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Disclosure: Our day out was provided by USAA. All opinions are my own and do reflect the thoughts of USAA.

I love spending quality time with my family and thanks to past deployments and TDY’s catching up on time together has been extremely important.

My son’s birthday was last month and he had been expressing interest in going back to Great Wolf Lodge. Since USAA gave us a cool opportunity to spend some family time together, that’s exactly what we did. What made this family day trip to Charlotte together a great one was that my parents and brother would be joining us . We piled into the minivan and made the 2 hour drive from our home to Great Wolf. Instead of hopping on the main highway we decided to take the scenic route to Charlotte, North Carolina. This took us through several small towns and because North Carolina has so much history to it we stopped at some of the small landmarks and small town attractions that you may not normally notice. My parents who live in New York loved the small town feel of the mom and pop stores and farm stands alongside of the road.

 

Me teaching my mom how to take a selfie
Me teaching my mom how to take a selfie

 

We finally made our way to the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, North Carolina and checked into our 2 bedroom suite. My brother and I who are 10 years apart still enjoy acting like immature kids around our parents. We were so excited to hang together that we danced, went to the arcade, and of course hung out at the indoor water park with the kids and the husband. My parents in the meantime enjoyed walking around the premises of the resort and people watching. Afterwards we drove around looking for a place to eat. New York is a great place to eat ,but my parents make it clear that New York has nothing on southern cuisine. However we ended up at a place with not so good BBQ, great fried okra, and bland sweet tea. Either way the blandness of the food didn’t take away from the fun we had laughing and eating together all at one table. Afterwards we made our way back to the resort to enjoy the birthday cake we had picked up at the bakery in the hotel.

Me and my brother being silly as usual
Me and my brother being silly as usual

dinneregreatwolf

We were pretty exhausted from the water activities and hanging out that day so we crashed pretty early. As I am sleeping I here this faint buzzing sound and I slowly rise out of my slumber as it gets louder. At this point I jump up to check our phones, iPad , and laptop thinking maybe the alarm clock was going off , but then I look up and realize it’s the fire alarm. “Oh geeze did I leave my flat iron on and set something off” is what I am thinking as it hits me that this could be serious. At this point the husband jumps up and makes it clear that the fire alarms are going off in the whole building and we need to get out of the room. I am so disoriented because of course when there is potential of a fire you can’t find your clothes that you would go outside in , and don’t forget trying to wake up two kids who can sleep through anything. We make our way outside, only to realize my mother and father are not out of the building yet. As my brother goes back into see where they are we see them making their way down the steps. Of course my mother didn’t seem to get that when alarms go off in buildings you don’t worry about what you are wearing or how your hair looks. Lesson learned! We eventually learned that there was no fire but something with the pressure in the water park set the fire alarms off.

Celebrating Life

Even though we laughed about how disheveled the entire resort full of people looked standing outside in the wee hours of the morning, we realized how easily that situation could have been more severe. What if we hadn’t heard the alarm? What if there was smoke and we couldn’t exit using the stairs because we were on the 4th floor?

Resort guests standing outside after fire alarm goes off.
Resort guests standing outside after fire alarm goes off.

Situations like this easily make me realize the importance of celebrating life and how I want to for many more years to come. However should the time come , I want to be able to focus on my family and not working out paperwork and putting together the aftermath of my financial life in a time of crisis or vice versa. The reality is no matter what the situation is life insurance will make things easier should you need to utilize it. USAA is making it so much easier for you to learn about life insurance and figure out what kinds and how much you need through the use of their life insurance calculator and also their reps who can help you find a plan that’s good for you.

Giveaway:

USAA wants you to have the opportunity to spend a day with your family and just enjoy life. (1) Lucky reader will win a $300 Visa GC to use for their family day out.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

 

 

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Krystel is the mom of two and an Army Wife. In addition to Army Wife 101 she is the Co-Founder of SoFluential.com a digital media agency that connects brands with the military market. She has appeared on MSNBC ,FOX LA and formerly was a weekly contributor to HLN's "Raising America". She has written for various outlets including Sheknows and Lifetime and is a big fan of cupcakes and french fries.

111 Comments on Celebrating Life With Army Wife 101 & USAA Plus a $300 Visa Gift Card Giveaway

  1. My ultimate family day together is one that is spent together all day long. There would be lots of love, kindness and laughter shown. We are a beach family, so I would love to spend it in the sun, on the sand and swimming!

  2. It would start out with a big breakfast, followed by a few hours at the beach, lunch, back to the beach, grill out for dinner, drinks, and big campfire to end the day.

  3. We are currently in our last year of being stationed at Hawaii, and I think this money would be well spent being put towards a night at the Disney Aulani resort!

  4. We always rotate out within the family for fun days. So it could be anything. My daughters choice last time we went to Avery island. it is always an adventure to see what the family member will choose.

  5. Our family of six needs a fun getaway. It’s out of our budget to take trips, even small ones. The military life is not easy and we could use a vacation. We have found USAA to be a gracious business, customers since 2005. And for life!

  6. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we do, just any time that we can actually have the entire weekend to be together as a family without any distractions.

  7. Kids love go bowling so that would be our getaway followed by dinner cause we love food ;-). This late PCS have us stress so they can use the fun time.

  8. I would love to take our boys to see the new movie box trolls and to a carnival. We would have the best day ever!! Good luck everyone:)

  9. Both my husband and I have crazy schedules & hardly ever spend time together. I know that gift card would be a blessing to anyone who gets it.

  10. For our family day we would all go up to northern KY and go to the Newport Aquarium :) None of us has ever been and my daughter loves to look at all the animals at the zoo particularly the sharks so I know she would love it. My youngest sister is also very into sea creatures so we would bring her as well. We would all have such a great time wandering around the aquarium and learning about the different animals there. After we’d all go to lunch/dinner before starting our 2-3 hour ride home!

  11. My ultimate trip would be the honeymoon my husband and I never got! Even if it was just down to Dallas for a weekend!

  12. Our ultimate family day would be relaxing on the beach in Barbados while the kids play in the water. Nothing but sand, sun, some good food, and clear blue water!

  13. pcsing in a week perfect ultimate family day would be a road trip exploring our new duty station surroundings with our 5 daughters mountains and lakes can’t beat that

  14. My ultimate family day is watching a sporting event, volunteering, visiting family or a theme park … whatever the day may bring as long as we are together.

  15. my ultimate family day together would be spending the day at the beach, playing in the sand, swimming in the ocean, spending time together! it would be great!

  16. This is an awesome giveaway! We would probably take a trip to the coast. We love the beach and haven’t been to the pacific yet! :)

  17. My ultimate family day together would be at Disneyland!!! care free hearts and no stress from work/bills/chores. Just lots of love and fun

  18. I would love to take my kids up to the smokey mountains and take them skiing and play with the snow. They have never seen snow and they would love me forever if I took them

  19. Our perfect family mini vacation would be to take a trip up to the pocono mountains. We are getting ready to pcs and want to experience that before moving. Thank u for doing this!

  20. wow that is amazing story. Thank you for sharing. My family trip would be to a beach with all three kids and my husband. Anything that would get my husband outside and hanging out with us is the best vacation. Due to his injuries he has a hard time with crowds of people. He is trying. My kids would love to go to Great Wolfe Lodge. My daughter loves the commercial and always ask to go.

  21. I love taking little day trips with my family when my husband has time off. But if I win, I would use it to fly to Florida. Our daughter is 13 months and has only been able to meet her grandparents twice and her great grandparents once. I would love for them to be able to spend time together, but we just can’t afford it. Thanks for the giveaway!

  22. I would love to take my kids to Chicago for a ball game and maybe even spend the night. This would be great for that!
    Thanks!

    • This is an awesome giveaway! It would be amazing to be able to take our first actual “FAMILY” vacation. We haven’t been anywhere except where the Army has moved us since our children were born! :)

  23. Someone mentioned earlier, this is a great givaway! My husband and I are celebrating our 10th year anniversary in February! We are planning to finally take our 10 years over due honeymoon. =) We’re just going to combine everything together this year : His b-day,my bday, Anniversary and Valentine’s Day. This giveaway would help towards our trip. Even if it’s only for a weekend, somewhere relaxing like the beach or mountains would be nice to treat him to.

  24. This is an awesome giveaway! It would be amazing to be able to take our first actual “FAMILY” vacation. We haven’t been anywhere except where the Army has moved us since our children were born! :)

  25. Our ultimate family day together is going to the beach and spending hours in the sand enjoying the atmosphere and each other’s company!

  26. My ultimate family day, we pack the truck with all our tailgating gear and head out early morning to watch the Carolina Panthers play. We would have plenty of food, corn hole game and tossing the the football. It would be a fun day, ending by grabbing some ice cream on the way home, celebrating the big win. :)

  27. I’ve heard wonderful things about Wolf Lodge, I wish we lived closer to go there….maybe oneday. Our ultimate family day together with all the kids is a day at the beach, we love to head out early and pack up a lunch and enjoy the day all together relaxing and building sandcastles.

  28. The best time spending as a family is since we just got to our new post. Is spending time as a family getting to see all the new spots to explore

  29. Our ultimate family day together would be taking our 3yr old to the zoo or Science Museum for the day. She loves all the hands on activities, and it wears her out so it’s a win win. LoL

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