Wisconsin Dells

It's a happy day when we get to go to the Dells with Aaron's family!  We had the added bonus of not only having Aaron's grandparents join us, but also that our little family got to be right next door to Great Grandma and Grandpa!

It was really sweet to watch my kids spend some extra time with their great grandparents!

 It occurs to me that all these pictures are of them all watching a screen.  They did more than that.  They visited, they played some cards, we ate together.  But it was cute to watch all of them huddle around iPads.

Aaron and Cole are on 'our' patio, and Grandpa, Evie and Carson are on Grandpa's patio.

Evie figured out Grandpa's iPad camera.  I thought this was a great camera-on-camera view.

Lizzie brought her ponies and they got plenty of play in.

That first night, we had KFC in our apartment with the whole family.  After dinner, it was fun to sit and visit while some of the others hit the water parks for a little while.

I didn't take the camera down to the water park at all.  But there was much water play.  Aaron took the boys out a few times around naps.  I took the girls on more big-girl fun - like great big slides and the hot tub.  There was one slide that the girls could have ridden indefinitely.  And there was a terrifying half hour when I couldn't find Lizzie.  Thankfully, Lizzie didn't know she was lost and we'd just been passing and missing each other as she continued to go down slides and run around an indoor water park while I wandered around the outside of the play area.  She wasn't let out of my sight after that.

The kids adored their room!  Technically, Cole was in a playpen in the bathroom, but they spent time in here, jumping on the beds, playing pirate-in-the-crow's nest, and being glued to 'their own' tv.  What a room!

The girls made this craft with Grandma for GREAT Grandma.  It's with pompoms and pipe cleaners; a flower with two bees.  Totally adorable.

One night, Aaron and I got to play Hand and Foot with Grandma and Grandpa.  We played two rounds and stayed up way later than any of us ought to have. 

It was Grandma and me against Grandpa and Aaron, and was certainly a fun night!

One morning, I took the older three kids and went to the indoor play area at the resort while Aaron watched Cole napping.  Uncle David, Aunt Linnea, Aunt Carmen and Nathan and Elle came, too!  It was so sweet to see Nathan crawling all over, being adorable.

This play area is intense!  It's four levels of slides, obstacles, plastic balls and ball launchers.  I don't think I even made it to the fourth floor; just watched and took pictures from mostly the first and second levels.

Evie and her aunts and uncle had a lot of fun launching balls at one another.  At one point, they filled the biggest launcher with hundreds of balls and set them all flying at once!  It was so fun!

Each level is netted and super safe, but it made it hard to get some good pictures.  

Evie and I went through the mini 'house of mirrors' and had fun with the distorted images.

We were lucky enough to have one last visit from Great Grandma and Grandpa and Elle before they all headed home.  Cole was down for a nap and Carson was in quite a mood, but we managed to get a picture of most of them together anyway.