The Wisconsin Dells

Last Saturday Travis took his final boards, so how nice to follow that up with a week off for Spring break... and a trip to Wisconsin Dells! That's is a town here known as the Waterpark Capital of the World. There are lots of indoor and outdoor resorts to choose from. It was actually our first time there! And last, since we're moving in 2 months. So from Mon-Wed we shared a great condo at the Kalahari with 3 other families. We had so much fun with our friends, staying up late, playing games (the name game was particularly entertaining!) and watching movies.

We waited to tell Avery we were going until the night before so we wouldn't have to hear about it incessantly. Big mistake. He couldn't go to bed. He kept coming out and saying "But I'm just so excited! I can't go to sleep! My head won't stop thinking!" He was up until about 11:30pm!

Of course, Monday was my birthday, so my friends surprised me with
a crown and cake. I was even robed with a luxurious Kalahari bathrobe.
I know, super hot.

Avery had been talking about helping me blow out my
candles for days, so this was very gratifying for him!

On to the water...

Emmett loved it! In the beginning he clung to me pretty tightly,
but other than that he was never upset, and he took to the
water like a champ. These pineapple swings were great,
he was so content to sit in them and just watch everything!

Carson, however, took a LOT of warming up. He was pretty freaked out.
He wouldn't even sit in the 6" of water. (c'mon, Carson, it's like a giant bath!)
He eventually discovered this tiny elephant slide was fun:

The next visit to the park he had a great turnaround.
He started venturing away from me, and next thing I knew
he was sliding down feet first on his face, and then even face first!

The next day we relocated to this area which had some bigger little kid slides.
We were so glad he'd gotten over his fear and was really enjoying himself!

After all that, he finally let Daddy take him on
the "boat" for a float down the "Lazy River"

Avery was a completely different story. He was a maniac, and so daring!
He wanted to do everything from the get go! He loved the big slides for the kids:

And he LOVED the big slides. Obviously we couldn't send him down any
big slides that were solo rides, but all the ones that could have more
than one person were great. Even the water coaster, which was
very splashy with way too cold water and lots of dark, was a big hit:

These two had such a great time running
around together and going on the big slides:

All these tubes were in the water, but Hailey and Avery
decided they should be stacked. They put together quite a pile.
I love how Hailey posed by placing her hand on Avery's shoulder.

Some of our last water fun included Travis, John, Mike and Jessica
trying out the boogie boarding. I tried uploading my video to a few sources,
but even tho I downsized beforehand, all of them chopped the quality horribly,
so you can't see Travis' face. So, I just stuck with blogger's stinky upload.
Here's 2 clips of Travis boogie boarding:

And very last, Travis and John attempted to surf.
Here's a couple of the pictures I took of Travis:

And here's video of Travis' attempt:

This shot doesn't really fit in the storyline anywhere, but it's cute.
Emmett cuddling up to Sienna:

Our last day we had to be checked out by 11am, so instead of more waterpark, we checked out the indoor theme park before heading home.

Avery and Sienna strike a pose:

"Driving" How wonderful that he's too young to demand coins for it yet:

Travis played on the two story rope course:

Carson did not like the go karts. Part of it could be that he
was super cranky after all the strapped in waiting for his turn...

Of course, Avery loved it!

I know, blurry shot, but we really enjoyed the drive:

And because the guy at the go karts only charged us for one kart instead of two,
Avery and I enjoyed the ferris wheel before calling it quits.

This isn't exactly a beautiful family portrait,
but it's super rare to have a shot with all 5 of us.
We had such a great time!