Ohio Trip 2016! Part 1

The Friday before the Fourth we embarked on our 2nd annual road trip to Ohio to see Nana, Tata, Aunt Talia, Uncle John, Emma and Addison, and baby Reid!

Z and Lu were so excited. Lu was talking all week about going to stay at Nana and Tata's house in Ohio and going to the Great Wolf Lodge!

We headed out Friday morning, and about 9 (mostly peaceful) hours, and three stops later, we arrived at the Great Wolf Lodge. Our drive was so much better this year because it did not include a 3 hour traffic jam in Kentucky (although we did get stuck in some traffic in Cincinnati).

Listen, I would be the first to tell you if my kids were major hellions in the car, but I have to say they were CHAMPS! That was a long time to be in the car, but they rolled with it. We listened to some audiobooks, Z played on his DS, Lu played on the ipad, then they'd switch. We had lunch and snacks in the car, got some treats at the gas station, and aside from Z having to go to the bathroom again about 20 minutes after we'd just left the rest stop, we even handled our stops really well!

 We made it to the Great Wolf Lodge around 5 or so, and met up with Nana and Tata and Aunt Talia and her family at the pool/water park. Mama was tired, so I just supervised, but the kids had a BLAST hanging out with everybody! 

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and then it was storytime, where they have little live action figures telling a story and singing songs. The GWL has to be one of the most kid-friendly places out there! The kids were having the best time! I LOVED seeing these 4 together. They were really sweet!

After dinner we headed to our favorite vacation destination: the arcade! I might add that we managed some pretty decent ticket payouts (we're pretty serious about arcades ;)). We cashed in our tickets for two souvenir stuffed wolves along with a few penny items. After the arcade, we headed back to our room where the kids had a little bunk bed/cubby area separate from us and we all crashed (although they still had quite a lot of energy I must say. The first day was a success!

The next morning, we had a breakfast buffet at the hotel and headed to King's Island. The weather was so nice, and with the kids being older than last year, and everyone in good spirits, we had a lot of fun! I was pretty impressed that Z even rode some roller coasters (as I have sworn them off for good, thankyouverymuch).

 We took a little break from rides to ride the train

And met the Peanuts characters!

 We worked up an appetite on all the fun rides, so we stopped and had lunch and took in a show. Then (at Lu's insistence) got blue cones and the girls got some treats.

As if hitting the jackpot a couple times at the arcade weren't enough, Z and Nick hit up the arcade and the carnival games at King's Island, and as you can see in the picture, scored pretty big on those, too. He and Z won that Dory and gave it to Lu :)

Next, we head to Nana and Tata's house!