Thread:72.73.39.77/@comment-108.44.179.244-20181219200856

YOOOOOOOOO WASSUP MI AMIGO! How have you been?

ARGHHHHHH I HAD SUCH A GOOD TIME AT GREAT WOLF LODGE!!! TIMMA TELL U ALL ABOUT IT! Warning: It took me over 3 hours to write, so it's going to be very long. You don't have to respond to it all.

Okay so on Sunday I was just walking back and forth and back and forth waiting for Miss Maggie to come pick  me up. She was a few minutes late because she missed the turn to get into our neighborhood. Jonnie got out of the car and put my suitcase in the car for me♡ Miss Maggie and Alyssa sat in the front, Jonnie and Anthony were in the middle row, and I had to sit in the back with Chad and his girlfriend Sarah... It was really awkward and uncomfortable but the ride was still fun because this is the Smiths we're talking about.

We stopped at Target to get some Starbucks (they have a Starbucks in that particular Target). Miss Maggie brought Jonnie and Anthony went in to help her carry the drinks. I'm not sure why they took so long. I swear they took 20 minutes! While we were waiting, I was still stuck in the back with the lovebirds, and Alyssa was reading funny parts of her book to me. She also told me all about her favorite author and her favorite books. Miss Maggie & Jonnie and Anthony eventually came back, and there was an extra peppermint mocha so I got to have a drink, too.

During the car ride we were on and off listening to songs on the radio, and one of my favorite songs "Stitches" by Shawn Mendes came on and I REALLY wanted to sing to it. Thankfully I managed to just mouth out the lines instead of actually singing because my voice is horrible. It's weird, that song makes me so happy even though it's actually a sad song. I guess it's the beat.

Minus the Target stop, it took us about 2 hours to get to Great Wolf Lodge. We arrived just before dark. We had to wait around a bit for Miss Maggie to sign us in. Lol Jonnie is so weird😂 He and Anthony walked in and Jonnie pretended to flirt with Alyssa and I. Miss Maggie eventually got us signed in, and we brought alllll of our stuff to our room.

Great Wolf Lodge has four floors, and our room was on the fourth floor. Our room number was 4014. I loved our room so much! It had four beds, three on the main level on the room, and then there were stairs that went up to the upper level of the room which had the fourth bed and a half bathroom. Alyssa and I got the upper level of the room. Oh yeah, and there were three TVs. Two were downstairs and one was upstairs. We only used one TV, though, and that was the one downstairs in front of Miss Maggie's bed. There was a fireplace right by the stairs, it wasn't really real, though. But it was super warm! Alyssa and I were going to go explore the place before dinner, but unpacking took us too long. We had Papa John's pizza for dinner and it was delicious!

After dinner, Alyssa and I went to explore the place. On the first floor, there's the waterpark, an arcade, a... hygiene store? )I'm not really sure what to call it. It had soap and all kinds of hygiene bottles and you could get massages there) anyway and there was also a kids' bowling alley, some kind of kids' theater, the kids' gift shop, the MagiQuest place, a sweets shop, and a pizza place.

On the second floor, there's the lobby (the lobby is BEAUTIFUL! Since it's Christmas time, it was all decorated in Christmas decor. There's HUMONGOUS fake trees with ornaments bigger than my head, there's the storytelling place with talking trees and animals, there's a place with comfy chairs you can sit down in which has a wall of windows overlooking the waterpark, and there's the elevators. Oh yeah! and it sometimes snows in the lobby, too. Fake snow, of course, but it's still cool.) there's also a buffet, a big gingerbread house with a dining room, a candy shop, a Dunkin Donuts, and of course hallways so that you can get to your room.

The third floor is mostly just activities for the MagiQuest thing (I'll tell you what that is in a bit) and of course, rooms.

The fourth floor is just about the same as the third, but the fourth floor is special because that's the floor our room is on.

After a while of wandering, Miss Maggie eventually found Alyssa and I and asked us if we wanted to sample fudge with her at the sweets shop. Who could say no to that? I sampled red velvet fudge and that could easily have been the best fudge I have ever had. Some of the other kinds of fudge they had were oreo, mint, caramel (I think), and others I'm forgetting.

After fudge-ing, we went to the kids' gift store and we had Alyssa's stuffed animal made. There was this machine with fluff in it and you press this pedal and it stuffs the animal with fluff. After Alyssa was done getting her stuffed animal all ready, I had a bracelet get stamped with my name on it. I'll try to remember to show it to you next time I see you.

Then we found out about this scavenger hunt where you look for clues as to where the next clue is. At the end of it all we got to pick a prize. I chose this little blue monster thing and it's adorable and I love it and I named it Marty.

We all hung out in the room for a few hours, and then Miss Maggie took us girls to a Michaels craft store for fun. Alyssa, Sarah and I went straight to the flower section and we had a contest to see who could make the best bouquet. Miss Maggie was the judge and she deemed all of us the winner. Alyssa and I were just walking around and Alyssa spotted TYPEWRITERS! The Michaels craft store in Williamsburg is selling '''TYPEWRITERS! '''That is so crazy! Miss Maggie almost got one for Alyssa because Alyssa asked for one for Christmas, but it was just too much money. It was like $120 or $180.

After we were done at Michaels we went back to our room at Great Wolf Lodge and we decided to go to the arcade. Since it was like 10:00 or 11:00 PM, we figured it wouldn't be so crowded because most of the kids would be in bed by that time. And that was quite true. There were still some ppl, but not very many. There was SO much stuff to do in the arcade! There's air hockey, basketball, this thing where you shoot at aliens, things where you try to pick up stuffed animals with a claw, and so much more! It was awesome. Even with all the people gone it was still loud, though. But it was worth it.

We all eventually went back to the room and hanged out for a while. When ppl were starting to settle down for the night, Jonnie came upstairs to see what we were doing and stuff and I was sitting on the floor in a corner so that no one could see me write in my journal and Jonnie asked me what I was doing so I looked up and he was standing there, posing, smiling, and running his hands through his hair and that may or may not have given me the flutters♡ I don't think everybody actually went to bed until like 12:00. I had to sleep with ear muffs on because I heard snoring (I think it was Anthony.)

On Monday, I woke up to jonnie and Anthony making noises. It was around like 8:20 and apparently they got back from the gym (I don't remember what floor the gym is on so I didn't list it.) and they were getting ready to go to the waterpark. The boys spent most of the trip at the waterpark. Once we got up and got ready, Miss Maggie, Alyssa and I went to the second floor to have breakfast at the buffet. The food was really good, but I just wasn't very hungry that morning so I didn't eat much. Alyssa was kind of out of sorts during the meal so that made things a little awkward, but Miss Maggie eventually cheered her up. Jonnie and Anthony eventually came and ate with us. After eating, Alyssa and I headed to the first floor to the MagiQuest store and we got our wands activated. Since I'm not very good at explaining things, here's a link to where you can find out what exactly MagiQuest is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagiQuest . MagiQuesting is so fun! But boy was it a workout. We had to go from floor to floor, up and down and up and down elevators and so on. I think if I didn't go MagiQuesting with Alyssa I wouldn't have memorized where everything in the building is. My wand was very girly... it's pink with an alicorn topper. If I got to choose what wand I would get, I would have gotten a blue wand with a blue dragon topper. The reason I didn't get to choose my wand is because I had to borrow Katie's wand. Apparently the Lombardos went to Great Wolf Lodge with the Smiths in the past so that's why Katie had a wand. I still really enjoyed MagiQuesting, though. I wish we got to finish all the quests before we had to leave. After MagiQuesting we took a break back at the room for a little bit and then we went to the candy shop and each of us got a cup of delicious candy. I can't remember the last time I went to a real candy shop. And then we went to the waterpark. Alyssa and Miss Maggie went in the hot tub, but I didn't want to because there were so many people in the hot tub. So, I went over to the wave pool (a giant pool with a wave generator) and I made the mistake of sitting in the shallow water doing nothing. It is way funner to go deeper to the 4 foot water and just hang out there. After a bit Alyssa joined me in the wave pool and she chased me pretty much the entire time. She would go underwater and try to grab my feet and I would try to playfully kick her without her grabbing my feet in the process. I think we were at the waterpark for about 2 hours and then we went back to the room. At 3:00 we all went to the kids' gift shop for a friendship bracelet making activity. That was pretty fun. I'll try to remember to show my bracelet to you next time I see you. Ramen was for dinner that night but I wasn't very hungry. Everybody went to the arcade at the same time. The later you go to the arcade, the better. It's so annoying going in there when there's so many people. When Alyssa used all of her points on her arcade card, she had over 600 tickets that she could buy prizes with. She decided not to use them until the next day, though. When I was coming back from the arcade, Alyssa had decided to disappear and so I just went back to the room alone and I saw that Jonnie was lying on his bed watching videos. I discovered how amazingly cozy it was by the fireplace so I got some pillows and lied down on the floor re-reading the part in Flashback where Fitz almost kissed Sophie (that was my favorite part of the book BTW) and I heard Miss Maggie call Jonnie. Being the snoop that I am, I listened to their convo. ''It's not my fault he had his phone on speaker. ''I heard him tell Miss Maggie that he was just taking a break from everything because he felt like he wasn't doing good at anything and he's really competitive. It took a lot of strength for me to not shout out to Jonnie, "that's me every day, dude! Be thankful that you're perfect at everything," but thankfully I didn't, because that would have been selfish and rude. At about 11:00 PM we all finally decided to play hide and seek. Jonnie and Anthony were the first ones who were It. At first, we were allowed to hide everywhere but the first floor, bathrooms, and outside, but then we soon reduced it to the first and second floor. Alyssa and I's first hiding spot was between a vending machine and a wall. I made the mistake of closing the normally open door to the vending area. I thought it would deter the boys from looking in there, but it did the opposite. The second round of hide and seek, Chad and Sarah were It. Alyssa and I decided to hide in the arcade and we were still found first. The third round, Alyssa and I were It. We ended up splitting up, and I found literally everyone in the arcade. Jonnie was convinced that I didn't find him, though, so he and Anthony ran. We eventually got the word to them that I found them, though. And that was our final round before we stopped. I may or may not have had an emotional attack during the third round, so I was feeling really weird and I was saying things I didn't mean. When we were going back to the room Jonnie was sweet and he offered to do things for me. We eventually went to bed around 12:00 PM again. Some time that night Jonnie randomly hugged me. It was weird, it was the first time Jonnie had ever hugged me. He was more bony than I was expecting but I still really appreciated the hug. On Tuesday, I woke up at about 8:00. Alyssa wasn't awake, but I decided to get up anyway and walk around the building. So I got dressed and everything, and I decided to go to the gym to see if Jonnie and Anthony were still there. And so I did, and they were actually still there. I didn't want to interrupt them, so I kind of just walked around the first floor a bit. On about the third round of passing the gym, I was walking the opposite direction of the gym when Jonnie and Anthony left. Jonnie noticed me walking towards the arcade and he said hi to me, so I turned around and said hi and appreciated his precious smile for a few seconds. You know the feeling of everything seeming to be in slow motion? Yeah, that's what happened to me right there. I eventually turned around and walked the same direction as the boys. I'm pretty sure they were going back to the room to get ready for the waterpark. They took the elevator, but I decided to take the stairs instead. I was just walking past the elevator when the boys stepped out and they were just like "oh, hi again!" and I was a little surprised that me going up the stairs was faster than the elevator. I guess it's because I like to go up stairs two steps at a time. I walked around the place a while longer before I decided to go back to the room to get my swimwear on because I wanted to go to the hot tub while there weren't very many people. I told Miss Maggie where I was going and she liked that idea so she went, too. Alyssa still wasn't up by then. I didn't have the heart to wake her, so I just proceeded to the waterpark myself. Man oh man the hot tub is nice. It's just so relaxing! After a spell in the hot tub, I went to the pool with basketball hoops and I played basketball. Some random boys eventually silently joined me, and so we took turns using the hoop. They were nice, so that was good. Whenever the ball landed in their direction they would throw it back to me instead of taking it. After that, I went to the wave pool where I found Jonnie and Anthony. They asked where Alyssa was and I replied, "as far as I now, still asleep," which was true, because I hadn't seen Alyssa awake all morning. Once I was satisfied with basketball, I went over to the lazy river and went around a few times. I really like the lazy river at Great Wolf Lodge because there's random tubes floating in the water that you can take. Some time after 10:00 AM, Miss Maggie eventually got Alyssa and they wanted me to go with them on the waterslide called 'tornado' so I got in line with them. Granted, I had never been in a waterslide before, nor did I want to, but Alyssa really wanted me to so I did. We definitely had to wait a while in line. Once it was getting close to our turn I was getting REALLY nervous. The slide entrance was this giant ominous yellow cave that did not look inviting to me. We had to sit on this giant yellow floaty thing where your butt would go through a hole and your legs had to be straight and you had to hold on very tight to the handles. I really did not want to face the back of the floaty, so I faced the front but that did not help. Once we started going I was the one in the back and we were going down. Fast. Honestly, "fast" isn't even an intense enough word for it. All I can say is that I was terrified. Horrified, even. This was the first waterslide I had ever been on, and there were sharp as heck twists and turns that made me scream worse than a banshee. Once we were past the horrible twists and turns, things got even worse. We went into this giant sort of tornado shaped part of the slide and, right then and there, I wanted to die. We were going all different directions at what felt like 100 miles an hour and I just could not scream loud enough. Nothing helped. I wanted it to stop immediately. I don't even know how long we were in the actual 'tornado' part of the slide. All I know is that once we were out of the slide, I was more than relieved. I was still terrified, though. Even after we were out. There was a lifeguard who helped us off of our floaty. I don't even remember what he looked like (I'm pretty sure they were a dude) my whole brain was fuzzy with terror. I was legit breathing so hard it sounded like I legit had asthma. I got away from that horrific slide as fast as I could. I decided to go straight to the pool with basketball hoops. My legs were still shaking with terror, ''I should not have gone on that slide. That slide was litterally the 'most terrifying thing I've ever done. ''' After a minute, Miss Maggie came and took my hands, told me to close my eyes and take deep breaths. Right then and there Miss Maggie was just like an angel. After a minute or two, I was feeling a little bit better. Alyssa seemed to feel horrible that she made me go on that slide. We just hanged out a bit in the waterpark for a little while and then we got towels and went back to the room. I got dry clothes on and Alyssa and I started packing. Once we were done, we went to the arcade so that Alyssa could get prizes with the 627 tickets she had. She got a yoyo (which broke immediately), a rubber ducky, a toy airplane, and some candy. When we came back to the cabin from the arcade, it was time for us to bring everything to the car. Chad and Sarah had already packed a cart thingy with all of our stuff so we just followed them out to the car. Chad has started this annoying thing where he calls me "Joyce" to annoy me and the first time he said it I said, "I don't answer to that name!" and from thereon I try very hard to ignore him when he calls me that. Since I had to spend 3 days with him, I'm a lot more comfortable around Chad now. Before he really creeped me out, but now he's less of a creep and more like a bro to me. Sometime earlier, Anthony and I were pretty much alone in the room and I was downstairs getting chips and I saw him and he automatically turned creepy and he started chanting, "do you know da way?" and that really creeped me out cause it was also a bit dark in the room so I just glared at him and I threw a bag of disgusting salt & vinegar chips at him and he whined, "hey, that's bullying!" and so he threw it back at me and missed and then tried again and I cought it with one hand and I realized I didn't want custody of the chips because I don't really like salt & vinegar chips so I threw it back at him and he kept throwing it allll the way back upstairs to me cause he didn't want it either. Eventually Miss Maggie came in and saved me from having to keep throwing the chips back at Anthony by stopping us all together. Anyway, when Chad, Sarah, Alyssa and I brought all the stuff to the car Miss Maggie insisted on loading the car by herself so Alyssa and I waited inside. Once Miss Maggie was done, we all went to the lobby to wait for Jonnie and Anthony to show up. After a long time waiting, they magically showed up, and then left again to get their dry clothes on. There's a window overlooking the waterpark, and I happened to look out and I saw them talking to girls that they had "made friends with" during our stay instead of doing what they were supposed to be doing. We eventually all got in the car and left Great Wolf Lodge. I was expecting to leave at 2:00 sharp, but we ended up leaving around 3:00. We stopped at Sonic on our way and Miss Maggie got everyone food but me. I guess I could have spoken up, but I wasn't motivated to have Miss Maggie spend more money just for me. Sooo I starved. Then we drove for a while longer, and we stopped at this awesome place called Yankee Candle. It's this awesome store with candles and candy and the ceiling has sky projectors. We walked around a bit, and then we went to go make wax hands. It was really cool! Here's how we did it: there was a metal thing with ice cold water it, and so you dip your hand in that to get your hand nice and cool, and then you choose a sign you want to make with your fingers, and you have to keep your fingers and wrist absolutely still, and then the guy puts your hand in hot wax for a few seconds and then you bring your hand back to the cold water, and so on. You have to do it a few times so that you have a few layers of wax. I went right after Alyssa so that I would know what to expect. The guy who helped us with making the wax hands's name is Josaiah. He's this really tall dude who wears glasses and he has dirty blonde hair. He was so nice! It was like he wasn't even a stranger at all. It was like we already knew him. We all told jokes and stuff while we were waiting for everyone to be done. It was quite entertaining. The first time I did my wax hand, it was ruined, so I had to do it a second time. The second time could have gone better, but it still worked out. I swear I had the biggest hands out of our whole group! I got to have mine colored purple. Though I do regret not doing blue, because blue is my favorite color and almost everybody else did blue. I'll try to remember to show it to you sometime! It was adorable when Jonnie went. He made all kinds of astonished faces when he was getting his wax hand done. When we were done at Yankee Candle, we drove some more and dropped Anthony off at Kings Dominion because that's where his mom was. Once Anthony was gone I got to sit where he was next to Jonnie in the middle row. Jonnie was so tired he just fell asleep. I was quite tired myself, so I tried to get comfy in my seat. That was very difficult. I eventually realized that Jonnie was sprawled out on his seat and his left arm was wrapped around the pillow his face was planted into, and his right arm was sticking out towards me and I also realized that my hair was dangling right where Jonnie's right hand was. I wasn't embarrassed because no one else noticed us and so I just decided to roll with it. We dropped Sarah off at the Dollar General close to my house so that her mom could pick her up. Then, a few minutes later, I got dropped off at my house. As soon as I got into my room I started crying because of how thankful I am that I was able to go on that trip. It was weird because that was the first time I had ever started crying of happiness before. So yeah, that was awesome! Ugh, I won't get to see you for another two weeks! My oldest sister, Heather, is holding a Christmas party at her house this Friday. I'm not gonna be surprised at all if none of us are able to make it, though. EVERYONE in my family but me is horribly sick. Heck, we might even have to postpone Christmas. I really wanna do a double vacation with you guys someday.

Dawn 