Wednesday, March 07, 2018

Great Wolf Lodge 2018

We had a great time going to Great Wolf Lodge for the first time last week!  We were able to save some money with Groupon and had a nice big room with 3 queen beds and a pull-out couch to sleep all eight of us.  The room had a fridge and a microwave so I brought stuff for breakfast and lunch and we went out for dinner.  The kids had Pizza Hut (They ate 2 large pizzas by themselves!) and Chris and I had Qdoba.  We haven't been to a hotel since before Mabel was born and the kids had a great time.  


Lots of bear and wolf decor.  


My stair steps!  Another one coming soon.  :-)



I mostly sat around watching Luke and Mabel go down the kiddie water slides a million times with the occasional turn down the lazy river.  Oh, and taking Mabel to the bathroom every 20 minutes!  Chris liked to take the kids under the huge bucket that dumped about every 5 minutes.  He had the littles stand underneath him so he took the brunt of the force.  The older kids, including Aaron, enjoyed the water slides.  They also really liked the pool with the floating snake, but that unfortunately got shut down on our last visit to the pool area.



Joel wants blue grandpa to go with next time so he has someone to go down the scary slides with!


On our way out of Traverse City, we drove down the Mission peninsula to see the bay and the lighthouse at the end.  It was a bit chilly so we didn't last long.


Unwilling posers.  They wanted to get back in the warm car!



Everyone was a bit tired on the way home!  And I thought I had brought way too many snacks, but they ate most of them!

Some Great Wolf Lodge tips for families:

*There are lots of places to eat inside the lodge, including a pizza place, grill, and Dunkin' Donuts, but they are really pricey.  Bring your own food if you don't want to spend a lot on eating out.  Each room has a good sized fridge and microwave.  I made breakfast sandwiches and we warmed them up in the microwave in the morning and ate them with yogurt and fruit. 

*Bring a few extra blankets or good pajamas for the kids.  It was warm in the loft area where Chris and I slept, but the main level seemed a bit chilly and we had trouble using the thermostat.

*If possible, bring 2 sets of bathing suits for each person or you will be putting on cold, wet suits when you want to go back to the water park.  Ask us how we know.  :-)

*My kids don't like to stay for hours and hours in the water park so try find things to do to break up the time.  You can stay at the water park until closing on the day you check out.  We left around noon, but if we could have broken it up a bit, we probably would have stayed longer. 

*Bring flip flops and crocs to wear in the pool area.

*The pool area is busy so if you have little ones, don't expect to be able to sit on a chair and read a book while they play.  I'm glad our older kids had each other so they could go off to the slides together while we watched the younger ones. 

*Great Wolf had puddle jumpers and life jackets that you can use for free.

*You aren't supposed to bring any outside food and drink into the pool area, but I did bring some water bottles in.  Try to get to the pool area early to claim a table or they will get snatched up.  

Monday, March 05, 2018

And for the third time...gestational diabetes

(I realize I have not posted in a looong time.  If you didn't know, we are expecting another baby in 9 short weeks.)

During each pregnancy, a woman is tested for diabetes at about 28 weeks.  I had diabetes with Noah and Mabel so I wasn't too surprised to have it again with this pregnancy.  The worst part of the diabetes testing is drinking the super sugary, lovely tasting orange drink.  The woman drawing my blood told me there was 100 grams of sugar in that drink!  That is the equivalent to eating half of a chocolate cake with frosting or eating about 90 gummi worms.  Who does that??  Anyway, my body's blood sugar doesn't come down quite quick enough after consuming that much sugar, so I now have to follow the gestational diabetic diet plan.  Since I've done this twice before, I think I am getting pretty good at it so I thought I'd share what I eat since alot of what I've read online suggests that you will starve on this diet (so not true).  I am getting my glucose meter tomorrow so we will see how well I am doing.  Anyhow, here is what I am eating today and some tips and tricks:

Breakfast (supposed to be eaten within 1/2 hour of getting out of bed):
1 piece of whole grain toast, 1 carb (15 grams)
2 scrambled eggs
Coffee with a touch of creamer

Snack (about 2 hrs later)
An oikos greek yogurt, 1 carb (19 grams)

Lunch:
2/3 of a cup of rice with a serving of that popular eggroll in a bowl, some green beans, and 15 grapes.  The rice is equivalent to 2 carbs (30 grams) and the grapes are 1 carb (about 15 grams).

Snack
1 string cheese, 6 black pepper triscuits (1 carb)

Dinner
Sweet potato, 1 cup is about 2 carbs
Barbecue chicken
salad
grapes

Snack
An apple, 2 carbs
Popcorn, 1 carb

*Try to pair protein with most of your meals and snacks.

*Hungry?  Don't be.  Most veggies are extremely low carb so load up on veggies.  Avoid carrots, peas, and corn.