This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.
Woodloch, you have our whole hearts. Our family had the greatest weekend and made so many special memories together. We have found our new winter tradition.
Check out their website here… http://www.woodloch.com
My Woodloch Story
I’ll be honest, winter is not my most favorite season. I love a good snow day. And I don’t mind bundling up with the kids to play outside to get a few hours of fresh air. But the winter is just too long, cold and the darkness so early can surely give us the blues, not to mention cabin fever. We are an outside family. Woodloch gave us the perfect balance of enjoying the outdoor winter activities, beating the cold for a weekend and pretending to be in warmer weather. Which brings us to our top pick for visiting Woodloch this winter.
Indoor Pools and Splash Zones
It was so great that our room was in the same building as the pool. However, we kept the pool a secret from the kids because we knew the second we mentioned it or if they knew where it was, that we would be there for the rest of the day. We had never been to Woodloch before and wanted to try as many amenities as we could and figure out our day before hitting the pool.
So there was a big pool. And a hot tub. And a small kiddie pool. But the real magic was in the kiddie splash zone. Which is where we parked ourselves. My daughter and I did hop into the big pool and do a quick swim before we spotted the kiddie splash zone. There was a bigger splash zone that had a water slide too.
There was a pool bar. Here is where we will find a happy husband. Enjoying a nice cold beer in the kiddie splash zone is dad life on vacation.
Dining
So much food. We were never hungry. Not by a long shot. I was most excited that my son, who sticks to his staple foods, was able to have all of his favorites. I need to talk about the crumb cake that came out before the actual breakfast. Um, I can not even. It was so good. Do not. I repeat. Do not leave without taking one home.
So here’s my thing. I love cooking but I also love not cooking. Let’s all agree that one of the best parts of vacation is getting to eat delicious food and then not having to clean up the mess after. I was soooo excited for this trip and having all the meals included. But here are the facts. I have a 3 and 4 year old. I was getting very anxious about having all sit down meals. There are times we go out to eat and my kids are awesome. Then there are times that we have to apologize, give back the menus before even ordering because they can’t sit still or stop touching everything or trying to get out of the booth or walk away from the table etc. I mean kids are kids right.
We arrived on the later side of dinner on Friday night and I was already stressed that we were going to be so late and miss it. The vibe of the dining hall was so family friendly. As soon as we sat down for dinner, I spotted a mom following her wandering child and chatted with another random family. So I immediately felt at ease like okay so now if my kids get up for a second it is all good.
Woodloch Resort, Poconos PA
Every single server at every meal was so nice, patient and ready to get us anything we needed. And again 3 and 4 year old. Sometimes we ask for lot. Here I go blaming my picky eating son again. But he would like to have extras of random things such as the mandarin oranges from the salad. Or extra bread sticks from the shrimp cocktails. Or only the grapes from the fruit salad. Our server would gladly bring him his own personal bowl of just that.
My kids absolutely loved that we had the same table for the whole weekend. It really was funny to watch them walk to “our” table by themselves and pick the same seats as if we have been living there for years. So cute.
As much as I would have loved to take my time and enjoy a nice relaxing dinner with my lovely family. The reality with young kids, my kids anyway, or husband, whichever, is get a good solid 25 minutes. Honestly, I count that as a successful meal out. So my favorite part about dining at Woodloch was that we were able to do just that. We never had to wait more than a few minutes for anything and I mean anything. The salad was always waiting on the table. Very full bread baskets and appetizers within minutes. Dinner AND side dishes. My daughter loved serving the side dishes and hogging them. Then dessert. Did I mention how full we were after each meal.
The Forest Indoor Playground & Arcade
So I somehow missed this. I had no idea that there was an arcade with a enormous and phenomenal indoor climbing park. But don’t worry my kids found it promptly after finishing breakfast Saturday morning.
Woodloch Resort, Poconos PA
This was actually the best surprise ever. I was so busy looking into all the activities and thinking about how fun it would be try ice skating and snow tubing for the first time with the kids. There was a spot that had bumper cars and the indoor splash zone at the pool. I am usually not a planner and typically go with the flow on these getaway weekends. But I was trying to cram as much as possible!
We were the first ones and only ones in there bright and early Saturday morning. The kids had the run of the place and couldn’t be more excited. It was actually hard to get them out and obviously why wouldn’t it be! Of course, we did come back later in the day and play for a little while. But we didn’t have much time before the next fun began… because this weekend there was a….
Winter Carnival Theme
I have to say that the winter carnival was perfect. And to really set the mood, it started snowing as soon as we made it there. Everybody had their favorite game or station.
You have to check out my Instagram stories. My husband was so excited to try the keg throwing game. https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18091703191132999/
My daughter, being the little chef and baker that she is, made a direct line for the cookie decorating station. There is a cookie under all those toppings somewhere.
We stayed until the carnival was packing up and the woman who was making the balloon animals was the absolute sweetest. We hadn’t made it to her earlier. I asked if she was already done and if we were too late. She gave the kids snakes, swords, an elephant, a flower bouquet for this mom and gave us a few extra balloons and told us to have a popping good night. My kids played with those all night and look at my son. He was so happy bringing his balloon snake on our walks around the lake and certainly taking all of these home.
Things we missed but we’ll be back to do…
There was a horse and carriage ride during the carnival but the kids were having so fun playing all the games that we never made it! I really wanted to do this!
Well here we are. All geared up and ready to go snow tubing.
As you can tell my son was a little grumpy. We had to wake them up from a well deserved nap and he was just not ready. But we had things to do like snow tube!!! By the time we bundled up, and walked over to the snow tubing, they realized we were by the forest indoor adventure park and wanted to go there. In hindsight, I wish I would have just throw them on the tube and sent them down the hill. They would have loved it and never wanted to leave. But we all know as a mom on vacation with kids, sometimes you gotta just pick your battles. So…
I’ll be counting down the days until our next getaway to Woodloch Resort. Our first weekend visiting but definitely not our last! We miss you already.
