We decided to do something a little different than we've done before and take a fun trip for Lilly's 1st birthday just the 4 of us. We haven't taken very many trips or vacations just the 4 of us, usually we are joining other family members for some sort of family fun trip, so we were really looking forward to doing something just the 4 of us and decided to go to Great Wolf Lodge for 2 days. : )

Unfortunately it didn't really turn out the way we were thinking!

The night before we were supposed to leave I went out to eat to iHop after work with some friends. When I told Mark that's where we were going he made gagging faces and told me iHop was gross and he can't bring himself to eat there. I laughed, rolled my eyes at him and still went and had a fun time. I got home late, into bed around 1 a.m. and by 2 I was back up and in the bathroom... Where I spent the rest of the night. In the morning I was feeling still feeling queasy but much better than the night before. We had planned to leave around 10 a.m. but decided to wait a little while and see if I continued to improve. At this point I was sure I was feeling bad because of something I ate the night before, especially since Mark put it in my head before even going that I could get something bad. Since I was feeling a little better we still went!

We checked into the Lodge, took the girls to the Water Park for about an hour, until it was time for dinner, and had a great time! The girls loved it.



We went and got dinner, I was actually pretty hungry by that time and even though I wasn't feeling 100% I was MUCH better than that morning. We came home and got the girls bathed and into their jammies and did the fun evening activities that Great Wolf Lodge has for the kids. They did a little craft in the craft room...


Went to a PJ story time in front of the their big fire place and then we stopped for a fun snack on the way back to our room.



We had a fun Kid's Suite with a little nook room that looks like a log cabin with bunk beds and its own TV. Reaghan thought it was awesome that she had her own "room" in our hotel room. We went to bed looking forward to a fun filled day at the Water Park the next day... but apparently I didn't just have food poisoning...

In the wee, dark hours of the morning Reaghan woke up crying about her belly hurting and sure enough she got sick. *face palm* This of course woke Lilly up. I think I was in denial about the fact that this was an actual sickness infiltrating my family so I just brought the girls back to our bed and we squeezed in a few more hours of sleep cuddled up all together (a silver lining) until Reaghan woke up sick again. At that point I knew our little trip was over so once Reaghan was settled Mark went to grab something quick for breakfast for him and I from the Lodges little cafe so we could start packing up. While he was gone Reaghan needed the bathroom again and I somehow cut the top of my foot on a carpet tack while I helped hold Reaghan's hair back at the toilet and simultaneously tried to keep Lilly from toddling in.

When Mark came back he told me that he was actually starting to feel sick too and within minutes he was needing the bathroom. You guys. It wasn't good. I knew we needed to get out of there, but how in the world were were supposed to drive an hour home with a sick toddler and the other adult that could either drive or help the toddler was sick too?! I'm not sure how we did it but I managed to get the bags out and then get my sick family out the "back door" to the van before going back in the check out. I made sure to tell the staff about the sickness so hopefully they took the proper steps to sanitize and protect themselves while cleaning the room for future guests.

Praise God that neither Mark or Reaghan actually got sick on the drive home. It was seriously an answered prayer because once we got home it was a different story. I had to try to hold back the tears of disappointment as I drove my family home. We had been looking forward to this weekend for several weeks. I couldn't wait to create some fun memories with my husband and our sweet girls for Lilly's birthday and I was so upset that it had turned in to this. I was mad that I misinterpreted my own symptoms because I so desperately didn't want to cancel our weekend.  I felt so guilty that I may have exposed so many people to our germs during our short stay at the Lodge. I just knew the next big news story was going to be about a stomach bug outbreak at Great Wolf Lodge! I felt horrible.

Thankfully Mark and Reaghan's sickness only lasted 24 hours as mine did and we were all much better by the end of the weekend. I spent several hours disinfecting every surface and bedding in our house and thankfully Lilly made it through unscathed and we spent the day following the sickness, her actual birthday, together at home and made it out of the house for a quiet family dinner.

The trip didn't produce the memories that we thought we were going to make, but it was definitely memorable! And thanks to that silly carpet tack that cut the top of my foot, we got a free night stay to go back another time. ; )