Because it's fun to lie to your children

We wrapped up our Spring break with a surprise overnight trip for the kiddos.  We planned it a couple weeks ago with friends from Portland, but Kolby and I decided we wouldn't tell the girls about it until we pulled into the Great Wolf Lodge.

Then yesterday morning, Evil got the better of me and the scam began.  The girls knew we were going somewhere fun, but that's all they knew.  All week long I'd tried to get them to go skiing, but they refused because we'd really pushed them hard when we went last week, and they hadn't quite forgiven us. (They were awesome though!).  So yesterday I said, "Okay girls, I guess we can tell you now what the surprise is.  We're going skiing!"   Mwa-ha-ha-ha.  

They both tried their best to feign excitement.  Even asked if they should just put on their long janes then or wait until we got to the slopes.  We continued with the deception throughout the 90 minute drive.  We'd talked up the fact that our hotel would have a hot tub they could sit in after skiing.  But then we "remembered" we'd forgotten their swimsuits.   Oops.  Then when we were getting close to the Great Wolf Lodge, I said, "Hey, could we stop here real quick for a potty break?"  So Kolby dropped the three of us at the front doors to go to the restroom.  The girls were so excited to finally see the inside of this place.  (We see it from the freeway every time we drive to Portland.)  

When we walked in the door, the three Nelson kids were in the lobby and ran up to our kids. Everyone jumped and screamed and hugged in excitement at seeing each other, but the Blackham girls hadn't figured it out yet.  They whisked Mia and Maddie off to see the huge water slides, and when I caught up to them, I had never seen such depressed little faces as the ones my girls were wearing.  Their friends got to stay here for the night, and they had to go skiing and take lessons?  

I couldn't take it anymore.  I told them we were staying with their friends, and they went berserk, as you would expect.

Although about 20 minutes later Madeline said, "But we aren't going to be able to swim because you forgot our swimsuits."  Damn, we're good at this!

We had a fantastic weekend.  The rooms were super cute with a bunk room for the kids.  And the waterslides and activities were included with the room.

The kids ran wild--riding the slides, running through the hotel doing the Harry Potter-esque scavenger hunt, playing in the bunk beds, riding the slides some more.   The Easter Bunny managed to find us there, and the kids had a little egg hunt in our room after breakfast this morning.

When we left to come home this afternoon, all of us exhausted, Madeline said, "Well, I don't know what the best vacation is that we've ever been on, but that is definitely the best hotel we've ever stayed in!"