Well, after countless ideas, many plans and changing our minds dozens of times, we are currently in Wisconsin Dells. I made no reservations because I was unsure where we'd actually end up. This was a good thing and a mistake. We pulled onto "Waterpark Row" and found both Kalahari and The Wilderness completely booked. I was a little panicked as I entered Great Wolf Lodge, but we not only got a room, we were upgraded to a room with bunk beds for the kids! Great Wolf was my last choice of the big three, but it turned out to be fantastic. I've never been to The Wilderness, but compared to Kalahari, Great Wolf seems much more geared to families with school age kids. There is only one waterslide Logan is too short for and I feel comfortable allowing him to ride the slides over and over and over by himself. (After the first evening of climbing those stairs over and over I was pretty much done.) The big slides are all tube slides so he's fine going on them alone. His favorite is a mat slide where you lie on the mat head first and zip down the slide. The end part is similar to those giant slides at the fair. It is a blast! Unfortunately, you have to climb 20,000 stairs for a 10 second ride :) I'm on vacation!
Friday was our travel day and we stopped at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. They had some very cool animals and we enjoyed watching a pair of rhinos digging in the sand. We also stopped at Madison's Lands' End store. I was hoping to find good deals on school uniforms and was disappointed. Oh well... We spent the entire evening swimming.
Saturday we swam in the morning, wandered around downtown Wisconsin Dells, played mini-golf at a gigantic place with waterfalls and caves, rode the Ducks and swam some more. I hadn't been too excited about the Ducks, but that was really fun! I would totally do it again on another trip. Logan was thrilled with the Duck experience and was hoping for a Duck (Hotwheels type) car from their gift shop. The only Duck "cars" they had were wooden and for display, not play. Too bad, I think every little boy would love a toy Duck!
I suppose I have to admit that I'm So. Done. Swimming! Last night I made the mistake of getting into the family hot tub with Logan. The kids love the thrill of getting into the hot tub for a couple of minutes and then jumping into the cold pool. I am too old for that "thrill." I was to the point where I was so cold I couldn't get out of the hot tub. I was so sick of swimming that I actually fell asleep for a while on a lounger in front of the wave pool.
In a few minutes, I will head to the front desk and try to book our room for one more night. The kids are NOT sick of swimming and Kaylin really wants to play the resort's new game (Magic Quest?) It's a virtual scavenger hunt where you take a special magic wand around to many different stations, gathering clues and attempting to slay the dragon. I inquired about the game and they said "depending on the person" it takes anywhere from two to FIVE hours. EEEEEEEEKKK!!!!! This person cannot handle five hours :) Gene wants to take Logan to an indoor amusement park within walking distance of our hotel and we all have many more activites we want to do in the area. Another night will equal at least three more swimming sessions. Ugh. I think I'll just take my book and not even bother putting on my suit. At least this morning...
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
School registration
Sigh. Tonight was registration night at the kids' school. I had to leave work an hour early to fill out reams of paperwork and write check after check. I suppose I should be glad that I now have their emergency forms, school directory, latchkey and a ton of other forms finished, but man, that was overwhelming! Kaylin was greatly disappointed that she didn't get the teacher she wanted and that Zoe's not in her classroom. Logan also didn't get his preferred teacher, but he did get his (and Kaylin's) original kindergarten teacher. Both kids were moved out of her class when they added a 4th K class. She moved up to 1st grade this year. We'll see if the third time's a charm and if he'll actually STAY in her room this time!
The first graders got to go to their classroom and meet the teacher and put their supplies in their desks. Logan had been nervous, but since he already knew Mrs. S it turned out to be no big deal. Kaylin ran around with friends and was crazy-excited. It took about an hour, but I finished and we left.
Well, better clean and do laundry and pack for our weekend get-away. I'm 90% sure we're going to Wisconsin Dells. We shall see :)
The first graders got to go to their classroom and meet the teacher and put their supplies in their desks. Logan had been nervous, but since he already knew Mrs. S it turned out to be no big deal. Kaylin ran around with friends and was crazy-excited. It took about an hour, but I finished and we left.
Well, better clean and do laundry and pack for our weekend get-away. I'm 90% sure we're going to Wisconsin Dells. We shall see :)
Saturday, August 15, 2009
End of Summer
Sniff, sob. Another summer of Camp Zone is over. Kaylin loved it as always. Logan started out not loving being outside all day every day. For a few weeks he begged to stay home on Fridays when I was off work and sometimes whined about having to go. He ended up loving it. He even asked to go to Glen Oak Park this (Saturday) morning because he missed it. Sorry, no.
What I love about Camp Zone is that it is as close to the perfect childhood summer vacation I can provide my kids while still working fulltime. They are outside all day, every day. While they have plenty of organized activities, most of their time is spent swinging and playing in the sand and playing board and card games and running around. They are surrounded by other kids and get to swim, hike, fish, go to movies, go to playgrounds and go on a special field trip every week. They spend almost no time watching tv or playing video games and I have literally not heard the words "I'm bored" one time. Evenings and weekends are spent riding bikes, playing with neighbor kids and pets and playing catch in the yard. I will be sad to see school start. I hate homework and shortening days and cold temperatures!
Some of the things Logan learned this summer were how to dogpaddle, how to swing really well, how to make bridges and tunnels in the sand, how to play many card and board games, how to remove a fish from a hook, how to go across monkey bars, how to catch and throw a football and how to make a fort inside of a large bush. He also learned some undesirable words and phrases, but nothing he wouldn't have learned at school this year. Logan is terrified of thunderstorms and used to Freak Out and bawl. Through the power of Camp Zone peer pressure, he learned how to keep calm and hold it together through the worst storms. He loved his counsellors and could probably get me anywhere I need to go on the city bus system. Camp was a very good experience.
This week the kids will go to Riverplex Camp. It's a much larger camp with many more kids and more organization. They get to swim every day, but Kaylin doesn't like it nearly as much as Camp Zone. I think Logan will enjoy the sports aspect of the camp (which is what Kaylin doesn't like.) I'm on vacation from Friday through the following Saturday and we plan to go away for one last long weekend before school starts. As usual, we have no idea where we're going. The current choice is Wisconsin Dells. We were thinking about Chicago, but when we started adding up everything we wanted to do it was going to cost too much and cause too much stress. We also considered St. Louis, Indy, Cincinnatti, the Ozarks, Memphis and Omaha. I guess we'll refer to Summer 2009 as The Year of the Waterpark Resort. I think we'll try The Wilderness in Wisconsin Dells. Or maybe we'll head to Paducah, Kentucky...
Well, better go wash school uniforms and clean out my car. Five more days of work before vacation!
What I love about Camp Zone is that it is as close to the perfect childhood summer vacation I can provide my kids while still working fulltime. They are outside all day, every day. While they have plenty of organized activities, most of their time is spent swinging and playing in the sand and playing board and card games and running around. They are surrounded by other kids and get to swim, hike, fish, go to movies, go to playgrounds and go on a special field trip every week. They spend almost no time watching tv or playing video games and I have literally not heard the words "I'm bored" one time. Evenings and weekends are spent riding bikes, playing with neighbor kids and pets and playing catch in the yard. I will be sad to see school start. I hate homework and shortening days and cold temperatures!
Some of the things Logan learned this summer were how to dogpaddle, how to swing really well, how to make bridges and tunnels in the sand, how to play many card and board games, how to remove a fish from a hook, how to go across monkey bars, how to catch and throw a football and how to make a fort inside of a large bush. He also learned some undesirable words and phrases, but nothing he wouldn't have learned at school this year. Logan is terrified of thunderstorms and used to Freak Out and bawl. Through the power of Camp Zone peer pressure, he learned how to keep calm and hold it together through the worst storms. He loved his counsellors and could probably get me anywhere I need to go on the city bus system. Camp was a very good experience.
This week the kids will go to Riverplex Camp. It's a much larger camp with many more kids and more organization. They get to swim every day, but Kaylin doesn't like it nearly as much as Camp Zone. I think Logan will enjoy the sports aspect of the camp (which is what Kaylin doesn't like.) I'm on vacation from Friday through the following Saturday and we plan to go away for one last long weekend before school starts. As usual, we have no idea where we're going. The current choice is Wisconsin Dells. We were thinking about Chicago, but when we started adding up everything we wanted to do it was going to cost too much and cause too much stress. We also considered St. Louis, Indy, Cincinnatti, the Ozarks, Memphis and Omaha. I guess we'll refer to Summer 2009 as The Year of the Waterpark Resort. I think we'll try The Wilderness in Wisconsin Dells. Or maybe we'll head to Paducah, Kentucky...
Well, better go wash school uniforms and clean out my car. Five more days of work before vacation!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Back to normal
Yippee, my hair is back to brown. I took the plunge and plunked down $6 at Wal-Mart for some light brown dye and did it all by myself. I was so shocked at my $80 atomic sweet potato coloring job I didn't do anything with the color for three months. It's not dry yet so I don't know exactly how it turned out, but seriously, it can't be any worse than the "professional" job.
I'm coming to the end of a lovely, relaxing three day weekend. I got a lot of little stuff done and spent even more time reading and messing around on my computer. The kids and I spent most of the afternoon building a Playmobil pyramid and sphinx. It's an amazing set and the kids and neighbor kids have been playing for hours, discovering all the cool secret features and making up adventures.
I'm so rested I don't even mind the neighbor kids being over. Well, that's about as interesting as I get this week.
I'm coming to the end of a lovely, relaxing three day weekend. I got a lot of little stuff done and spent even more time reading and messing around on my computer. The kids and I spent most of the afternoon building a Playmobil pyramid and sphinx. It's an amazing set and the kids and neighbor kids have been playing for hours, discovering all the cool secret features and making up adventures.
I'm so rested I don't even mind the neighbor kids being over. Well, that's about as interesting as I get this week.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
facebook honeymoon
Lynne's been pestering me to join Facebook for I dunno, maybe a month? I'd groan and roll my eyes and delete the email :) I finally broke down and joined on Friday morning. I've blown a ridiculous portion of my weekend looking at family photos of high school classmates I haven't thought about in nearly 20 years. I've also found former coworkers I've lost touch with and even set a lunch date with one. It's totally addicting because everyone has a unique friends list and different people are popping up all the time. I haven't even scratched the surface of my family. So come friend me and check out my photos and find out my favorite books, movies and tv shows, lol.
Yesterday was back to school clothes shopping day. I was thrilled when I heard the school district was switching to uniforms, but man, they are NOT fun to shop for. Do you like these completely plain pants, these completely plain shorts, these completely plain capris or this completely plain skirt? No. I mean, I know you don't LIKE any of them, but which ones do you want? None of them. Ok, I know you don't want ANY of them, but you have to have clothes for school. Do you want skirts, pants or shorts? No. Ok, child, you must have one of these plain navy or khaki pieces of cloth to cover your underwear while attending school. Skirt, pants or shorts? I hate them all. Well, duh. I am now going to lose it and start beating you with a plastic hanger in the middle of Target!!!
Logan's pants were much easier because my only choices were shorts and plain or pleated pants. I grabbed navy and khaki shorts and navy and khaki plain-fronted pants and moved on. We then hit the shoe store. Logan knew exactly what he wanted, tried them on and was done. Kaylin knew she was bitter she'd no longer be able to wear Crocs. We tried on 7000 pairs of shoes and they all felt TERRIBLE. I finally found a pair of plainish white Nikes and while they still felt TERRIBLE, they felt better than the others. Done. Then Logan ran up and asked why she was trying on BOY shoes. I am now going to lose it and start throwing those packets of "Do not eat" drying crystals at you in the middle of Shoe Carnival!!!
Hi. My name is Susy and I hate shopping for back to school clothes just as much now as I did when I was a kid. Amen.
I met Jenny and her kids at Splashdown on Friday. My kids were already there with Camp Zone. While it was great to catch up with Jenny, I completely don't understand the appeal of floating around the lazy river crammed with a bajillion other people. I am so completely done with water parks I will for sure have to rethink our mini-vacation in a few weeks. I don't want to swim again for at least several months! Oh, and despite slathering myself with SPF 50, my back (that hasn't seen direct sunlight in years) got completely fried.
Hi. My name is Susy and I hate outdoor public waterparks despite the fact that I loved them as a kid. Eh, at least the kids had a GREAT time. They got to play with their camp friends AND Jenny's kids.
Yesterday was back to school clothes shopping day. I was thrilled when I heard the school district was switching to uniforms, but man, they are NOT fun to shop for. Do you like these completely plain pants, these completely plain shorts, these completely plain capris or this completely plain skirt? No. I mean, I know you don't LIKE any of them, but which ones do you want? None of them. Ok, I know you don't want ANY of them, but you have to have clothes for school. Do you want skirts, pants or shorts? No. Ok, child, you must have one of these plain navy or khaki pieces of cloth to cover your underwear while attending school. Skirt, pants or shorts? I hate them all. Well, duh. I am now going to lose it and start beating you with a plastic hanger in the middle of Target!!!
Logan's pants were much easier because my only choices were shorts and plain or pleated pants. I grabbed navy and khaki shorts and navy and khaki plain-fronted pants and moved on. We then hit the shoe store. Logan knew exactly what he wanted, tried them on and was done. Kaylin knew she was bitter she'd no longer be able to wear Crocs. We tried on 7000 pairs of shoes and they all felt TERRIBLE. I finally found a pair of plainish white Nikes and while they still felt TERRIBLE, they felt better than the others. Done. Then Logan ran up and asked why she was trying on BOY shoes. I am now going to lose it and start throwing those packets of "Do not eat" drying crystals at you in the middle of Shoe Carnival!!!
Hi. My name is Susy and I hate shopping for back to school clothes just as much now as I did when I was a kid. Amen.
I met Jenny and her kids at Splashdown on Friday. My kids were already there with Camp Zone. While it was great to catch up with Jenny, I completely don't understand the appeal of floating around the lazy river crammed with a bajillion other people. I am so completely done with water parks I will for sure have to rethink our mini-vacation in a few weeks. I don't want to swim again for at least several months! Oh, and despite slathering myself with SPF 50, my back (that hasn't seen direct sunlight in years) got completely fried.
Hi. My name is Susy and I hate outdoor public waterparks despite the fact that I loved them as a kid. Eh, at least the kids had a GREAT time. They got to play with their camp friends AND Jenny's kids.
Friday, July 31, 2009
School shopping
Last night the kids and I were at Wal-Mart buying school supplies. School starts in 26 days. They only have two weeks left of Camp Zone and then will attend Riverplex Camp for the last week before school starts. Eek! There is so much to do and I'm not getting it done!
Back to school supply shopping... Kaylin raced around checking out all the various folders and notebooks, deciding if she wanted Tinker Bell or cute kittens or colorful frogs. She carefully checked all the colors of the cheap notebooks before deciding for sure what she wanted. She gleefully grabbed crayons and pencils and glue sticks and scissors and tried to talk me into buying ridiculously expensive "cool" gadgets. Logan spotted a giant Hershey Kiss in the nearby clearance aisle and held it and gazed at it in drooling wonder. He was mildly impressed when Kaylin found him a notebook with a Ford Mustang on it, but had no interest in looking through the Batman, Spiderman or sports folders and grabbed two of the nearest solid colored folders just to shut me up. Logan spent the time Kaylin was hunting the perfect supplies pondering whether to spend $3.50 for the giant kiss or just spend $1 on a giant Hershey bar. Well, the boy doesn't care At. All. about school supplies, but at least he likes candy :) He chose the cheaper Hershey bar but I'll have to get him a giant kiss for Chrismas or something. It was cute how excited he was.
The schools also have a new district-wide uniform policy this year. Shirts (at their school) have to be navy, white or hunter green. Pants can be khaki, black or navy. No labels or logos allowed and no decoration. Kaylin is crushed. She will no longer be able to wear hot pink polka dot tights with an orange and purple striped skirt and a bright red and yellow top. The girl loves her colors and loves to stand out so the drab uniforms are not her favorite thing. Kaylin announced last night that she wants all white shirts so she can stain them different colors and protect her reputation. Urgh. Kaylin has given me a full understanding of why my mom never allowed me to have anything white until junior high (and then it was still a mistake.) I did buy a couple of white shirts for Logan, though. As long as he doesn't wear them on spaghetti day they'll probably still be white when he outgrows them :) Oh, the point I originally intended to make about the uniforms was that I better get shopping asap or my kids will have no pants because they'll be sold out. I bought most of their shirts, but since they actually need to TRY ON the pants it just hasn't happened. This weekend for sure. Yippee, something to look forward to. Not. Logan would probably rather hike to the "hungry rock" than try on pants!
Back to school supply shopping... Kaylin raced around checking out all the various folders and notebooks, deciding if she wanted Tinker Bell or cute kittens or colorful frogs. She carefully checked all the colors of the cheap notebooks before deciding for sure what she wanted. She gleefully grabbed crayons and pencils and glue sticks and scissors and tried to talk me into buying ridiculously expensive "cool" gadgets. Logan spotted a giant Hershey Kiss in the nearby clearance aisle and held it and gazed at it in drooling wonder. He was mildly impressed when Kaylin found him a notebook with a Ford Mustang on it, but had no interest in looking through the Batman, Spiderman or sports folders and grabbed two of the nearest solid colored folders just to shut me up. Logan spent the time Kaylin was hunting the perfect supplies pondering whether to spend $3.50 for the giant kiss or just spend $1 on a giant Hershey bar. Well, the boy doesn't care At. All. about school supplies, but at least he likes candy :) He chose the cheaper Hershey bar but I'll have to get him a giant kiss for Chrismas or something. It was cute how excited he was.
The schools also have a new district-wide uniform policy this year. Shirts (at their school) have to be navy, white or hunter green. Pants can be khaki, black or navy. No labels or logos allowed and no decoration. Kaylin is crushed. She will no longer be able to wear hot pink polka dot tights with an orange and purple striped skirt and a bright red and yellow top. The girl loves her colors and loves to stand out so the drab uniforms are not her favorite thing. Kaylin announced last night that she wants all white shirts so she can stain them different colors and protect her reputation. Urgh. Kaylin has given me a full understanding of why my mom never allowed me to have anything white until junior high (and then it was still a mistake.) I did buy a couple of white shirts for Logan, though. As long as he doesn't wear them on spaghetti day they'll probably still be white when he outgrows them :) Oh, the point I originally intended to make about the uniforms was that I better get shopping asap or my kids will have no pants because they'll be sold out. I bought most of their shirts, but since they actually need to TRY ON the pants it just hasn't happened. This weekend for sure. Yippee, something to look forward to. Not. Logan would probably rather hike to the "hungry rock" than try on pants!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Aargh, the Hungry Rock. Part 2
While we technically had use of the waterpark until 3pm and use of the amusement park until 10pm, we only had our hotel room until 11am. The kids and I were at the waterpark for the 9am opening and we swam until 10:30, rushed back to the room for quick showers, changed and were miraculously checked out by 11. The plan was to go back to the state park and eat lunch and hike at least one more trail and then go back to the resort on our way out of town for a picture with a lion cub. As we pulled into the state park Logan loudly grumped about how he sure hoped we wouldn't have to walk all the way back to "That Hungry Rock." I love the kid, but I kind of wanted to smack him. Hard.
So we ate our hot dogs and set off on a (wait for it) 0.4 mile (!) hike to I can't remember the name canyon. We hike down into this canyon and it comes to a dead end. A dead end with an amazing, beautiful waterfall. It's seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, this rocky canyon/waterfall. We're completely in awe and spend several minutes taking in the surroundings. We then begin to head back to the car (I'm forming ideas of coming back for the day BY MYSELF) when I hear Logan's deep little grumpy voice warning other hikers that "You might want to go a different way because this trail's a DEAD END." And then Kaylin's loud, perky "Yeah, but a DEAD END with a beautiful waterfall!" And then Logan's "Yeah, it was awesome, but it was a DEAD END!" AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
On back to the resort for a picture with the lion cub. Obviously, I don't care a hoot about the picture, I want to hold and pet the lion cub! It was all cute and growly at us (in a good, happy way) and I was in love. Kaylin then begged to hold the leopard. Eh, why not? We played with the squirmy leopard for a couple of minutes. We now have three family pictures holding a tiger, lion and leopard cub. Cute, cute, cute. Even Logan could find nothing to complain about :)
We hit the amusement park area one last time. Logan went on a few rides while Kaylin and I blew a few bucks on the candy carnival game. It was part skill crane and part that carnival game where you drop quarters and the moving wall pushes them. If you're skillful and lucky, more quarters (and prizes) drop off the edge. Anyway, instead of coins this game had candy. You scooped candy, dumped it onto two moving ledges and it pushed candy into your bin. Kaylin was quite good at it and we won lots of junk candy and a few cherry Zotz. Yum.
We were all really tired so we headed home ~1pm. We got home in time to rest before heading to Mollie's 2nd birthday party at my parents' house. I can't believe Mollie is two! Anyway, the kids had a great time playing with their cousins. It was a big fun day. Now I get to go back to work :)
So we ate our hot dogs and set off on a (wait for it) 0.4 mile (!) hike to I can't remember the name canyon. We hike down into this canyon and it comes to a dead end. A dead end with an amazing, beautiful waterfall. It's seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, this rocky canyon/waterfall. We're completely in awe and spend several minutes taking in the surroundings. We then begin to head back to the car (I'm forming ideas of coming back for the day BY MYSELF) when I hear Logan's deep little grumpy voice warning other hikers that "You might want to go a different way because this trail's a DEAD END." And then Kaylin's loud, perky "Yeah, but a DEAD END with a beautiful waterfall!" And then Logan's "Yeah, it was awesome, but it was a DEAD END!" AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
On back to the resort for a picture with the lion cub. Obviously, I don't care a hoot about the picture, I want to hold and pet the lion cub! It was all cute and growly at us (in a good, happy way) and I was in love. Kaylin then begged to hold the leopard. Eh, why not? We played with the squirmy leopard for a couple of minutes. We now have three family pictures holding a tiger, lion and leopard cub. Cute, cute, cute. Even Logan could find nothing to complain about :)
We hit the amusement park area one last time. Logan went on a few rides while Kaylin and I blew a few bucks on the candy carnival game. It was part skill crane and part that carnival game where you drop quarters and the moving wall pushes them. If you're skillful and lucky, more quarters (and prizes) drop off the edge. Anyway, instead of coins this game had candy. You scooped candy, dumped it onto two moving ledges and it pushed candy into your bin. Kaylin was quite good at it and we won lots of junk candy and a few cherry Zotz. Yum.
We were all really tired so we headed home ~1pm. We got home in time to rest before heading to Mollie's 2nd birthday party at my parents' house. I can't believe Mollie is two! Anyway, the kids had a great time playing with their cousins. It was a big fun day. Now I get to go back to work :)
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