Thanksgiving Break

The kids were off the whole week of Thanksgiving and I decided this was WAY too long so we needed to stay active.  Luckily it was tree decorating weekend at Brookfield Zoo and Steve & Caroline both have trees for Brownie & Cub Scouts.  We started off our holiday there and ended at Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells.  Even Steve thanked me for planning such an awesome week.

Caroline decorating her Troop tree

We wheeled Mitchell around like a king

Steven decorating his Pack tree

Mitchell watched the polar bear up close for a bout 15 minutes and giggled most of the time.

 Taking everyone to the zoo is a huge feat for me.  I stress about keeping everyone entertained but really all my kids care about are the play areas and food.  We were very disappointed the penguin house was closed - of course that is all Steven wanted to see - but the weather was beautiful and we made the most of it.  This is the first time in about 10 yrs I have gone to the zoo without a stroller, we brought the wagon instead.  I feel like the Iveys are moving up in the world.

I have a zillion pictures of the years of that dang toad 

Caroline has really stepped up a notch in spelling this year so she was saying aloud things I was spelling to get my point across.  As we walked past the Condor who was eating the head off a rabbit (or rat) I said "keep pulling the wagon and I'll walk on this side so M doesn't see the p-a-r-k"  And Caroline yells "PARK?".  Then Grace wanted to see the elephants and as we got closer I remembered that last year "I think the last one d-i-e-d"...."it died mommy?".  Grace of course didn't really seemed phased by this. So the days of spelling are over and I'll just need to keep comments to myself unless I they are meant for everyone's ears.









Thanksgiving afternoon we packed up the cars (mom & dad too) and headed to the Dells.  Grace immediately fell asleep and we put Steven in my dad's car to avoid the fighting between he & Caroline. Our car was pretty quiet. Once we hit the boarder we had a potty break and Grace proceeded to drop her binky in the toilet.  Steve said he could hear the howling outside and new something bad had happened.  She was so upset she couldn't even pee.  It was her favorite "green" but she eventually took a liking to "pink" that was in the car.

Waiting for our reservation

When we arrived we immediately went to one of the water parks.  Steve, dad & I positioned ourselves so we could wait on structure with Mitchell, get him off the slide at bottom and then watch him in the play area if he decided not to head back up.  3 people was definitely what we needed,  it worked out perfectly.  Yes, the other kids were there but Caroline & Grace stuck together and I think Steven just watched the clock to see when it was going to be time to leave  - ha ha.  We had Thanksgiving buffet at the restaurant that night.  Everyone was having a good time.

Grace on lily pads

The smallest of the waterparks at Wilderness on the Lake, we drove there.

Mitchell & Caroline on lily pads

Steven and Mitchell on lily pads

The Grinch we found at Denny's Diner or breakfast - watched Little Rascals on TV too.

Grandpa as a pirate in 3D glow mini golf

Grace & her chauffeur - it was a long walk from play area back to room

The second day we found the huge play structure for the kiddies.  Think of McDonald's playland on crack.  I went in it and couldn't find my way out.  The odd thing tho is that the parent area was too the left of the structure (and this picture) but clearly this was an exit for the kids and nowhere to sit & watch.  I noticed this right away, so the 1 stod here for 20 min until I figured Mitchell routine and we were good.  The next day he got adventurous and was stealing golf balls from the mini golf (I'm standing at the counter taking the picture) and rolling them down the slide.  So I strategically placed a chair there and sat for the remainder.  A few times he came out another way and tried to work through the arcade to get te bals but we were on to him.  This is a design flaw in my opinion, I can't be the only one whose kid wants to run up those stairs with that big arrow pointing the way and one worker did say alot of kids take the golf balls.  I see an easy fix.

By the end of each day the adults were exhausted and Mitchell was up until 11 wide awake.  He is the energizer bunny.  Steven & Caroline enjoyed the arcades and 2 mini golf courses and Caroline & Steve climbed the rope course 2x.  We did attempt the wave pool but 15 min in and it shut down because of a floater.  It was the only pool that made my skin itch, probably because it was the only waist high standing water.  Mitchell was ticked off but we hiked back through the hotel to another park with the big green slide and all was good.  By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around we were all ready to go home.