Best Ways to Save Money at Great Wolf Lodge

Best Ways to Save Money at Great Wolf Lodge

Great Wolf Lodge is a popular family resort chain that features indoor water parks, themed rooms, and various activities for kids and adults across the U.S. However, a vacation at Great Wolf Lodge can also be quite expensive, especially if you don’t plan ahead and look for ways to save money. In this post, I will share some tips and tricks on how to save money at Great Wolf Lodge, based on my own experience and research after having numerous family vacations at the Ground Mound, WA location.

Here are some of the best ways to save money at Great Wolf Lodge:

View Post

Wildlife Safari in Oregon: Our Weekend Getaway Post

Wildlife Safari in Oregon: Our Weekend Getaway Post

Have you ever been to the wildlife safari in Oregon?

I knew when my birthday came around that we would probably do another trip to Winston Wildlife Safari since Arya didn’t really remember the first trip and Delilah had never been yet. We all love animals, so it seemed like the best choice as a weekend getaway.

I decided to keep it simple and book the last place we stayed at since it was family-friendly and fun, which is surprisingly the Seven Feather’s Casino. They have a big pool, had a decent arcade (we noticed they moved it to where the previous tiny gift shop used to be and now it’s kind of “meh”) and of course, they have restaurants and a spa that I didn’t try out.

We got to borrow a two-tone black and red 2021 Chevy Trailblazer RS for a few days for our trip which made the drive a little more fun and exciting! It had plenty of room for our luggage with a max cargo volume of 54.4 cu ft. and had ample space for our legs and feet. The kids loved the color and being able to use the internet wifi signal while driving 3.5 hours to the casino. Streaming our music from our pandora subscription was also cool since our 2 cars aren’t equipped with such features since they’re a 2005 and 2013. I could tell a difference with the trailblazer vs the normal car I drive since it has a little more oomph to get up and go quickly. It has 3 drive modes; normal, AWD (snow on fwd), and sport. One of these days we’ll be upgrading my husband’s car. Until then, we get to try out cars we wouldn’t normally think to try out.

 

We arrived at the hotel, checked in, and then decided we should probably eat go eat dinner and decided on Cow Creek Restaurant in the casino, and 5 hours later, I was running to the bathroom from food poisoning. Way to ring in the evening on my birthday! LOL

The next day I was feeling much better, which was great because we had to be at the safari before 10 am to do the cheetah photo experience. Let me just say, it was not worth the price per person but we didn’t really know what it entailed. If we didn’t get a deal on Groupon, I probably would have been upset we spent a huge amount just to have a mediocre photo of a cheetah standing like 20 feet in front of us on 2 leashes staring directly into the sun. They did a lot of talking about facts about cheetahs but my kids were getting bored and wanted to see the animals. They weren’t interested in standing there for 30 min listening to a guy talk. So, if your kids are impatient like mine, I would probably skip this one. We haven’t tried the others, but I imagine it’s more of the same.

The kids loved the safari drive-through and of course, being able to feed the animals. One of the emu’s ended up stealing Delilah’s food cup out of her hand, so now she loathes emus. It traumatized her for a good couple of weeks since she just couldn’t stop talking about the mean emu!

Despite the mean emu and me getting food poisoning, we had a good time and will do it again in another couple of years.

Big Family Vacation at Mt. Hood Tiny House Village

Big Family Vacation at Mt. Hood Tiny House Village

This year had been a little chaotic for everyone so we decided to take an end-of-the-year vacation with my immediate family. We were at first thinking we should just rent a big beach house, but the beach this time of the year in the PNW isn’t the most pleasant, so I suggested maybe going to the mountain so we could at least have some fun in the snow if we’re going to be “cold” anyways.

So I searched and actually stumbled upon Mt. Hood Tiny Village through Instagram and knew this is just the place that we all needed to stay at. We each booked our own tiny home, that way we could have our own space yet still visit in the center at the fire pit or in each other’s “tiny homes”.

These places were so cute and I knew I needed to claim the Ingrid before my family since it was spacious! When I research things, I do it fully and hard, so my family was mad that I selected that one, but hey, they did let me take charge. LOL

View Post

Celebrating our 8th Anniversary at Olivia Beach with Buick Encore GX Essense

Celebrating our 8th Anniversary at Olivia Beach with Buick Encore GX Essense

One of my favorite areas to stay on the west coast is Olivia Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon. The homes are brand new and have that perfect beachy charm, which is why I knew I wanted to spend it there again for our 8th anniversary. The neighborhood is also spectacular; perfect for families traveling together. I was hoping we would snag an Oliva Beach home with a hot tub so we could relax our old, sore muscles, but every house with one was booked. We were lucky enough to find the one we did (The Mermaids Grotto) at such a great price though since my husband still had a credit through his old job.

View Post

Headed to Seaside Oregon in the Chevy Bolt EV for National Drive Electric Week

Headed to Seaside Oregon in the Chevy Bolt EV for National Drive Electric Week

If you follow along on my Instagram page, you probably saw that we were contacted to try out the Chevy Bolt EV for National Drive Electric week that occurred Sep 25-Oct 3rd. I had been wanting to try out cars anyway because my husband is in the market to buy a new vehicle for himself since my current one is now paid off, and what better way to decide what we want other than testing new cars for a week or two, right?

What is National Drive Electric Week?

View Post