Some explanation about...

(the outside of the hotel, yes this is exactly the place we stayed at) Great Wolf. Their website http://greatwolflodge.com/grandmound/lodge Great Wolf Lodge features an eight-story, northwoods-themed resort with one of the largest indoor waterparks in America. Make a splash in your scrapbook with a family vacation conveniently located in Centralia, Washington between Seattle and Portland. And our Conference Center is also available for corporate and social functions for groups from 8 to 800. Start your getaway today! It is like a mini Dinseyland located 20 mins south of Olympia. We did everything there at the hotel/waterpark. They have restuarants, spa, waterpark, a fun, electronic scavenger hunt called Magi Quest. They have several over the US but mostly in the southern, eastern US. So the closest one to us and Idahoians is here but you NE's and Wy's might be closer to one in the midwest?? I don't know. We went with Matt and Danell Naef and their kids. We arrived Tues afternoon @2:30 and stayed until Thrursday afternoon 2:30. We started swimming. Waterpark is opened from 9-9, Magiquest is open 9-10. There is an arcade, a tweeny, teen room with Wi-Fi, Wii, dancing. (we didn't do that, and it all costs $ except the waterpark is included in your stay). This wasn't a cheap outting but it was well worth the $. The rooms weren't huge or great but we were only there to sleep. We happened to go at the time of Halloween so they were having a trick or treat activity so we brought our outfits and dressed up and had a fun time with that. Kyle and Justin Naef and Bode playing Magiquest Lexi showing her fashion in the hottub.Fort Mackenzie is a four-story interactive treehouse water fort offering 12 levels of super-soaking fun for the family. Younger kids can climb with their parents to reach the slides at the top. The older ones will love making their way over suspension bridges and cargo nets to spray stations and soaker buckets. (Watch out below!) The GREATEST of soaker buckets is the 1,000-gallon tipper that sits atop Fort Mackenzie. Every few minutes, the warning bell clangs, and the bucket begins to tip its contents over the roof and onto the giggling group below. Bode had a great time on this gym. There were 2!! fun water slides (not baby ones, although they had them) that were perfect for him and you didn't have to ride with him. In the back ground you can see stairs up to 3!!! huge waterslides. Bode was tall enough to go on 2 of them but not the Howlin' Tornado, too short. But you had to ride with him on those 2. It was HUGE fun!! I went on every side yes even the tornado however, I only went once on it. TOO SCARY!!Howlin' Tornado at night. Grab up to 3 other members of your pack willing to drop into the 6-story funnel. You'll quickly learn how this ride earned its name. Repeatedly swish and swirl 30 feet up the sides of the funnel, before making a safe splash landing.

Here's a picture of our room nothing fancy but you can get pretty fancy rooms too. Eric did talk to a worker there that said they were currently at 19% capacity but on every weekend they were at 100% capacity. We didn't have to wait in any lines. We picked the perfect time to come during the year and during the week. SOOO MUCH FUN!!