Vacation Day 3

Day three of the vacation started off early in the morning because I thought the Dell Boat Tour left at 9 am and lasted 3 hours (or so said the website).  When we arrived there was no line & I was thinking - finally!  All the planning paid off!!!  Well, wrong I was!  The boat tour didn't start until 10 am and only lasted 2 hours, which turned out to be a blessing because it was one hot day on the river!

Thankfully we packed the baby carrier, so we set off on a hike along the riverside.  It was a nice little detour for the kids so we didn't have to sit and wait on the tour.

The kids insisted we sit on the top deck of the boat tour - it was bright but there was a nice breeze going so we survived!  I bought a book of the tour we took that describes all the beautiful sights; these are just some of the pictures we took.  Unfortunately, I can't figure out if any of these are in the book but these are pretty too!

This was taken somewhere within Witches Gulch - a nice cool canyon during our hot boat ride.

This is Stand Rock where H.H. Bennett captured the first stop-action photo of his son Ashley leaping the five-foot gap from the mainland cliff to Stand Rock.  A german shepard leaped across the gap while we were there, but we were a little trigger slow!

After the boat tour we were just in time to see the Glockenspiel Reenactment of the Pied Piper.  It was pretty cute, short and didn't hold the kids attention at all!  They were more amused with the wishing well.

After all that activity and a quick nap, we decided to hit the water park again!  The kids couldn't get enough of the water and they slept great at night. . . so I thought, why not!  Each time we went to the elevator it was a huge ordeal over who got to push the button!  Thankfully Caleb pushed the right button each time, of course under Sarah's direct supervision!

Sarah tried so hard, but she just couldn't get this to work!

One of Sarah's favorite rides was the water slide where you had to use these mats.  I couldn't believe she did it and by herself!  I was so proud of her!!!

Caleb on his favorite water activity!  This was just perfect for him.

Daddy took a wrong step right when this huge bucket of water spilled down by the little slide the kids were using - he said it felt refreshing!

Vacation Day 2

It rained in the morning for day 2 of our vacation so we played in the water park of our hotel, The Great Wolf Lodge.  Sarah loved the waterpark and could ride on all of the slides, but Caleb was just a little shy of being able to ride the slides.  We did find a kiddy pool for him that he loved!

After the rain let up we ventured into town and went to the Deer Park.  We were all amazed at how many deer were in the park and also how many different breeds of deer.  The deer were also very tame and once they figured out you had food - watch out!  Sarah liked the idea of feeding them out of her hand, but it took Caleb awhile to get the hang of it. 

What a beautiful flower & deer!

Sarah feeding the deer

Daddy showing the kids how to feed the deer

Caleb attempting to feed the deer; however, at the last minute he dropped all the food.

The deer figured out that Caleb had food and he wanted more!  Caleb did not care for the deer getting this close to him!

Sarah's new pet

They smelled the food Caleb was holding!

Sarah thought this one looked like Bambi!

Caleb got a little braver each time.

At the end of the night the hotel has a story reading time in their lobby.  The kids really enjoyed the story and we thought it was a great way to end the night! 

The entrance of the hotel.  Before the story was read this tower told a story about an Indian girl and a white boy - - - it was a little hard to follow because of all the noise in the crowd.  We only made it to hear the stories once during our stay.

Vacation Day 1

 We decided to go to Wisconsin for our 2011 Family Vacation; it wasn't a long drive and we could stop along the way to give the kids a break from the car ride.  I wasn't too worried about the kids in the car, after all we've driven all the way to Denver, Colorado in one day!

I did a lot of planning for the car ride though, just in case!  We played with colored pipe cleaners, colored with chalk on black construction paper, had a treasure hunt (I filled a water bottle almost full with rice and then hid 25 small objects in the rice), bought new books for the kids and bought several new DVD movies (Fly Me to the Moon, The Puppy that Saved Christmas and Nanny McPhee).  The kids enjoyed the pipe cleaners the most - they played with them for almost two hours straight!  Here are some of our designs:

Mommy's glasses

Sarah's flower 

Caleb's John Deere snake and/or gun 

Caleb's glasses

Sarah's mustache

After about four hours in the car we arrived at the John Deere Tractor Pavilion!!  I'm not quite sure who was more excited about this particular destination-Brandon or the kids!  The kids (and Brandon) got to sit on, climb on and even play with several tractors.  Grandma Susan and Grandpa Ken gave Sarah and Caleb each $5 to spend on whatever they wanted during vacation - they chose to spend the money at John Deere!  We found a green hat for Caleb and a pink hat for Sarah for $5 each!  They were so excited!  Of course, Daddy played with all the toys too and treated both of the kids to a small toy set to play with in the van!  It's now August and Caleb carries his set around in a 'tractor bag' and doesn't let it out of his sight!  I think he's going to be a tractor man - just like his Daddy!

Mommy's dream lawn mower

Sarah & Caleb playing in the store

Daddy, Caleb & Sarah

Daddy & Caleb

Sarah taking a break - notice her John Deere necklace (made out of pipe cleaners)

Caleb's turn on the wheel

Sarah driving Caleb

Caleb driving

Caleb's dream lawn mower - he's got good taste!

Caleb's $5 present from Grandma Susan & Grandpa Ken

What a great start to our family vacation!  We all really enjoyed this stop on the trip!

Kitty House

 Grandma & Grandpa Voss were going on a two week vacation to Europe so we received the pleasure of babysitting their two kitties.  Our kitten and Grandma's kittens are brothers & sisters.  Sarah named our kitten, Pirate Princess, but has recently changed the name to Ariel.  Sarah wanted to build a kitty house for our guests, so Brandon & Sarah worked on their new project.

The first thing to do when starting a project is to find 'helpers'.  These were Daddy's helpers (Caleb was excluded because he was busy playing tractors and couldn't be bothered at the moment):

Sarah & Marley

The next thing to do was to gather all the supplies for the new kitty house:



The construction phase:

The finished project:

Late to Bed, Early to Rise

This was my bed this morning and 6:45 am.  Thankfully, Caleb's first words this morning were "Daddy . . daddy" - - - music to my ears!  Brandon got Caleb up and put him in bed with me then he promptly jumped on my stomach and asked for chocate milk .  . can't quite get the chocolate word yet.  About 30 seconds later I hear the little pitter patter of Sarah coming into our room; I at least got a good morning kiss before the request for chocolate milk and cartoons!

I guess 6:45 am isn't too early, but it's the summer and Brandon was really hoping the kids would sleep to at least 8am considering they went to bed around 9pm the previous evening.  Generally our bed time is around 8pm, but the kids were playing so nice last night I stretched the time to 9pm thinking they would sleep in for Brandon.  I thought wrong!  I'm hopefully a little smarter tonight . . . after dragging them away from a beautiful July evening for a bath and snack I managed to get them in bed by 8:30pm!