Our Wisconsin Week

Have you ever heard of the "Waterpark Capital of the World?"  If you are from the Midwest, you know I'm talking about the Wisconsin Dells.  If you haven't heard of it, well, you are missing out!!  For 10 years, we had been hearing about it and now we can finally say that yes, it is as amazing as it sounds!  We have some dear friends who are currently living out of the country, and they invited us to use their time share since they weren't able to this year.  What a kind and generous gift!  So, near the end of October, we packed up and took the kids out of school (a somewhat major ordeal!) and headed to Wisconsin.  It was a week never to be forgotten and such a great experience for our family.  Our kids cannot stop talking about it...just the other day, we were driving somewhere on a dark, chilly night and Cole sighed from the backseat and said, "Oh, I miss the Dells!"  Me too!!! 

Because we have always lived away from family, our vacations have almost always including driving somewhere to see family.  And of course, we LOVE that...but we just haven't had the chance to go on a trip with just our little (or big?) family and really spend time together.  It was so much fun.  So nice to be away from all the everyday stuff...the electronics, jobs, school, sports practices, housework, church work, etc.  It made me realize that we need to find a way to do it more often!

 

We headed up around noon on Monday...the drive was beautiful (Wisconsin in the fall!) and the kids were so excited.  The condo was amazing and huge!  Big enough for our family to be comfortable with room to spare!

Kind of funny...when we first got there, Tod and I went to check in at the desk and we left the kids in the car...it took longer than we thought and the radio and lights were left on...when we came out, the van battery was dead, so we had to go back in and get the guy from the front desk to give us a jump!

The rest of the week was spent swimming, playing, eating, sleeping, and relaxing!!! 

There was so much to do- 4 different water parks to visit and lots of fun activities.

 This indoor wave pool was my very favorite- the sun could shine in, and it was nice and warm and so much fun.  For the first 3 days, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Notice Ashton's arm bandage- the kids kept getting beat up on the slides...they have first aid stations everywhere and we were frequent visitors.

 Whenever, the sound would come on when the waves were getting ready to start, Cole would quickly gather all the tubes and drag them up...he said it was his job.

Luke spent a lot of time doing this:

He was highly entertained during the day watching all the action...he did not, however, appreciate the nights and let us all know that he wanted to be home in his own crib!

I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the actual water parks...but it was hard to juggle a camera and a baby...not to mention the wet conditions!
They had a fun pass you could buy that gave you access to lots of fun activities like mini golf and a ropes course.

Our family always loves arcades...and the accompanying "prizes".

There was also a giant climbing thing that was hours of fun for all.

One evening, we decided to venture to the "Haunted Hotel".  The young guy working there told me it wasn't really scary for kids and most kids just came out laughing...not so for our family, everyone was terrified and traumatized.  Kind of funny though. (Check out Ashton's face!)

(After they had a few moments to recover, they could laugh about it!)

In order to get to all the attractions, everything is connected by very long hallways/walk ways.  We spent a lot of time walking!  So glad we brought the stroller.

And the little kids loved the elevators...and fought about who got to push the buttons.

We did a lot of trading off with one of us taking the 4 older kids to do activities and the other staying back with baby Luke (a stark reminder that we have "started over" again with the baby stage!)  It actually worked out well and gave everyone some quiet time!

As I mentioned, the condo was great.  I had to get some pictures to capture it!  It actually had a table for all of us to sit down and eat!

Ashton and Jordan loved having this bedroom for the week!

The balcony was nice and had a great view of a forest area.

We loved having this guy all to ourselves for the week!

When it was time to come home, we were all dragging our feet a bit!  I'm sure you can see why!  While we were in the Dells, we saw lots of statues around town, so we decided to stop and pose with a few before we left.

Then when we decided we really had to leave, we spotted a $3 go-cart track and had to stop for a quick ride!

And then, we finally headed home...feeling so happy that we enjoyed such a grand week together, feeling so grateful to our friends who shared, and feeling that this is a place we have to go back to someday!

Halloween 2013

When we returned from our trip to Wisconsin (which I will post more about soon!), it was time for all the Halloween fun to begin!  It seems to come around faster every year!
First up was pumpkin carving....always a favorite tradition.  I like it so much more now that Ashton and Jordan can do it by themselves...and Luke skipped out on carving this year, so it was really pretty easy.

 I'd say the pumpkins reflected their styles/personalities pretty well!

And this picture shows perfectly how Tod feels about all things Halloween...at least he is perfectly happy to hang out with the baby!

Next up was trick or treating (the night before actual Halloween in our neck of the woods!)
We had a wide variety of costumes this year (what was I to do without Grandma Cindy's help??)
We had the cutest little fireman ever thanks to Old Navy!

And a scary witch!  Regan was wearing one of my favorite costumes of all time...the witch costume my mama made for me when I was just her age (Jordan wore it too when she was a 1st grader.)  Regan insisted on the face paint!

Jordan always tells me that she doesn't really like the costume thing, so she went with something simple- the personalized Cardinals jersey that Tod got from Korea.  It was perfect since she has loved softball this year...she didn't love how everyone had an "opinion" about her outfit...lots of Cubs fans in these parts.

And finally, our 50's girl...she was saying this could be her last Halloween for trick-or-treating...I assured her that she is safe for many years because she has younger siblings to take around!  And yes, I made the skirt with Grandma Cindy's encouragement.  It turned out pretty cute!

 And we had a first for us on Halloween since we moved to Iowa....it was pouring rain!!!!  Now, we are used to lots of different types of weather...some years it has been down right freezing, windy, cold...other years it has been balmy and pleasant...but this year pouring buckets of rain for the whole evening!  Very strange.  So we opted for Luke to stay home with Dad.  There was a time in my life not many years ago when I would have seen this weather as an epic failure...now I saw it only as slightly inconvenient and an opportunity to make a unique memory.  It is so much easier to live life with that mindset!!!!  We donned our umbrellas and had a great time!!

We were soaking wet but still managed to go quite far...I came back with Cole but the girls kept going for quite a while.  Then we had some yummy pizza with our favorite neighbors...the perfect way to warm up.

Then we sorted (and dried out) the candy....and I quoted my favorite Jack Prelutsky poem found here...and we all went to bed!!
The next day (actual Halloween), my firefighter had a party at preschool.  He was so excited about it!

Then we headed over to the elementary school to pick up the girls- lately, waiting in the car line is too much for baby Luke...so we have to unbuckle him and bring him up to play with us for a while.  He is such a cutie, snuggly baby- love this age!

He does this smile a lot lately.

It was another beautiful, rainy fall day.

Regan was supposed to be in a parade that night, but it got cancelled due to the weather- we did have our traditional scary menu for dinner, but I didn't get any pictures.
The next day was our church trunk or treat (one day after Halloween!).  We always have such a good time hanging out with our church family, eating chili, and seeing all the costumes...and the rain had finally stopped, so everyone was happy!  We finally got to dress Luke in a costume...a cute little doctor!

Ashton brought along some friends for the evening.

And we all had a grand time!

Good bye Halloween....until next year!!