Great Wolf Lodge

It's become a bit of a yearly tradition for us - Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg! This year, our friends were back on furlough from being in Papua New Guinea for 4 years, and they'd never been - so we helped them enjoy the experience! :-) They were in the States for a year, but only in VA for about 9 months - they're already gone again, and we miss them! It was great to reconnect. Josh & Mel were our very best friends for years, and they were there waiting in the waiting room when Kenna was born, and they watched Kenna for us at 5am while we went off to have Brooksie. We were so glad to spend this time with them.

Also friends of Josh & Mel were other friends of ours, since moved away from our area - and everyone came back to meet at GWL. So fun. We miss these friends a lot!

Sam, Brian & Josh

 Brian and Tommy. We miss them! They moved away to the Lynchburg area the year Brooks was born. Brian went up there and built their new house. He would go up and stay the week and come home on the weekends, and I was so afraid that he would miss the baby's birth, being so far away. Thankfully he didn't miss the birth:-) But that was many many moons ago, in 2007!

Also in 2007, Tommy introduced Brian to a work contact of his, Keith Woodard - and the rest is history there! We have Tommy to thank for being instrumental in Brian getting his job at the Woodard Group.

May May!

Tommy & Becky

Levi, Grace & Raelyn - they are cousins (Sam & Tom are brothers)

Kenna and Sarah

Melody, Morgan and Hannah

Brooks and Sonny

A picnic on the hotel lawn

Levi & Brooks - They had quite a "bonding experience" this year - Levi is 11, but as you can see, they are both about the same size and weight. They went down the Tornado together - it's the biggest waterslide there, and very powerful, and well...dangerous, really. I guess they weren't heavy enough to make the tube go down into the water, and it got stuck in the slide. Like, the water was rushing under the tube, and they couldn't push off from the side, so they were stuck. They called for help. I guess the lifeguards at the top and bottom weren't missing them yet. They didn't know what to do, so they decided to climb back UP the water slide to the top lifeguard - knowing the most dangerous drop and part of the ride was still below them. The force of the water is so strong at that point, and it's so steep, it's literally a miracle that this worked out - but it's what you get when you throw 2 slightly panicky boys into an emergency situation. So they managed to climb UP the slide and when the lifeguard saw them climbing he told them to go back to the tube - so they did. Brooks almost fell and Levi said "I SAVED HIS LIFE!" Because he caught Brooks' hand and kept him from being swept down. Levi wasn't wearing a rash guard and Brooks clawed up his chest pretty good, which you can see in the above pic. Thank you Levi, you're a hero!! So they made it back to the tube, and the lifeguard traveled down, and joined them on the tube, getting it un stuck. They were literally both shaking from the adrenaline rush after that experience! It would have been so dangerous if they had both gone down the slide with out a tube. On some rides it would be ok, but with the design of this one, that just wouldn't have ended well at all.

All the kids - except Sonny & May, they had already left by the time we got around to one big group shot

All the big people, except for Chris & Laura (Sonny & May's parents). We had so much fun! Until next year!!!