The idea of letting Brayden bring a group of friends to Great Wolf Lodge for her birthday came to us last October, when our family was there for Fall Break.  Its a really fun place (assuming you like waterparks) and although we have a blast every year when we go with the cousins and other families, Brayden was excited for the opportunity of a “girls-only” weekend, celebrating her big One-Three.

Because the kids were out of school on Presidents Day, we scheduled it for Feb 14-15th.  Brayden’s birthday was actually Saturday the 13th, but several of the girls were involved in a local choir event that afternoon, Brayden included, so with the Monday off school, the 14th-15th was going to work out perfectly.

Until we got all that snow two weeks ago, and the kids missed more days of school than the administration had built into our school calendar.  So, faced with the choice of making up school days during the year, or extending our calendar further into summer, guess which they chose?  Yep, a snow-make-up day for Feb 15th, the day we had scheduled (and PAID FOR, I might add) to go to Great Wolf Lodge.

Bummer.

We looked several weeks into the future, hoping to reschedule, but honestly, had plans every single weekend until April.  Our only real option was to either back up the trip by a day and go Saturday/Sunday, or cancel completely.  Backing up the trip a day meant the girls in the choir concert could no longer attend (Brayden at this point had already dropped out, for other reasons) but canceling completely meant NO-ONE would get to go.  Clearly, neither option was ideal.  Brayden was upset to basically “uninvite” two friends by changing the day, but honestly, it was our only option.  Kendrie, however, was THRILLED to hear the news because that meant there were now two empty spots, and Brayden was generous to let Kendrie take one of those spots and give the other to one of her best friends.

So, I called Great Wolf Lodge and was able, fortuntely, to back up our reservation by a day.  Granted, I had to pay, AGAIN, for the privilege, but faced with the possibility of canceling altogether, I was just happy to hear we could still get a room for Saturday night.

So, Saturday morning, all six girls were at the house, bags packed, ready to go.  My sister was going with us, and in fact, driving her Suburban so we could all fit in one car.  We hit the road in high spirits, singing along to the Wicked soundtrack as we headed down the highway.  We stopped for a quick lunch, and made it to GWL about three and a half hours later.

Where I was promptly informed we had no reservation.

Wait…………… WHAT?????

Apparently, when I called to change the reservation from Sunday night to Saturday night, the girl told me it had been done, and charged my credit card for the difference, but never actually made the change in the computer.  So we had no room. 

I was freaking, to say the least. 

A manager was called over because of course, naturally, why-would-there-be, there were no suites available that would sleep eight people that night …. it was a holiday weekend, after all, and they were full.  But because of the charge to my credit card, it was proof that the fault was theirs, and not mine.

Thankfully, thankfully, THANKFULLY, they offered to put us in two separate rooms, across the hall from one another,  for only an additional $279.00.  At which point my eyes bugged out of my head …….. until the girl assured me that the lodge would eat that cost, since the mistake was theirs.  Truthfully?  I would have dug out one of my kidneys with a spoon and sold it at that point, if I had to, but I was glad to know they would comp the extra charge.

Then, the receptionist asks me, “Have you been to Great Wolf Lodge before?  Are you familiar with our wrist band system?”and Kendrie whips up the cuff to her shirt, proudly showing off the green wrist band she is still wearing FROM LAST OCTOBER …. she and Brayden have a contest going to see who can wear theirs the longest before it just disintegrates.

The receptionist thought it was so neat that Kendrie had been wearing hers for over four months that she called the manager BACK over to show her …………. and the manager thought it was so neat that she promptly wrote us a voucher for eight free ice cream cones from the Sweet Shoppe. 

OK, so now I’m REALLY not complaining.  Our reservation was messed up but we still managed to get rooms, without having to pay the additional fee, AND we get free ice cream????  

You wouldn’t think my day could get any better.

But it does.

After a full afternoon/evening in the water park, we headed back up to our rooms.  The girls asked if they could stop by Starbucks on the way to the room for double-duty-rootie-tootie-chocolate-chippie-delight-frappucinos, which they assured me had NO coffee or caffeine in them.  It was, after all, after 9pm already.    After I laughed and told them, “It’s Starbucks, I’m pretty sure EVERYTHING has caffeine in it,” I agreed and into Starbucks we went.  It was a birthday weekend, after all.

And the guy behind the counter, after all the girls placed their orders, says to me, “Would you like something?  Maybe a latte or espresso on the house, for bringing in all these girls?” and, embarrassed though I was, I was forced to admit to him, “Well, I don’t drink coffee, but thanks anyway.”  He said, “You don’t ever tell a Starbucks employee that you don’t drink coffee!” and we sort of laughed, then I said, “If it makes you feel any better, I do love your hot chocolate.”  And he said, “A hot chocolate on the house it is!”

In one day —- free ice cream and free hot chocolate!  You would have thought it was MY birthday!

The next morning my sister and I decided the best plan on action was for her to take all the girls to the water park when it opened, to snag a good table and ride some of the rides before the lines got very long (which they never really did, and it surprised us, considering it was a holiday weekend ….) and I would check out of the hotel and take all the bags to the van.   Hmmmm.  Bags for eight people, plus pillows, plus the ice chest, plus the birthday cookie cake, plus the bags of snacks we brought, plus the gifts Brayden received  …. perhaps that was a bit ambitious of me, to think I could manage it all myself.

Luckily, I snagged one of the very few carts they have available for guests …. like one of the carts you can get at the airport.  Not big enough to hold ALL our stuff, but certainly able to carry more than I could manage by myself.

But here was the deal.  When we arrived Saturday afternoon, the front lot was full.  Super full.  Full as in, no-room-at-the-inn full.  So my sister drove around to the back-ish part of the hotel and parked in the conference center parking lot, but warned me it was a Loooooooooonnnngggggg trek to the front of the hotel.  So, being the smarty-pants that I am, I called the front desk when I was ready to load the car, to ask if there was a more direct exit for the conference center parking lot (which was, in itself, a huge freaking lot.)

After getting directions from the front desk clerk, I started off, with about half our luggage on the cart.  But instead of cutting THROUGH the conference center like I should have, I went around it, and out the wrong exit, on the wrong, even farther from, side of the hotel.  Into the freezing cold.  To the area behind the hotel where the trash is collected and stored.  Where the door promptly shut behind me and locked me out of the hotel. 

Oh, hello, little trash men working in the back-40 of the hotel property, clearly I am in the wrong place.  Just don’t mind me, as I traipse through this maintenance area full of ginormous garbage dumpsters, with a cart full of luggage.  Hola, senor!!

Nothing to be done about it, but start the long trek back around the hotel to the area where the conference center was.  And of course, my sister had parked on the Faaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr other side of the lot.  I estimate (no joke) that I walked about 500 yards, pushing that damn cart loaded with luggage all the way.  Through many, many sets of double doors that I had to hold open with one hand and try and push the cart with the other, knocking suitcases off the cart, trailing pillows and Pringles cans in my wake.  Uphill all the way, it felt like, through the slush in the parking lot, cold, cold wind on my face.  On the way, I saw the entrance where I SHOULD HAVE gone, and then continued walking, way past that, to my sister’s car.

I finally reached her car, unloaded the luggage, and decided to move her Suburban closer to the correct entrance.  Except I still had the luggage cart.  Which I thought I could maybe drive with my door open and just hang on to the handle, dragging the cart with me, like you might see in a movie, or something ……………….. um, no.  Obviously, not as easy as it looks.  So I sweated and strained (and perhaps cursed a bit) but finally got the cart turned upside down and pushed INTO my sister’s car, so I could drive the 200 yards back to the doors, certain that at any moment security would appear and arrest me for stealing a cart.

Then I parked, unloaded the cart from the Suburban, walked the 300 yards BACK to our rooms, through all the double doors again, loaded up the rest of the luggage, walked the 300 yards BACK to the Suburban, why hello double doors, yes, I officially hate you now, unloaded the rest of the luggage, then walked the 300 yards BACK to the hotel to join everyone else in the waterpark. 

I was exhausted, and it wasn’t even 10am. 

“Where on earth have you BEEN???!!” my sister asked.  “I couldn’t leave the table with all the stuff on it, and ride any rides until you got here ….. geesh, you sure took long enough!”

At which point I suffocated her with a plastic floaty and then shoved her dead body down the big slide.

And can you believe, no one gave me any free chocolate that time.  What a rip-0ff.

Best quote of the weekend, though …… from my sister Kelly, who is the mother of four boys, who usually has at LEAST those four boys and quite often two or three more in her car on a daily basis …… “This was the quietest car ride I’ve ever taken.  There was no hitting or yelling.  No farting noises, no burping, no one rolled down the window and spit into the wind to see if it would fly back and hit them in the face ………..”

Welcome to the wonderful world of girls, my friend.