then saying "Great Wolf... Great Wolf? hmmmmmmmmm" (the oldest kids had it by this point, but the younger ones were stupefied) and then Grampie shouted out TRIUMPHANTLY "GRRRRREAT WOLF LODGE!" as though HE had no idea what the words were going to be... lol lol Ohhh dad.
This weekend, Family Day weekend (President's Day weekend for those of you in America), we packed enough for a 5-week trip, drove to Niagara Falls for 2 nights, and had a helluva time.
Seriously guys, I know unsolicited advice is always welcome (haha) but it was so great to spend time together when we all weren't rushing around and super busy. In fact, it was amazing.
Plus, there were enough adults around that each kid had one to roam with. It was cool-- the lazy river was great for the people who wanted to relax. The waterslides were perfect for the active-crazies, the pools were great for hanging out and swim-talking. lol And then the salon.
Oh man. Most of the grown-ups ended up getting massages while the kids swam, and there's this adorable salon for kids that does mani-pedi-facials in Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate. My diva (Kiddo #1) and her cousin enjoyed some pampering, too. Kiddo #2 wasn't feeling a mani-pedi-facial because he was too busy ninja kicking the waves in the wave pool.
Geez. This wasn't supposed to be a big "go to the Great Wolf Lodge" post. It was supposed to be a "make memories together" post. Oh well, take it for whatever you want. It was a great weekend and everyone had something cool to do. Oh, and the arcade is super fun. And the food is great.
There. Just go somewhere together. It doesn't have to involve passports, or even bags of money. Just be together. Laugh together.
Spend time. It has a better return than money anyways.
Where are some places you've gone as a family? (and To Hell in a hand basket doesn't count! ha)
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