dells ~ part 2

once we all finally rolled out of bed on sunday, we had a nice big sunday breakfast before heading out to the waterpark! if it were up to the girls, we would have skipped breakfast all together and went straight to swimming! lol!

the tower of kids watching some cartoons!

my two goofballs all ready to go!!


as i said before, i didn't take my camera today, sniff sniff. but we had an absolute blast!! we took the water taxi across the lake, then took a shuttle bus to the main resort, where we hopped on a golf cart that took us to a horse drawn carriage ride! this was the first time for the girls and they liked it! it was short and sweet (and hot and cramped, but hey, we're out in the wilderness, what can ya expect! lol!) and the horses were gorgeous!!

once we finished up with that, it was finally time to swim!! we scoped out the "halley's comet" slide and the looping slide on our way in! haylie was big enough to do the halley's comet one, which of course she had to do, since it's named after her! lol! while us girls were checking out all the pools, papa and nick decided to take on the looping slide! they enjoyed it! even though they drank more water than they would have liked! lol! after checking out the lazy river, haylie decided it was time to try out "her" ride! and she absolutely loved it! she probably went on it at least 10 times throughout the day! poor grama, papa and nick...walking up all those stairs so many times! i lucked out - you had to slide down on your stomach, so no pregos allowed! 

after several hours of swimming, i decided i should run back to the room and get my camera......despite walking and waiting, it never happened b/c it started to rain! so we headed back and what do ya know.....it stopped raining! oh well!

before we left, we went on the go-karts! i was super excited because they even had kiddie carts for the girls to drive all on their own! this would be the first time they drive go karts! haylie liked it, but charlie didn't want to do it! still so so much fun!! after haylie took her turn, my dad, nick and i drove the regular go karts! haylie rode along with me! i think she liked that even better!! after go karts, we headed back to our room for some dinner....with the promise of being able to go back to "our" waterpark after of course! haha!

the girls dove right in! we sat on the side and relaxed and enjoyed watching them for awhile!

at a lot of times throughout the trip the girls were so lovey dovey with each other.....holding hands, hugging, going down the slides together! i was waiting for some major fights, but thankfully it really didn't happen!

haylie back on the lily pads of course!

i guess you could say these were the lily pads of the kiddie pool. charlie found the one that wobbled, and kept doing dances for us! it was hysterical!

 

we pretty much had the place to ourselves most of the night, which was fine with us! it allowed the girls to go down the slide a gazillion times in whatever fashion they chose....such as above! haha!! luckily, there were no crashes until about an hour before we left on monday, and by that point i think they were so tired that even that small clash seemed like a traumatic event!

pretty soon the girls were begging us to go down the slides with them! and how could we say no to their cute little pleas?! before we knew it, we were all taking turns flying down the slide with the girls.....and sometimes without them! hahaha!

i think we can all agree that it was probably one of the funnest parts of the trip!! we were all running around, laughing, playing.....just being kids!! it was a blast!!

but we still had one more day of fun ahead, so we did have to head back up to the room for some shut eye! the girls laid down and us adults decided to play some adult uno.....and by adult, i just mean no kids playing so we actually played more than one hand and kept score! lol! until.....haylie popped out of the room and came to join us! she "helped" grama play...which apparently she needed.....haylie's quote of the night...."actually, grama, i'm pretty good at this game. and actually, you're not!"  we all got a good, long chuckle out of that one! after her two-fisted snack of a cheesestick and rice krispie treat, off she went back to bed!

we planned our attack for our final day in paradise! there was a chance of rain, so of course we had a back up plan. we were sad about knowing we had to leave, but we knew we still had one more full day of fun ahead!

.............zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

dells ~ day 1

well, the time had finally come for our family vacation!! sure, it was a mini-vacation, 3 days, but i'll take it! i can't remember the last time i went on a real vacation. well, we resolved that last weekend! we went up to wisconsin dells! what an absolutely fantastic time!!! i couldn't have asked for a better vacation! we stayed at wilderness on the lake. first time we've stayed there, but certainly won't be the last!! it was just gorgeous!! we had a ginormous 2 bedroom suite, with full amenities and a lake view, including a sunroom with a hot tub!

there was an indoor waterpark right in our complex, plus an awesome outdoor pool and small kids area! oh, and a private beach! awesome!! plus we had access to 3 other indoor and 3 other outdoor waterparks, all just a short water taxi or shuttle ride away!

it was nick and i and the girls and my parents. we all had the best time! we drove up on saturday morning and arrived shortly after noon.....after we finally found the place! lol! it's not a trip with my mother and i if we don't have to turn around at least once! haha!

i'm going to apologize in advance for the ridiculous number of pictures! we took over 530 in the 3 days we were there!! and the second day i didn't even bring my camera to the waterpark! (yes, i'm very sad about this! but - i will admit, it was nice not having to worry about something happening to it while we were off having fun!). also, i'm going to break it up into days, so this is the first of 3 installments! :)

while we were checking in, the girls started scoping the place out! of course they found the indoor waterpark! and also this bear!

haylie's first stop was of course the lily pads! that girl loves those lily pads! if she wasn't flying down the slides or waiting for the giant bucket to dump water on her, she was at the lily pads! by the end of our second day, her hands were red and raw, but she didn't care! a good nights sleep and she was ready to go first thing in the morning!

charlie absolutely loved the kiddie slides! it didn't take them long to realize they could go down headfirst, backwards, on their side, belly, back....pretty much anything you could imagine! they tried them all at least once!

grama playing peek-a-boo under the "mushroom" with the girls!

papa and haylie checking out the infinity pool outside!

look at that form!

again! i just cannot get over this gorgeous view from the pool!

a group shot (minus mom)

and one minus dad.....
my plan was to get this shot of all of us by the end of the trip, but we were too busy exploring other parks and fun things that we never made it back to the outside pool! oops! next time!

one of my favorite pics of the whole trip!

charlie on the duck!

(notice the infant swings in the background...perfect for baby jo next year! yay!)

nick and my dad enjoying the view!

charlie swimming!!

after enjoying some pool fun, it was time to check out our room finally! and like i said before, it was pure awesomeness!! so we unpacked our stuff, got changed, and headed out for a nature walk to find the beach!

the girls trying on nicks sunglasses....showing me their attitude!

my mom loves playing on the luggage carts! haha!

love!

when we told nick we were walking down to the beach, he decided he better come prepared! so he loaded up the cooler and off we went! he was very happy he brought the cooler....not only for the refreshing beverages inside, but also for the instant seat he had when he needed a break....or when i stopped to take pics! lol!

swimming in lake delton

my wonderful parents!

grama & haylie

watching the ducks

lake pic

papa teaching the girls how to skip rocks

feeding the ducks

the lake delton police!
i suggested we move up here and nick could be a lake cop! sure looks like a rough job! haha!

on our way back in from the beach, we decided to stop back in the waterpark for a bit! it's hard to stay away when it's so close and so darn fun! we had so many laughs just watching the girls play all night!!

me and my babies!

charlie just loved this turtle! it sprayed water out of its mouth and she had the best time getting sprayed by it!!


 once we finally were able to pry the girls away from the slides, it was time for bed!! they were exhausted, but refused to give in easily! and of course we were on vacation, so we let them play late! so so much fun!! needless to say, it didn't take too long for them to calm down....after the hot tub and some snacks of course! once they finally laid down, they were pretty much out!

except for haylie! when i went in to check on them, she was barely awake, but insisted on coming out for a minute. so, as we planned our attack for sunday, she decided that she needed to take pictures of all the "sleepies" - papa, nick and charlie! so i handed over my camera and off she went!

and they turned out pretty darn good! (my little photographer in training). i didn't include papa's or nick's pictures (i sure wouldn't want a pic of me sleeping on here! lol!) but here is charlie, sawing logs!

so we had settled on our plan for the next morning, and we all drifted off to sleep....

baker lake

with all of this sweltering heat we've had lately, it's hard to be outside for long. but we had a little break and decided to take advantage of it by going to baker lake with the meyer's! the kids brought their scooters and michele and i walked. what a gorgeous evening!

mikaela, haylie and charlie waiting for us slowpokes! lol!

 

haylie zooming along!

 

and here comes charlie and mikaela!

poor logan....the girls wouldn't usually wait up for him, so he was stuck on his own or with us.....he claims he still had fun though, so thats all that matters!

my charlie!

of course, we couldn't "just" go to baker lake, so we went to the park for a bit before heading home! here's haylie showing off her mad monkeybar skills!

i couldn't pick which one of these pics i like better, so i've included them both! they turned out way better than i could have hoped! def some of my faves!

and with this post, i am officially up to date on my blog!!! yay!!! so my next post will be when we get back from our much needed vacation next week!! sooooo looking forward to a few days of fun and relaxation with nick and the girls and my parents!