A weekend escape

This weekend Josh, I and the kids went to Wisconsin Dells and stayed at a waterpark resort. We had such a great time. It was so nice to have nothing to do but play in the water. We did hit a few snags in the beginning when Evan realized he forgot his suitcase at home. Luckily that was solved easily by a trip the Old Navy Outlet where I used my bargain finding skills to replace most of what he needed for the same price as I'd normally pay for 1 pair of pants for him! Josh lost a contact lens in the wave pool and scratched his eyeball but he's doing better now. After we got passed those things, we had a fabulous time.

Here are the kiddos...they actually stood still long enough for Mom to get a photo.



Abby with her pink (of course) floaties that helped her swim.



We went to Build-A-Bear while and Abby got a new baby kitty:



Abby helped me make a husky. It was a gift from Josh for getting my thyrogen shots and either a yay-I'm-still-in-remission gift or a wow-that-sucks-you-have-cancer gift. We put a heartbeat in it and it's so cool! You press it's chest and it feels like there is a heart beating in there.



We also (as we do every time we go to Wisconsin) went to our favorite winery to get some wine for the upcoming holidays. The fall colors everywhere we went were so beautiful, but especially here.





Some grapes still on the vine.



And for anyone wondering, Lake Delton is still gone. Here's where it should be. Notice the "water taxi" sign....

2 short video clips from vacation

Father's Day BBQ and more vacation photos

Saturday we had a BBQ at my parents' house to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad. Josh and I, the kids, my sister, brother-in-law and my Aunt Joan were all there. Josh cooked up some fabulous chicken and veggie wraps. My sister made a tasty salad and we had fun hanging outside. Poor Abby had her itchies acting up really bad. But that's par for the course with it being summer and her being outside. Hopefully her doctor will have her prescription called in tomorrow and we can get her healing up.




Evan hanging out with Grandma and Papa:












Playing a bean bag game that Papa made:









Evan and Grandma being silly:




Naturally when it comes to grilling, the guys are in charge:












Aunt Joan making a silly face:





Aunt Joan laughing at me:









Abby making music (her definition, not ours) with Papa's windchimes:




My yellow bell pepper has gone from a little baby nugget to a for real pepper over the past week. My plants are definitely my babies! I really enjoy them.








And some more vacation photos:












Those three figures you see (barely) are Josh, Evan and Abby:







Abby and I went to Build-A-Bear at the outlet mall while the guys went to play golf. She made this new kitty and named it Hearts.

Vacation pictures

Our vacation this week was so nice. Despite the nasty weather that the Midwest has been experiencing, we had a lovely time because our resort had 3 indoor water parks and various other fun things to do inside. We were even completely unaware of the horrible situation with Lake Delton going on just miles from where we were staying. If you haven't heard about it, click here to read about it.



We stayed at The Wildneress resort in a townhouse type of place.





I only remembered to take photos of the downstairs.








We had so much fun playing in the water. It amazes me how fearless little Abby is. There was only one water slide that she didn't try and the reason she didn't try it was because she didn't meet the height requirement. My personal favorite was the wave pool. It was all the fun of the ocean without the salty water and sand.













Video of Josh and Abby enjoying the water slide.







Apparently since he's now 13, it means that Evan has to suddenly act like the stereotypical teen and not want to be photographed. So this is me trying to get him to show his face.





While we were there, Josh and Evan also had some fun rock climbing. It was Evan's first time and he did quite well at it.









When we drive up to the Dells area, we pass this creepy old ammunition plant. I always wanted to get some photos of it, but it's hard when you are moving. I totally bet that place is haunted.




And last but not least, my favorite photo of the trip:

Wisconsin Dells

This past weekend Josh and I went for a quick trip to Wisconsin Dells with our best friend Matt. It was great to get away and relax overnight.
We ate:












We enjoyed the scenery:






Goofed off:




We also swam, played mini golf and went wine tasting. It was a really nice time.

Are you going to make out now?

We took our family vacation this past week to Grand Haven, Michigan. It was a blast. We swam and played in the sand. While we were there, our daughter turned 5. Wow, 5 years old. It seems like just yesterday that we were preparing for her birth. Now here she is about to start kindergarten. Time goes by so fast.

Our first night in the hotel, our son said something funny. As we were all settling in to go to sleep, he asked us if we were going to make out now. I'm still laughing over at that one.