surprise visit

Some weeks I'm on top of blogging and last week week I could not get my act together. I scheduled a bunch of my posts from the week before because Elinor and I went on a secret trip to visit my family. It worked out that my whole family was going to be in Ohio at the same time. I couldn't miss out! So Elinor and I drove to Ohio. 

She was a trooper. We travel a lot but it is always with Dave so I can jump in the back seat and help her. We ended up having to stop every hour or so because "my bum hurts!!!" but besides that she was awesome. We got in town a day early and stayed with my friend. Elinor had a blast with her kids. We always talked about being neighbors and our kids being BFFs. I wish we could!

It's so sad that my nieces are close in age to Elinor but we all live so far away. She had so much fun playing with all of them. Last time we were in town, she wasn't full on playing with kids. My family just needs to move closer to us!

My sister rented an airbnb house for the weekend. It was beautiful and in a great location. We stayed 2 nights with her and my parents there. On Sunday Dave flew in to meet us for the drive home. Elinor and I picked him up and went back to my friends house for dinner. She made us an insane meal and treats for our ride home (thanks Allison!). Check back in on Friday for the details of the dinner. 

We are talking about doing this again maybe in Nashville. I haven't been there in years. Airbnb has some amazing houses all over so it won't be hard to find a big house to rent for all of us. 

Great Wolf Lodge

My brother had a great idea to plan a night at Great Wolf Lodge while we were all in town. We planned it on my birthday. I haven't had that much fun on my birthday ever! We got there around 2 that afternoon for check in. While I was walking up to meet my sister in law and niece, my parents jumped out from around the corner and surprised us! They had lied to me saying they were going to be in Tennessee that day.

oh my family...we are the worst at taking pictures together. No one wants to stand still for more than a second. Poor Dave didn't even make it.

We all checked into our rooms and got our "mama and baby soups" on right away. Our room there was awesome by the way. There was a little cut out with a bunkbed and tv/games for the kids. There also was a sitting area and a king size bed. That night when Elinor fell asleep in the kid nook, everyone came back over to our room to hangout and eat birthday cake that my sister had brought me. Elinor slept the whole time on the bottom bunk until 7am! I wish all hotel rooms had little kid sleeping areas.

Elinor sleeping in the wolf den

There was so much to do there. I thought it was just about swimming, but there is also blacklight mini golfing (which Elinor thought was Poo's house), a huge arcade game room, an interactive sing along/story time before bed, a magic quest game throughout the whole lodge and even bowling.

I don't like to swim too much and with Elinor being little I didn't know how much there would be for us to do at the pool. I was surprised to see she was able to go in all the pools and even a few small water slides. There were two huge shallow (1.5 feet deep) kiddie pools, a huge splash area for little ones and even a huge wave pool.   The wave pool she wasn't too sure of at first but ended up really liking standing at the shallow end trying to jump over waves. Also there was a lazy river was a lot of fun too. The water slides looked wild! There were roller coaster ones, one that went outside the building and even one that drained you down a hole in the middle like a big sink. Dave never goes on stuff like that, but my brother convinced him to go on them with him.   He kept talking about them and almost had me convinced to try. Maybe next time.

I didn't realize that even though check out is in the morning, you can stay until the pool closes. We had things to do the next day but we were able to get in some swimming and playing in the lobby till around 2. I will make sure to remember this for next time.

I've read tips about going here before but I didn't take them all in. There are restaurants and even a Starbucks in the lobby so we never had to leave. Sometimes it can obviously be difficult to find vegan options while we are out, especially in Ohio. One of the restaurants offered a Gardein burger which is our favorite kind and a hummus plate.

Have you ever been to a Great Wolf Lodge?

family day

Before we left to go back to Chicago, more family came over to see us. My niece and nephew didn't get to meet Elinor last time we were in town since they were on a camping trip. I was so excited to see everyone and Ellie loved all the attention like always. 

two of my nieces Helen and Katherine. I still can't believe how grown up they are now!

 The 3 youngest cousins having a dance party

 My brother snuggling with Matilda

 more dancing

 my other brother and 2 of his kids Matilda and Seamus

 all the cousins minus Conor

 My parents bought these reindeer with each of our names on them. My brother told all of the kids to stand behind their parents name.

 me, Sean and Terrance with my dad peeking through. Missing our sister Courtney!

I only got a  picture of my parents with Elinor with my phone but it still came out good. Yay for iphone cameras!