Christmas in IL Part 2: Grizzly Jack's

The day after Pippa's birthday party we left home for a few days to stay at a place called Grizzly Jack's Lodge, near Starved Rock. This was a big departure from anything I think our family has ever done before. The few trips we did when I was growing up revolved around historical attractions, not amusement parks (those were pretty much limited to the State Fair), but when you have 4 small children under the age of five, their interests tend to set the tenor for the family's activities. And since my parents thought 8 straight days in the farm house with limited amusements and even tighter space might be a bit much for us all, they surprised us with a little get away.

Mom found the resort online and it proved to exceed our expectations! It started snowing shortly after we arrived and continued to snow the remainder of the day. From inside our cabin, and later on through giant windows in the indoor waterpark, we could watch thick, fluffy flakes falling outside. It provided a quiet calm and contributed to the whole rustic, mountain-y feeling.

What cabin doesn't have a fireplace? Ours certainly did but what we didn't know was that they were all GAS and Mom and Dad had taken valuable packing space in the van to haul three seed sacks full of firewood... which we wouldn't be able to use. In their defense, given what we paid for firewood on a previous trip, I can't blame them. Nevertheless it was good for a laugh.

This collection of photos feels incomplete, and that's probably from my total laziness with using my camera right now, but it gives you a general idea of our time together.

Ellie is NOT cooperating with the camera these days. I hope it's a temporary phase. We watched lots of kids movies, made meals in the cabin, enjoyed the fireplace and cups and cups of hot coffee, and squeezed in a few games of Catan (not easy with small children around!). All in all, quite relaxing!




The water park was really nice (though Reni was a bit chilly outside of the heated children's pool, as you can see in the right-hand photo below). Everyone enjoyed the "family" slide, even Reni who went crazy letting us know how much he wanted to go down by himself too. Nathan would let go of him at the top and I'd catch him at the bottom. He loved it! His sister wasn't so brave to go by herself!
In addition to the waterpark, the facility also had an indoor amusement park which featured a lot of carnival-type rides and our package included unlimited access to both. Ellie absolutely LOVED this and got our family's admissions worth practically by herself. While she couldn't bring herself to slide solo down a waterslide, she had no fear to ride whirling, spinning, free falling carnival rides. Seriously. I can't believe the rides she did and she was just tall enough to get on them all! My dad decided he would be a good sport and join Tua and Ellie for one of them. For some reason he chose to join them on a ride that spun your pod around while spinning and lifting your unit in various directions. All the spinning action made him quite sick and that was the end of his amusement park experience. But he was a good grandpa. ;-) Why he didn't volunteer one ride earlier on the carousel we don't know ... All in all, we made some great memories and enjoyed this departure from our typical Christmas trip to central Illinois!