Our Great Wolf Lodge opened a couple of years ago. Nice to see the Northwest getting some of the cool things we usually only hear about/read about in other parts of the US We had been planning to go for awhile. We were going to take the kids for our anniversary but that never came to pass. David made reservations a couple of weeks ago and we surprised the kids with a trip up there on Thursday (we had no school on Friday!). The kids didn’t know where we were going until we pulled into the parking lot. The waterpark is very visible from I-5, but they were so oblivious to the outside world, all “plugged in” to their DSI’s and such. They had been begging us to tell them the first 30 minutes of the drive, but they eventually gave up! I have learned a lesson in this…. I will not tell the kids about a surprise until we are arriving at our destination. We had told the kids a week or so prior to going up there and I swear I never heard the end of it… “please just one hint, Mommy”. No! LOL.

The kids all screamed and were super excited as we pulled into the parking lot and they saw the giant sign that said Great Wolf Lodge all sparkly and pretty. They had seen commercials for this place. We’d driven by it many times. So, they were well aware of this place!

If you are planning a trip here and want to be as thrifty as possible, I suggest the following things:

Bring your own food, water, snacks, etc. It isn’t cheap to eat at this place. They have an expensive Dinner/Lunch/Breakfast buffet. Breakfast was $13.95 for adults (10 and up) and $8.95 for kids (9 and under). Dinner was something like $17.95 for adults and $13.95 for kids. not cheap They have a Pizza Hut Express, where can get a medium, 8 slice, pizza for $11.95. 3 Breadsticks for $3.95. This seemed to be a popular option for alot of people. This is what we chose for our lunch on Friday. Individual sodas are $2.95, so we opted for a 2 liter from PH that was $3.95 and we got 6 cups. That worked perfectly and we saved $15! You can’t take your own food into the waterpark area, but you can eat in the lodge, or right outside the door at tables with your own snacks. That is what we did. We also had a microwave and fridge in our room, so we had snacks, microwave popcorn, etc. for when we were done swimming on Thursday night.

Go during the week if you can, it’s cheaper! Look for discount codes before making reservations. We used a 20% off code we found. Sign up for their newsletter and get email specials! This is for the Grand Mound location. If you are elsewhere, change your location.

If you do Magiquest, it will add to your bill. One idea we had was to purchase the game for our whole family. It is $25 per game ($14.99 for the wand and $9.99 for the game), we could have shared the experience and saved ourselves $75. We didn’t do the Magiquest, but we watched others do it. It looked like fun. It was just not in the budget this time around.

Splurge and book the Kids Cabin or even bigger! The girls each had their own bed and it was separate from the main part of the room… they had their own TV and everything. It was very cool!

And… pictures!

Here’s a short video tour from youtube. This isn’t our video (because we are lame and forgot ours!), but you can see the inside of the park

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SAFEWAY
Spent $6.60 for all of this.
Savings: $43.23

FRED MEYER
Spent $4.62 for all of this.
Savings: $27.13

I have my meal plan for the week in place. We are mostly cooking from the freezer and pantry. We’ll buy milk, bread, and fresh produce - but not much else. Our grocery bill should be right around $25 for the week. Probably even less. That’s exciting! Even though we aren’t doing any major grocery shopping, I did decide to stock up on some deals that are about to end.

These bargains were from using coupons that I printed out online and then getting (and using) Catalina coupons (these print out with your receipt after you pay), which I could use on my next purchase. I made two purchases at each store, the first one was the one I spent money on, getting a Catalina. The second one, I then purchased similar items, and used the Catalina from my first purchase AND coupons, which had the cashier either looking at me all bewildered like, because the register said to give me .62 cents back. Or, I paid something small out of pocket, like $.62 cents.

I am new to the Catalina thing, but I found some good detail on how these work and what these are over The Krazy Coupon Lady blog. You have probably gotten them before and either threw them at the bottom of your purse or just tossed them out. Some of them can really help lower your grocery bill so watch for them! This is a brief description, taken from TKCL:

Catalina: Sometimes abbreviated as “CAT”, Catalina coupon machines located at register, dispense long receipt-like coupons that may be used on a future purpchase. Catalinas, refer to the coupons themselves which may be manufacturer or store coupons. Some Catalina coupons are advertised and some are generated based on consumer behavior.

I know these aren’t great deals on real necessities, maybe even considered as “junk” by some standards - but it’s nice to have these on hand for snacks, sports, school events, etc. I don’t stack the boxes in the pantry and tell the kids to help themselves. These will LAST quite awhile over here! The regular price of Betty Crocker Fruit By The Foot at Safeway is $2.99. Goldfish crackers… $2.39. Are you kidding me? I get queasy thinking about paying full price like that for any of this stuff. That is nutty. Without a sale and coupon, they would not be in my home… EVER!

I feel like the grocery bill is the easiest bill to cut back on out of all the ones we have. And, of course, who can’t use a little cutting back right now? We are constantly looking at corners that can be cut, expenses that can be scaled back on, things we can do without, etc. I cut back, but it doesn’t mean I cut everything out. Store sales and manufacturer’s coupons/rebates are there for me to take advantage of, and that I will — just takes a few minutes of my time to match them all up!

We leave for Southern California in 61 days! But, who’s counting? We are all getting really excited. We will be leaving the evening of Friday, 3/26/10 and plan to drive all night, arriving in LA Saturday evening sometime. Ashlyn’s dad is getting married that Friday, so we won’t be leaving until that is over. She is going to be a bundle of excitement that week before with all of this going on. Yikes!!

I am sure that night will go smoothly, the kids will “plug themselves in”, as we call it. iPods, DSI’s, DVD players, etc., and entertain themselves to sleep! But, I am looking for ideas for my two youngest girls (ages 9 and 6) for the waking hours. There is only so much DSI and movie playing that can keep them from squirming. I want to make them little bags or baskets that they won’t be given until we leave with activities. I won’t post what I’ve gotten already, because they are surprises. I don’t have much yet though… any ideas? Post them in a comment if you do

The drive home will be much of the same, leaving a little earlier the following Saturday and getting home Sunday afternoon. I know it will be easier doing this trip with older kids than it was when they were babies, but I want to be as prepared as possible. They probably argue in confined spaces more now th It’s a LONG time to be “stuck” in a minivan together! LOL!

I’ll update as I get some more ideas

Sign up here (click on Sign In in the upper right corner and then you can click “register”) and build your snack profile for Frito Lay’s “Be Snack Ready” promotion. Took me less than a minute, just a few short questions and that’s it! You should get samples, coupons, etc. from Frito Lay after signing up!

I went to Safeway last night (a few of them, nice that they are on just about every corner in Vancouver!) to take advantage of the deal I posted about a few days ago. It worked like a CHARM. We initially paid about $2.50 for the first 4 boxes (TOTAL - so .64 cents each), but after that, every 4 boxes I “bought” were FREE using coupons and Catalina print outs that the cashier kept handing over to me This left me paying .15 CENTS A BOX… I’m just so stinking proud

I am not done yet, either. This deal is good through tomorrow, 1/24/10. I have one Catalina left in my wallet so I will get 4 or 8 more boxes. So then I will have paid .10 cents each for 24 boxes of these things!! These aren’t things I buy very often, so the kids will be in snack Heaven for a bit. I’ve started my snack tote for our drive to California during Spring Break. Yah!

There are a few good deals and even one freebie this week at Target. The first one I’m taking advantage of is for a new toddler carseat for Bailey. She’s been in her “convertible” seat since she was 12 months old. She’ll be 7 next month, so I suppose it is time. She still fits in her old one perfectly, the peanut she is, but I figure she’s probably got a couple more years of sitting in a booster. This one is nice and PINK, will add a nice splash of color to my white minivan. LOL.

They have a deal this week, when you purchase a carseat, you get a $20 gift card. The booster seat I’m looking at it is $44.99. That $20 gift card will drop it down to $24.99. I then have a $10 gift card from last week, when I transferred a prescription from Walgreens. If you are interested in doing this, go print your $10 pharmacy coupon from Target.com - it’s worth it! They were quick and I ended up getting my prescription as part of their $4 program, so I got paid $6 to transfer it!

This is the carseat I’m getting Bailey. $14.99 - I’m so excited about this deal!!

There are a few other bargains to be had at Target this week too…

Lean Cuisines, $1.45 each
Sale priced at $1.79 each
Use $1/3 coupon here
Total: $1.45 each

Nivea Body Wash, FREE!
Priced at $2.99
Use $2/1 coupon from the 1/3 Red Plum Insert
Stack with $1/1 Target store coupon
Total: FREE!

You can sign up for $10 in Betty Crocker coupons here. These are great to have on hand to pair up with a sale and they usually don’t have quick expiration dates! Thanks Utah Deal Diva!

Next up… a buy one, get one free offer for Sunbelt snacks. These are good through February 18th, 2010. They are regularly priced at around $1.39 a box at Walmart and Winco. I’m not sure about other stores, but using this coupon, that makes them about .69 cents a box! I like to have these types of granola bars on hand during softball season and quick snacks. I will be stocking up! It says “one per purchase” on the coupon, but I would suggest just keeping a few in your purse. You can pick a couple of boxes up each time you are at the store between now and 2/18. Click here to print the coupon! Good deal! Thanks Misty The Bargain Hunter!

And last up…. a great deal to be had at Safeway (and reportedly all affiliate stores also) this week on Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks!

The advertised deal is:

Buy General Mills Fruit Shapes, Fruit By The Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, or Fruit Roll-Ups Fruit Stickerz and save up to $3.50 on your next shopping order. Purchase between 12/28-01/24
Buy 3, Get a $1.50 Catalina (coupon to use on ANY of your next shopping orders)
Buy 4, Get a $2.50 Catalina
Buy 5, Get a $3.50 Catalina

These ROLL, so that means you can take those Catalinas, use them on your next order and buy more of the Betty Crocker Fruit Snack promo items. You will then get the same Catalinas again.

There are coupons to be matched up with this sale, which is what makes this deal so GREAT!

You can check out the scenarios The Krazy Coupon Lady has, as well as links to all of the printable coupons currently available here. Print them while you can! Most coupons have a print limit. With a deal like this, they will probably go quickly! Thanks Krazy Coupon Lady!

Geez.. I guess getting geared up to go swimming wipes McKenzie right out. Uncle Joel and Aunt Carrie took the two little girl swimming today. This is Kenzie in the car on the way there.

This is Kenzie several months ago, camping at Cascade Peaks… waiting to go swimming there.

What a goof!

If you watch any children’s television and/or have little girls, you probably know about the Barbie Pink Ticket Party?! Well, they are doing a contest, where you can buy specially marked Barbie items and register for a chance to win a prize on their website. It’s a contest where “no purchase is necessary”. In fact, we got several pink ticket items for Christmas and I didn’t even think to check for a code. You can get a free code by going to the site I’m linking below. You just go there and fill out the few questions and you find out instantly if you’ve won a prize. I don’t know if it’s a fluke thing or not, but Bailey and McKenzie both entered tonight and they both won “a free Barbie or Barbie furniture item”! Pretty neat. You get a $5.00 coupon whether you win or not. That is really what I was looking for, as we have many upcoming Birthays to buy for. These coupons will come in handy. The free stuff is especially sweet!

Go here to register to win Barbie stuff instantly!

McKenzie finally got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. It’s topped her list for several years in a row now. I think she likes the idea of being able to make a treat, at any given time, without my help. I personally thought the Easy Bake Oven took more supervision and time from me, than say… a batch of chocolate chip cookies! Hopefully, now that we know how to work the thing, the process will go much quicker/smoother next time around. It was fun though! Both the girls made little ‘Smore cookies that smelled good! They both said they tasted great, so thumbs up all the way around.

CHECK! Another Christmas gift PLAYED WITH and put away. Woohoo!

Check out Kenzie’s eyes in this one…
The green sweatshirt totally makes her eyes look green!

Okay you loyal readers you. Scratch that… you loyal READER you. I’m sure there is one of you out there?

I just cashed in for my *SECOND* $5 Amazon gift card of 2010 through Swagbucks. I have been using Swagbucks for a little over a year now. Throughout 2009, I earned enough swagbucks to cash in for over $265 in Amazon gift cards. That paid for a good chunk of Christmas presents for my kids. If there was ever a year we needed a little help, 2009 was it. It was so very helpful!

I don’t expect to earn nearly as much in 2010. I had about 20 referrals in 2009 (many of which mind you, I got just from posting my wins to Facebook and catching the attention of a curious Facebook friend here and there). So, I was earning swagbucks for my own searches, and then each time they won, I also won the same amount - until they reached 100 swagbucks. A $5.00 Amazon Gift Card costs 45 swagbucks. How do you earn swagbucks? EASY. You stop using Google. You make Swagbucks your primary search engine. It is google powered, so you are going to get very similar search results. You don’t *have* to download anything. You can download a toolbar, but you don’t have to. I like the Google engine better for searching for images, but otherwise, Swagbucks is very comparable. I know this to be true because it’s all I use now (and I was a mega googler before)! Anyway, you will randomly “win” a swagbuck for searching. I have the best luck later in the evening (which happens to be when I’m looking for various things on the Internet), I think because the East Coast has all gone to bed. I have won as much as 20 swagbucks on one search. Most are just 1 swagbuck wins. Some are $2, $3, $4 or more. They also put out swagcodes, that you can redeem for 1 free swagbuck. These come out pretty much daily, so you can almost earn a $5 Amazon card just from copying and pasting the codes they publish!

I figure if I can earn two $5.00 Amazon gift cards per month, that is $120.00 by the end of the year that can be spent on Christmas gifts and it would be 100% worth my time. I am doing nothing different. We all search the Internet. I just choose to search through swagbucks.com so that I can earn gift cards for doing so. Easy!

I have no referrals right now, so whatever I earn, is completely by myself. If you have not started using this site, I highly recommend it. It is WORTH checking out!!