Monday, August 27, 2012

A Hometown Vacation

Ryans brother Willie, his wife Tina, and their 4 kids came out for a visit in July. Apparently, their kids all chose our house as their destination vacation for this year, and wanted to repeat the last vacation they had here because they had so much fun the last time! No pressure right? Well, if its a repeat they want, thats what they'll get! The day after they arrived, we head out to Wisconsin Dells, Wilderness Resort. I wont bore you with a million pictures, but here are just a few.
Brylee and Zack are still a little nervous about water, so I spent a lot of time floating around the lazy river like this...
 and Brylee spent a lot of time doing this...

 Ryan and Willie spent a lot of time racing down slides together. Some things never change.

 Madi and Libbie werent afraid of getting wet. Wait for it... 


 Left out the picture where Ryan lost his suit when that bucket of water came splashing down. Your welcome! (:
We even stayed in the same condo. Look familiar? I wasnt taking any chances of not living up to just as fun of a vacation as 2010.
 Ahhh, look how they've grown! 
2010
2012

 Brylee getting a little more wet, maybe?
 At least she's enjoying herself.
 Boys being boys.


 Madi and Libbie had it made being big enough for all the slides on their own.
 More brotherly love. 
 Us grown up girls did get a few chances to join in the wetness. 

 I think it was after this run, that Willie had his hands full from Zack puking all over the place. Of course they had to shut down the kiddie pool for a while to dis-infect the area. We made a prompt exit to another location away from embarrassment. Sorry Will! I think he had just had too much sun and excitement, so he took a little break.
We had just enough time before the closing of the rest of the resort to fit in a little water volleyball! 
After a stop to Culvers for dinner, we headed home. We had another week of excitement waiting for us!
Days 1-3 full of fun, check!

Days 4-7

Friday morning, we stopped by the Jelly Belly Factory. It just never gets old.


Then we might have actually relaxed a little? Went to the store and bought some food that started with a 'T' for Taylor (that was the potluck rule), and headed over to a BBQ at our friends house. The kids loved shooting off this rocket, and just playing around together. Cant believe I didnt get pictures of Erin doing her gymnastics routine with another gymnast friend of ours. They are both amazing!

 After stuffing our faces, we needed a way to burn those calories, so we went across the street to the school to play some ultimate glow in the dark frisbee. Of course, someone forgot the glow in the dark frisbee, so it was just plain dark. But so much fun! Our Taylor clan pretty much consisted of one entire team, and of course we won. Taylor power!
 I think Willie is taking someones head off here, but all's fair in Ultimate Frisbee. 
 Awww, look at that smile. He just loves competitive sports. Or competition in general. (:

Saturday morning, we went to the bowling alley. 

 Not sure what plan these two are concocting, but Alissa is super excited about it! Or maybe its shock over the score board. Hmmm...
 Madi is entering her teenage years, and isnt shy about displaying her sense of fashion. Did you know mis-matched socks are in!? What style!
Maybe had another break in here, then off to the temple to witness our friends sealing. She had asked me to take pictures, but Tina had a much better camera and is more skilled in picture taking, so she happily jumped in and took some amazing shots for them. I think she may have even enjoyed it a little. (;


After the Temple, we went out to eat a the Walker Brothers Pancake house. Now, when you go out as a couple, and ask for separate checks...you would assume two checks right? We ended up with 5! We had the most goofy waiter we have ever seen! He got confused about everything, but the 5 checks at the end was the breaking point. I was laughing so hard, I had tears running down my face. Not only did we each get a separate check, but the 5th one was all our desserts combined. Figure that out! The guy at the cash register had to split the dessert check up, and add the two other checks to it...he was so confused, which only added to the humor. Anyway, guess you just had to be there.
After dinner, we went to the Par-King mini golf course. I saw it featured on a yahoo article as one of the best mini-golf courses in the country, so we had to check it out. Have to admit, it was pretty cool. And who doesnt love giant pink castles?
 We love our kids, but it was great to get out for a few hours for adult time.

Sunday arrived  for a much needed day of rest. We went to church, then hung out in the backyard together. Erin changed into her leotard and did some more gymnastic moves for our neighbor, who was very impressed. Still cant believe I didnt take pictures of her doing that. Then we found out that 9 kids and 2 adult men do not work well on a trampoline! I looked over to see the leg bending on the back side. Ryan and Willie tried to bend it back into place, but it wasnt budging, so I called our neighbor over for some added muscle. How many guys does it take to fix a bent trampoline leg? More than 3. The trampoline will now be limited to a couple kids at a time until a new one is purchased. After finding out our neighbor was a bachelor for the weekend (his family was out of town), and to thank him for his help in trampoline repair efforts, we had him join us for some fresh peach cobbler and ice cream. It was the perfect end to a lazy Sunday.

Monday morning came, and it was back to party time. We headed to the beach for the day.
The kids enjoyed the freezing water, building sandcastles, finding sea glass, and getting sand wedged into every crevis. 

 The sand castle we built looks kinda like a turtle now that I look at it.


Monday night, we had ice-cream and set up the tent for a camp-out. Ryan was the lucky man who got to sleep in the tent with some of the kids. Haha...love ya babe!
Bring on some more!

Day 8

Discovery World Milwaukee was on the agenda for Day 8. These pictures are horribly out of order, but you'll get the idea. 
To start off we have the displays of different kinds of levers, springs, wheels etc.

 This was a machine they had to all pump with their feet to get this wheel to turn.

 An electricity generator. Word of caution..do not touch the person standing off of the platform like Willie and I did here. We got a surprisingly strong shock sent in through our fingers and through our bodies. Ouch!

 Jellyfish are cool! Tina and I were both taking a picture at the same time here, so her kids looked into her camera, and my kids looked into mine. Guess who took this picture!
Lets try this one family at a time...

 The underwater tube was cool to walk through too!


 Seahorse.

The touch and feel sea creature station.
 Apparently, the touch and feel station does not include pick up and hold. This was taken right before I got in trouble for picking up the starfish. So cool though, so it was worth the trouble.

More levers and pulley's. Brylee and Johnathan trying to pull themselves up on this chair.
Alissa did it!

 Have you ever laid on a bed of nails? Yeah, me either. But Madi and Ryan did!   


Discovery World is right next door to the Summerfest music grounds, so they have a bunch of signed guitars from famous bands that have played there. Ryan found one of his favorites- the B52's.
 And I had to get a picture in front of Carrie Underwood's.

Playing gerbil to try and get the lights on. First up, Katelin and Alissa...
 Madi thinks she can do it alone...
 Nope. Maybe Zack can with help from Ryan...
 Still no. 
Okay, time for the big boys to try. After a lot of synchronized running, and thinking the wheel was going to come right off, the lights finally turned on. 

Then there was this driving simulator. Please remind me never to get behind the wheel of any of these kiddos! Yikes! 


  
Back to the sea creature area...did I mention these were out of order? Madi looking out a periscope to Lake Michigan.

And also in the pully chair area...a life size boat to explore. Zack is the captain. 

In the end, it was a gorgeous day, so we wanted to get a group picture of the kids in front of Lake Michigan. I guess it was a little too gorgeous...and too sunny. Eyes up here guys! 




 Oh well, thats as good as it gets with 9 kids.

And some family shots. Hoping for better luck with the sun here. 

Oh well, guess this shady spot will just have to do. Unfortunately, couldnt get the other two kids to join, so you just get these 3 pretty faces!  
Another eventful day down! 3 more to go!
Hopefully you can get days 9 and 10 to show up on the blog, because I cant. Just in case, it doesnt come up, you can get to it from clicking on the link on the side of the blog!