Quick But Awesome Visit

My mom and my sister Kelly came for a quick visit last week! Before they arrived we went apple picking. I am sure they won't mind if I dump those pictures here as well, otherwise I may never get the chance to sit down at the computer and make that happen.




 
See, that wasn't so painful. I hardly even took the camera out and never managed to get a single shot as we ate donuts and played with friends.

After apple picking we went to retrieve our guests from the airport. They may have missed honey crisp opening day by a few hours but they did get to enjoy the fruits of our labors. I don't think I took any pictures on Saturday or Sunday, but don't worry, we didn't do much, just hung out and took walks and such.

Our real adventures started on Monday. My mom is in charge of planning the company outings where she works. They just came back from Hawaii and guess where they are going next summer? Yep, Wisconsin! Isn't that funny? The company actually has an office right here in the town I live in, what are the odds, so they decided to trade in Hawaii for the good old Midwest. So my mom was here on "business" but fun business. She brought Kelly so she wouldn't have to fly alone and because Kelly hadn't been here in way too long. As it turned out Seth went out of town while they were here so I got to be the driver for all of our adventures. I really wanted to make Kelly drive but I felt like I needed to prove my competence so I did it! Our first destination was Wisconsin Dells.

We swam all Monday afternoon/evening and on Tuesday morning when my mom had tours and meetings we swam again. There was nobody there! It was awesome! 







 
My mom took the kids school shopping but none of them wanted anything so we got jammies. I tried to get Kelly and my mom to get footy jammies too so we could get a group pic but they declined my invitation. 
 
 As we were eating candy and enjoying our Dells sleepover, I was also doing homework so Kelly and I started talking about my religion class and about agency. Alex, who is definitely our religious child, chimed in to tell us that he tried to think when he was making choices and to picture an angel and a devil like you see in cartoons and to try to listen to the right one. Chloe agreed that she tried to listen too but apparently she only has one angel because she said, "Mine always only says, You shouldn't be doing that." We thought that was so funny but maybe you had to be there. That child is something else!

Another funny story while I am tangenting. I was bummed all the way to the Dells because I forgot the pads for my swimsuit because is you are flat chested and self conscious then you worry about these things. So I got there and put on my suit without pads and as soon as I walked out of the bathroom Alex said, "mom, you look nice without boobs". Funny, funny kids! 

After my mom's meetings on Tuesday we headed over to check out the sky ropes course. Alex has always wanted to do one of these but I never wanted to pay because he is terrified on the second floor of a mall because he can see down to the lower level. Since we were there on business we had free passes for everything so I decided that he could try and if he chickened out I wouldn't be out anything. Alyssa decided to go too and I sent Kelly just in case either one of them panicked but they were all as calm as if they had been on level ground and they had so much fun!
 
 
There were two levels. I could get good pictures from the lower level because I was on the balcony but it was a little tougher when they went up higher. Here you can see Chloe on the balcony, Kelly on the low level and Alex up high.









 
Alyssa was all business but Alex wanted to pose on every new apparatus.




 
My mom took Chloe to the play area while the others climbed and as soon as I got there she requested a picture of herself. This kid jumped under the bridge and posed as soon as I took out my camera.
 
Once the camera was there, she was done jumping, running, sliding and playing. She just wanted to be photographed.

Once we finally left the resort we headed in to the downtown area of the Dells to buy candy and ride the Ducks. I forgot how much they charge to ride those things until they rang us up. Sorry mom, but it was a great ride, as always.




We stayed at the Dells way longer than we should have on Tuesday so I ended up driving in the dark and our exit was closed and we were almost out of gas and I narrowly missed one raccoon only to hit the raccoon friend that ran across the street right behind him but we did eventually make it to our next stop, Lake Geneva. We stayed at the Grand Geneva, which is a very nice resort, and was incidentally, the original Playboy mansion. We arrived to find a nice note for my mom as well as a bottle of wine (which we meant to give away but left in the fridge), chocolate covered strawberries and 4 bags of specialty popcorn. We were super impressed but also hungry so we headed in to Lake Geneva and ate a late dinner at Sprechers. When we got home I logged on to do a little bit of schoolwork and everyone else was out cold in 5 minutes. They had the most comfy hotel beds I have ever slept in.
 
This is our bathroom mirror, nothing weird... 
 
Wait, what? There is a TV in the middle of the bathroom mirror but you can't detect any trace of it when the TV is off.  Not impressed? Sorry, I don't get out much.
 
In the morning my mom had meetings and tours so the rest of us went in to town for breakfast at some snobby cafe and then came back and the kids swam at the hotel. They have a small waterpark there but me and Kelly were swum out so we just went to the indoor pool and watched them instead of doing slides. The manager came in to meet us and everyone was so nice, because they were trying to wine and dine my mom, but later we noticed that the pool was only for adults. Oops! No swimming pics, but here are the girls on the balcony. That lake in the background was originally shaped like the Playboy bunny.
 
We wanted to rent bikes but they had just closed for the season. My mom did decide to book here for her outing next summer though so she is hoping to get my family some rooms so we can go back and bike and horseback ride and golf. We did decide to take a quick hike on one of the resort's walking trails. That didn't go so well.

It started out fine with Chloe asking me to take her picture before we got started.


 
The other two? Not so crazy about posing.
 
So we set off in good spirits.
 
At some point I thought that we should capture this lovely day on film.
 
And then Kelly told me to go get in the picture, which is where it all fell apart.  Chloe ran out of the picture.


 
What ever was the matter you ask? Alex stood too close to her which turned in to, he was choking me, I am pretty sure he was killing me, I was dying.
 
When we convinced her to get back in the picture she punched Alex in the nose and the aftermath is caught right here. I had no idea until everyone else told me what was going on. I decided we'd better move along but then Chloe was spitting mad because she didn't get a picture with me and kept trying to drag me back to the picture spot. I told you she was something else but I do love her so.

After we left Grand Geneva we went to lunch at Potbelly's, because I always go to Potbelly's when I am near one. Don't road trip to eat there or anything. No one else is as excited about it as I am but I love it. We then went down to Lake Geneva and even splashed around a bit because it was 70 degrees!

 

And then just like that we were headed back to my house so my mom and Kel could fly out Thursday morning and the kids could get back to school. Are you wondering what we did with Bernie while we were away? Of course you're not, but you know I'm going to tell you anyway. We left him home and hired a friend from church to come play with him and walk him and feed him. After he got so sick last time and was so jumpy for weeks afterward, I thought he might be more comfortable at home. Our friends just live a couple blocks over and their 12 year old so was so excited to dog sit and he does e-school so he was able to come over several times a day to play. He even sent pictures and videos to show me how Bernie was doing. We no longer leave him in the crate, except for overnight, but if we are not home we do leave him in the kitchen with the gate up. No matter how long we leave he never has accidents but I still prefer to have him in the kitchen so that if he had an accident I would be able to see it and wipe it up easily. When we got home I expected to find Bernie in the kitchen but that stinker had jumped the gate and was sitting on the couch. I had to laugh though because he was sitting on his blanket which is his designated spot on the couch. No accidents anywhere and he hadn't even moved a single throw pillow. I was afraid that if he missed us and panicked that he might do something naughty but he seemed to be just fine. Looks like we found our new dogsitter.

But we can't end with the dog, now can we? Thanks for coming out mom and for taking us on all your fun adventures with you, and for bringing Kelly along. It was too short but we had so much fun!