a few pictures from our day at the Chicago Science museum. What a great place to spend a day!

A few shots from a very busy day in Chicago:

On monday, we met up with family at Michigan’s Adventure. Despite waiting for two hours for the storm to pass, we had a great time.  Pictures and video clips below:

Videos:

The boys playing street hockey in the driveway:

The kids running the bumper cars while its raining:

A short clip of Grant, Nate and Christina on the rip cord:

Nate cleaning up on the basketball game:

Its the July 4th holiday and we have our nephews up from Tennessee for the weekend! Friday night, we all went to the East Grand Rapids Fireworks display at Reeds Lake and had a good time hanging out.

This first video needs a small introduction as the camera missed the first 3 seconds.

I was talking to Grant and asked him: “Do you know what a reaction video is?”

The video picks up with his response:

Saturday, we took off for the Battle Creek Airshow to see the Thunderbirds. This was the first air show for the Ford boys and they were pretty impressed by the jets.
My mini-cam doesnt do a great job of picking up the jets (no zoom) but we were right next to the runway and you could really feel the jets taking off.
 

Grant and Mikey riding the Super Shot:

All four kids riding a spinning ride (Hunter barfed all over the side of this ride about 30 seconds after I shut the camera off):

 

After the airshow, the boys played street hockey in the driveway. Various images below:

After Mikeys 5 day goalie camp, we took off for Boyne Mountain for the weekend. We spent a majority of the time in the waterpark but did manage to make it out for a lift ride to the top of the mountain and dropped into Boyne City for breakfast at Roberts. It was a relaxing way to end a crazy week.

The Hotel and area:

Best Pizza in Boyne:

The Waterpark:

Video of Mikey Bodyboarding:

I’ve had a few people ask about the weekend trip and how the Great Wolf lodge was for the family, so I present a short review of the Traverse City Great Wolf Lodge:

Have reservations! This place is huge but has the potential of filling up. Once you have your room waiting for you, you’ll find that the desk registration is quick and painless. The line was short for us and moved pretty quick. You’ll receive a ton of documentation and flyers when checking in but make sure you keep the one with the hotel event times. You’ll refer to this later when bouncing around the place.

The Rooms:
We had a ‘Wolfs Den’ Suite, which means that our room had a childs area containing a bunk bed and their own television. The non-den portion of the room was spacious, clean and had lots of counter space to spread out on. The bathroom was incredibly clean and well stocked. In hindsight, I don’t really know that I would spend the extra 40-50 bucks for the den. We spent so little time in the room that it seemed kind of pointless to have the extras. It was a neat little gimmick, but really the room served a single purpose: sleeping. And despite having their own ‘kids’ television, neither of the rooms televisions were ever turned on. Well there was this brief moment when i tried to find the Wings game, but discovered that versus was not one of the 10-15 channels that they actually had on the box. Also be aware that this is a kids hotel. You’ll hear thumping feet running above and beside your room. The curfews are enforced and the place will quiet down quickly as the night grows closer.

The Waterpark
Undoubtedly, the waterpark is the center of attention at Great Wolf. And notably so. It was well supervised and there were tons of activities for all ages in the big room. And I do mean ‘BIG’ room. There were 5 waterslides (3 tubed and 2 body) that were small on lines and big on excitement. In the center of it all is the climbing play fort. Tons of sprayers, splashers and rope climbs to wear out guests of all ages. I was nearly thrown out after hosing a lifeguard who unwittingly came too close to the play area and was subsequently shot with a sprayer. He turned and glared at me, mouthed the word ‘no’ and went back to his snotty/arrogant day. If you tire of the splashing, sliding and spraying, they have two hot tubs: one for the kids/parents and one for adults only. The adult only tub is out of view, hotter and much more relaxing.
One of the more key points, as a parent, is that the place is well supervised and the employees are very kind and alert. The layout of the park is such that you could sit at one of the many tables near the only entrance/exit for the waterpark and maintain a sense of security with your child running free and unattended throughout the park. Michael would disappear for quite a bit of time and we felt that our child was safe and guarded during his independence. That in itself was worth the price of admission. Cedar Point/MI adventure trips always involve a concentrated period of supervision throughout the entire day. But at GW, you can turn your child loose and just relax. The park stays open late, so you don’t have to rush back from any external activities to make a trip to the slides. That was great for us having spent most of the day at the rink for Goalie Camp.

The Food
Theres a Mickey D’s right across the street and a Meijers just down the road. Stock up your room fridge for snacks and breakfast. To my knowledge there wasn’t a comp breakfast but a paid offering in the restaurant area. We had to get up early to be at the rink at 8, so hotel breakfast wasnt an option for us.
The hotel dinner experience wasn’t all that great. We decided to eat at their main restaurant after hitting the waterpark, purely out of convenience. You’ll be paying Ruby Tuesday/Applebees prices for food that really isn’t all that great. Of the four meals that we ordered, only one was deemed ‘o.k.’ I had the Cajun seafood pasta and it was bland and not spicy at all for being cajun. Michelle had the lobster pasta dish and ate half of it, leaving the rest for the dishwasher. Mikey ordered Mac-N-Cheese that had to be replaced with a cheeseburger. When he first started eating it, he was complaining about the taste and that it wasn’t right. I tried a bite and indeed, the child was right. It was pretty gross. Watered down macNcheese is nobodys friend. So out came the cheeseburger replacement and that turned out alright. The food was easily $60+, so skip the inhouse restaurant and seek out one of the local eateries.

Other Activites
One of the first things you’ll discover after checking into the hotel are the hordes of younglings running around with wands madly waving at items located throughout the hotel. This is a game sponsored by Great Wolf called MagiQuest. You’ll purchase a wand, the game activation ($30) and turn the child loose on ‘Quests’ which involve a hide and seek of various items throughout the 3 main floors of the hotels. When you find an item, you wave your wand at it and it will sound off or speak, giving you hints or feedback about your current quest. After you’ve completed a series of these quests, you get to try your luck at defeating the dragon on the fourth floor. Its a really clever idea and will definitely keep your child active during the non-waterpark portion of your stay. But dont wait until the last minute to do this thing. We didnt really start the thing until Sunday afternoon and it took 3 hours to complete all of the quests. The dragon fight was frustrating at first, but after getting some hints from the Quest store, Mikey was able to finish up. If you don’t want to spend the $30 per kid for the game, don’t stay at the hotel. The peer pressure and sheer coolness of the game would be rough on anyone not playing along.

The Arcade
We didnt do the arcade because of time. But i include the description because you should know that its very large and has quite a few of the latest games. There are a large number of ticket producing games and a counter full of dollar store fare that you may redeem said tickets for. There were numerous machines available for all ages, but we simply ran out of time. Next time we’ll accomodate a trip to the arcade and deplete a few rolls of quarters.

The Staff
I have to mention the staffing at Great Wolf. It’s been my experience at anything kid-centric that the employees involved tend to be hit and miss. You’ll have a group that hate their jobs and can’t stand being there and then you’ll have a set of newbies that are excited and involved. Unfortunately the newbs become the grumps and the whole thing goes down hill from there. I tell you that to tell you this: At Great Wolf lodge, the people are extraordinary. Even those performing mundane tasks still had a smile on their face and a warm greeting as you passed by. I was very impressed by the time and attention that was taken with us and our children. No one seemed to be annoyed by the running wizards waving plastic sticks at everything and more often than not had a sense of humor about the whole thing. The hotel staff was definitely a positive aspect of our trip to the lodge.

Pricing
I’ll sum up with a break down of what we spent on the weekend getaway. Overall, the prices were reasonable on things we thought would be blown out of proportion. You’ll pay more per night for the hotel room, but you’re getting free admittance to an awesome waterpark that will provide quite a few hours of enjoyment. Food/drinks were on par for the environment and souvenirs were reasonable.

Hotel (after tax) for 2 nights: $420
MagiQuest (2 kids): $60
Dinner onsite (after tip): $70
Soda from hotel store: $2/bottle
Tshirts: $15-$25 (depending on size and design)
Ice Cream: $1.75/scoop

I believe thats the only onsite expenses that we had at the lodge. Downtown Traverse City and Goalie Camp is an entirely different story.
Overall, the trip was relaxing, fun and well worth the 2 1/2 hour drive. We’ll be back again in a few months and we’ll definitely be staying at the wolf again.