Great Wolf Lodge

Can you tell they were excited to be there??

Gabby playing MagiQuest.

Sam and me in the wave pool (me in striped bathing suit, Sam in blue life jacket, just right of center)

The kids and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to a Strong Bonds Retreat at the Great Wolf Lodge this week. We got there on Wednesday and left on Friday and had a blast! We had time to play in the waterpark every day, along with working on MagiQuest (an interactive game for the kids), ice cream and Starbucks. I went to seminars aimed at strengthening our marriage while the kids were cared for in another room by some awesome folks from Portland. These were the first Strong Bonds seminars offered up to spouses of deployed soldiers while they are gone.

We met some great ladies and kids and found a boy from Gabby's kindergarten class in Kansas that just arrived. It was wonderful to be able to take the kids down there without having to be all-out waterpark the whole time. I wouldn't have taken them by myself without this. Now we know what we are doing when Robert comes home and we can take him.

I will say that probably the best treat of all was eating six meals without my kids. They were fed in childcare and we got to eat just with the adults - what a luxury! A huge thank you to the chaplains and their staff and rear detachment that made this possible for all of us!