What a fun room! It had a special area just for the kids to feel like they were in their own little cabin!
Fun times and great memories!
Happy 7th Birthday Miss Lily !!
So..... that is what Lily will always remember!
I, on the other hand, have a different memory of The Great Wolf Lodge Birthday Experience!
It started with our very first ride! Yes...of course it did... because that's how I roll! If it's going to happen we're going to do it up big and big it was! A big hot mess I am, I tell you! (ha)
So we checked in to the GW, walked up to the coolest room ever, kids were running around super excited, we all changed into swimsuits and headed downstairs to the water park.
We walked around for a bit to see what we wanted to tackle with 3 kids in tow and how we were going to keep an eye on all of them. We decided to head over to the lazy river. We grabbed our tubes! Chris and the kids headed out first. I grabbed my tube and hopped on ready to float. I decided to lean my head back into the water to get it wet. Something I've done a thousand times! When I raised my head back up both of my arms felt like needles were poking them from my shoulders to my pinky fingers. My arms burned and the last couple of fingers on each hand hurt. I couldn't imagine what had happened. I shook my arms out, put them in the water...even the touch of the water hurt. I caught up with Chris at the end and told him what happened. He thought I might have pinched a nerve.
Great! How do I get the nerve un-pinched so I can enjoy Lily's special day? OMG! It's the Great Wolf Lodge for crying out loud! We have waited to take the kids and now we are here and I hurt myself!!!
I stood and watched the kids, Chris rode with them down the water slides and I waited for my arms to feel better. I raised my arms over my head, pulled on my fingers, and shook out my arms. Nothing helped. I decided after our friends arrived and we rented a cabana that I would sit and watch. I didn't say much about it other than I may have pinched a nerve so I was going to take it easy. That night, we ordered pizza and opened gifts and went to the arcade. My arms did not feel any better. They burned, tingled and felt like my fingers were bruised. I knew something was wrong by the time we got back to our room (which was 8 hours after our lazy river ride) and had Chris call his brother, Jeff. Jeff told me to come in to have a MRI in the morning and to wrap my neck with a towel to brace it through the night.
The next morning Chris took the kids down to the water park for about 2 hours and then we drove to Arlington for my MRI. I walked out of the room and Jeff handed me a neck brace! I said..."seriously?"
"Yep, you did some damage to C5/C6," he said "You will need to be in this for a few weeks, no driving, no picking up anything heavier than a coffee mug, you need to sleep in it too, and make an appointment with a neuro-surgeon!"
I ended up having a herniated disc or central disc bulge between C5 and C6! Essentially I hyper-extended my neck when I leaned it back to get my hair wet.
ONLY I could get hurt on the lazy river leaning my head back to get my hair wet! That's not even a good story! I'm going to have to come up with a better story to tell people!
Lily started school the next week and Chris would be out of town for a week so Chris' sister Kathy came down from Missouri to stay with us and be my chauffeur/cook/co-parent for 2 weeks (ha). We made it through! It was hard to sit and not do much but I am so thankful for the time she was able to help out so I wouldn't damage my neck more and it could get back on the path to healing!
And here's the proof....... from "The Lazy River of Death," as my friend Celena now calls it. I have gotten many a phone call and text letting me know that my friends have made it through ok while at the GWL. (haha)
