Vacations over :(

Thanks to our friends over at Joyful Noise, we were able to go on vacation in the Wisconsin Dells last week. They got a 3bd townhouse for 6 days and invited us to go with them. So we packed up the kids who did could leave and we left! Cody stayed home to watch the dogs, Devon and Kaytlin couldn't leave school. So, Trinity, Sam, Nicole and Drew's fiance, Jannessa came along with us.

The resort had a great kiddie pool area with a toddler slide and an older kids slide for the kids to enjoy. Sam loved the frog slide. He even enjoyed the big slide when Nicole forced him to go on it while Jannessa was at the bottom to catch him. However, later he decided to try it when noone was there, and I had to run and rescue him as he came out the bottom. I just missed him by a split second and had to fish him out of the water. He was NOT liking slides after that, lol.

The resort had lots of activities for the kids to do at the clubhouse every day. One day we went and decorated cookies. The kids really enjoyed eating them! Then we went off to the playground.

The playground didn't go so well. Sam walked in front of the swings and got kicked face first into the wood chips. "I HATE swings!"

Another day they went to do a coloring contest. Jannessa won for the adult category and let Sam pick out some bubbles for a prize.


Donnie and Dan took the kids out to fly kites. They loved it!

On Wednesday we took the kids to Mt. Olympus for a few hours. Jannessa took Sam on a slide off the pirate ship. That was it for him, he got his face drenched, so he wouldn't do the slides anymore.

Later we forced him to go on one of the huge tube slides with the girls and he loved it. So Jannessa and I took him down it again. However, Jannessa and I are too much weight together to stay on the tube at the bottom and we flipped, nearly drowning Sam, and hobbling my foot, lol. Needless to say, Sam never did another water slide.

One of the nights we went out to eat, just us parents. That was nice, except the guys ended up picking some barbeque joint, which is a story in itself.

The older girls did so much to help us through the week with babysitting, playing with the kids, and cooking that we wanted to give them a special treat. So Donnie took them horseback riding.

Trinity wasn't ready to leave on the last day. She wanted one more fun thing to do. So we drove around town and nothing was open in the off season. So we took them to a candy store and she was satisfied. So we were able to head back home.

I have lots more stories and pics that I will post here and there, but this is our trip in a nutshell!

Kaytlin called

Kaytlin called from my mom's this morning. She had some time between mom going to work and being picked up by her step cousin and step aunt to go to a lobster fest on the coast of Maine.
My mom lives on a mountain area. And I know there are all sorts of creatures out there, like porcupines and wild turkey for sure. And my mom has a cat, Midnight, who they affectionately call Nightmare, and she doesn't like people much. She pretty much isn't seen by guests. Drew stayed there for nearly a month once and he rarely saw the cat. Mom told Kaytlin that the cat doesn't go all sweet and follow you around and rub on your legs like normal cats.
But then why was Kaytlin tripping over the cat so much and having to brush off layers and layers of black cat hair off her pants? Its because Midnight LOVES Kaytlin. Like all cats do.
Kaytlin was on the phone with me, sitting out on the deck admiring the view................. of spiderwebs. She counted 12 huge spiderwebs on one side of the house. My mom is a creature lover, she doesn't get picky about what they are. She admires the spiders spinning their webs. And Kaytlin spied the spiders that make those huge webs. Their bodies are the size of Kaytlin's thumb! And at least 4 of them live over a door to the house. I would NOT be walking in that door! And my mom asked her to photograph the spiders, yuck!!!!
As we were talking she started kind of freaking out, more like getting creeped out, by something following her and clicking. She went in the house, but she heard it again later, too. Then it flew over the house! She thinks it was a locust. lol
I can't wait to hear how much fun the lobster fest was! Maybe Kaytlin will do some guest blogging while on her vacation!