Birthday Date Surprise

After much "What do you want for your birthday?"
I finally said, "I wish one time you would just plan something out and surprise me."
So, he did!
The day after we got back from the Dells, Travis had a date planned for us, complete with his first time organizing babysitting (thanks, Jess!). Nice work, honey!

So, can you guess where he took me?

Here's a giveaway:

This was our first time ice skating together!

Travis being silly:

And the silly birthday girl:

And for my birthday he got me the Wii Fit (which I had to tease him about - seriously, that could totally be taken the wrong way!)

and then this fun little thing...

I've had the online version for a while, but I guess the hard copy has additional goodies. It'll be fun to explore the new stuff.

Thanks for a fun night Travis! I love you!

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!

Rock the Boat

Mostly they fight over this bucket (which somehow appeared upstairs and needs to go back down!) but when they're nice, they enjoy playing rock the boat:

Discovery World

Last Friday, while Travis and his Dad went to the dental convention in Chicago, DeAnna and I took the boys to Discovery World. It was pricey, but the boys loved it and I would probably say it's worth doing once.

Checking out the giant scale model of the Great Lakes:

Watching water running through a pipe to this huge holding tank:

Hanging out on some stairs:

The cutest baby around:

Look at that head popping up, Mom!

Trying to catch a fish:

Um, swimming like the fish? He was following
this guy around all over the place like this:

Jellies!

Carson was NOT sure about the aquarium tunnel in the beginning:

DeAnna and the boys waiting to touch a sturgeon;
both boys did touch one:

There was a boat suspended so you could see the hull
from the floor below, and get on from the floor above:

Captain Avery:

Captain Carson:

Bell-Ringer:

Just call me She-Ra:

Carson checks out his funny reflection:

Apparently it's not as funny if you're sitting in the seat:

Avery laid on a bed of nails! They were really sharp too! You lay on a sheet
of plexi-glass, then the worker raises the nails up until you're laying on them.
In this picture they were all the way up, about 2 and a half inches:

Carson wasn't a fan of the hamster wheel:

Static hair is back in fashion:

Just resting in a bubble chair:

So much fun! Thanks for taking us DeAnna!

Alligator Attack

Last weekend Papa and Grandma Hunsaker came to visit. Every year a giant dental convention takes place in Chicago and all along we've been saying Travis' Dad needs to come out for it one year. Well, we're down to the last chance, so it was time.
Too bad we lost half a day with them on Thursday due to them being snowed in in Minneapolis! When they finally arrived, they came bearing souvenirs from Florida and Mexico. They had only just finished a cruise (for some dental CE credits) the Monday before! Can you imagine going from that weather to Wisconsin!?
One of the gifts they brought were squeaky alligators, one for each boy. Carson thought he was hilarious squeaking it with his mouth, but the great part of this picture is that DeAnna captured Avery winding up to get Carson on the rear!
It's hard to believe this visit sits right in the middle between their Christmas visit and when we MOVE in May! In fact, while they were here, we got the moving truck reserved and all the plane tickets coordinated for getting all the parentals out here and then both the Gma's flying back with the boys and me!

Emmett Crawls

Yesterday, at 6 days before he turns 6 months, Emmett had a breakthrough on the crawling front. He's been army crawling for a few weeks, and lately has spent a lot of time on his hands and knees. Yesterday he started being able to crawl a few steps at a time. Here are some clips from last night. Watch out for the dinosaur at the end...

So I had to look back in the pictures to see how he compares to his brothers. Looks like he's ahead of Carson, who was still army crawling at a week before 6 months (tho not for long). Bummer, I was really hoping Emmett would take his time and give my toes a rest, since the other two always had me on them! I can't tell with Avery since I don't have nearly as many pictures of him (crappy camera), so I'll give a different stat on him. Avery had everyone beat at sitting! He was a champion sitter at this point, whereas Carson and Emmett could only sit for a minute or so before toppling.
Seriously, all the moving around he does has me running ragged! Carson doesn't understand the ban on small objects on the floor...

And The Winner Is...

ME!

I WON! I WON!

THANK YOU to everyone who voted for me!!

To see for yourself, visit
http://www.jamiehammondphotography.com/blog/

To see the original post about the contest, go HERE.