The Zhao Family

Day 4- We all woke up around 7am to get ready to head to Philadelphia's Franklin Institute museum. We got gas and breakfast to eat in the car. We didn't arrive until 10:30 due to traffic and finding parking was difficult in downtown Philly. We didn't get in the museum until 11:30.

Once we did get in, we split into three groups: Brennan on his own, Clayton and Chris went on their own with a walkie talking and the rest stayed in one group. There was a lot of hands-on exhibits and even the grandparents were touching and learning them.

We had lunch there and stayed at the museum until it closed at 5pm. After that we went to Philly's Chinatown, which is only 10 minutes away and had dinner there. We didn't get home until 9:30pm.

It was a great time for everyone. The five kids had a wonderful time together snowtubing, skiing, playing in the pool, running around chasing MagiQuest, and yelling and screaming and making jokes at Da while he drove them. The grandparents were happy to see how wonderful their grandchildren were playing so well together. And the parents were, I guess, happy enough to get away from work and enjoy some(what) relaxation, except Abbey who has to work.

All in all, it was a great trip.

Day 3- We started late, again. Our boys didn't wake up until 9 something. Da's sister and him went to Weiss grocery store and bought breakfast which included fried chicken, donuts, apple strudels, potato chips, clementines, and orange juice. Yeap, it covers every food group but everyone was full and ready for Great Wolfe Lodge for some MagiQuest.

We finally arrived at the Lodge a little before noon, got our wands and off the kids go! They were running everywhere. Brennan left as soon as he got the wand, Emilee and FF teamed up, and Chris and Clayton teamed up. Soon, Emilee was on her own and FF came to Da to find quests with her. After Da was tired, Jing took over to go questing with FF. The grandparents were actually enjoying themselves for the first couple hours looking through the window down at the lodge's water park taking videos and photos of the place. After several hours, they were getting bored but I warned them that they will be waiting here all day long since the quests takes 6-7 hours of the kids running around to complete quests.

For lunch it was a mix of old left over pizza, Chinese food, leftover donuts and fruits from the morning, and five hotdogs bought at the lodge. We ate the food in the seating area and sat there the entire day while the kids were running around. Da's parents wanted to go back to the hotel but no one would take them. Da told them the kids will finish at 7pm. So that were very patient and waited until 7pm.

Brennan was the first to finish most of his quests. Christopher and Emilee had a really good time and were able to defeat the dragon with the help of FF. Clayton tried over 15 times and still not able to defeat the dragon. It was time to go and he begged for one last fight with the dragon, he even asked the boy waiting in line to fight one more time and that boy was nice enough to let him. Nonetheless, he still did not defeat the dragon and accepted his lost and we left. FF did not finish quests because she didn't understand how to navigate the map very well. Even with the help her dad, uncle, cousins, and brother she was unable to get everything finished. However she was a good sport about it and was happy she bought a new pink gemstone topper.

Everyone was content by 7p and was ready go back to the hotel for dinner. Since we stayed at the Chateau Resort Hotel, which is only 15 minutes from Great Wolf Lodge and literally less than 3 minutes drive from Camelback Ski Resort, we issued coupon vouchers to use at the resort. We were issued $20 per day per room, so we had a total of $180 to use for dinner. So we had a feast and everyone ordered something very yummy. Whatever the balance left was for the waiter, he was very happy. After a yummy dinner, the originally wanted to go to swimming again but they changed their mind and decided to want to play a few card games then headed to bed since we have to wake up at 7am the next day to drive two hours to Philadelphia for the The Franklin Institute museum so the kids can enjoy some hands some science.








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