Great Wolf Lodge

This weekend Rudy and I met our friends Kim and Lily at Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos.

Kim and I wearing the kids' wolf ears.

The lobby

The view from our balcony

First we spent time in the water park, then the kids got dressed up for trick or treating.

After dinner there was a costume parade and dance party. Lily changed costumes since there was another Cleopatra.

Rudy's costume was a big hit. So many people commented on it as we walked around. He had fun freaking people out. Several people asked to take a picture with him.

Me and my headless horseman

The next morning at breakfast Kim was demonstrating how much she loved Rudy while he pretended to protest.

After a few hours at the water park, we headed home.
Our good-bye pictures...

Rudy took these and started pretending to be a photographer and was moving the camera in all different directions.

One group picture

As we drove away, I took a picture of this slide that went outside. It looks so cool and was called the Double Barrel. It was quite a thrill ride and two out of four of us did not enjoy it.

Killens Pond Camping

Rudy and I spent Labor Day weekend camping with the Gjerde's in Delaware at Killens Pond.

When we arrived Friday night, we took a hike and had some beautiful pond views.

The kids found a dock to walk on.

And Rudy had to check out the water.

Jumping from the dock was great fun.

Ashton on the steps.

Siblings on the dock.

Saturday we headed to the water park.

I just missed getting Rudy.

Lily off the slide.

Trying the lily pads.

After the water park we hiked over to the nature center on the other side of the pond.

Years ago we took a picture here on this log.

Relaxing at the Nature Center.

Checking out the paddle boats.

After dinner we went on a hayride. The kids are always miles ahead of us.

Love Rudy and Ashton's faces!

Me and my boy

Boys being boys

The little speck in the distance is Olav running to get to the hayride.

Friends.

Sunset over the trees

On Sunday we decided to rent some boats- a paddle boat for Olav and the kids and a canoe for me and Kim.

We got Olav and the kids set up, waved good-bye and set out on our canoe.

In no time out boat looked like this. (Lily and Rudy both decided they wanted to be in the canoe, so we met at a dock and switched off.)

Then we found another dock and my view looked like this- Rudy in front rowing.

And we went to a dock again to switch everyone around to look like this- Lily in front and me in back.

After boating, we had lunch and hung out at camp for a while. The kids played in the dirt because, why not?

Then we headed back to the water park.

After dinner we walked down to the playground for a while.

These first ones turned out too dark, but near the playground are some great climbing trees, so all the kids spent some time doing that (Lily gets the award because she did it in a long skirt!)

Monday morning was pack up and leave time. The kids went to the playground for a while on their own while we started packing.
Rudy wanted to show some things to Lily before we went.

Then it was time for the usual pictures.
The whole (much smaller this time) gang.

Gjerde family

Silly version

Me and my too-tall boy.

Silly version

The Guatemalans ("pretend you don't like each other")

"Okay, now pretend you like each other"

The kids

The boys

And ending with a perfect photobomb from Lily.