Vacations

We were fortunate enough to have two vacations this summer.  Back in June, Grammy & Papa treated us to a trip to Chula Vista in the Wisconsin Dells.  We stopped at a restaurant called Buffalo Phil's on our way up.  At this restaurant our food and drinks were all delivered by train.  Could any thing be cooler?!  Watching the train go back and forth with orders never seemed to grow old for the kids.

 

 

Once we arrived at Chula Vista we wasted no time at all hitting the water park.  I was amazed at how much the kids loved it.  Especially Ben!  What a surprise!  This boy is a dare-devil.  He was just barely tall enough to get  full access to all the slides and he rode every single one of them like he was boss.  Several of them really scared me.  As I was riding them I was thinking to myself "I can't believe Ben did this...over and over and over again".   I just love this kid, he is always surprising me.

 

Luke would have ridden them all, I'm sure, but he was too little.  There were a couple of pretty decent slides in the water play ground area, and he did them justice.  He was all over that place...until he completely wore himself out and had to take a rest.

 

Kate mostly stuck to the water playground area, the lazy river, and the lily pad/cargo net thing.  Her first big water slide was the "toilet bowl" with me.  It had sort of an unfortunate ending (we ended coming out the chute backwards, then flipping under the raft when it hit the pool), and she had her fill.  We did bribe her to try a couple more big slides later, but she was quite satisfied with her other activities. 

Drew and I (and Grammy & Papa) were all impressed by the slides.  This place definitely had something to offer all of us. 

 

The kids are still talking about this water park.  In fact, anytime Luke sees any type of water at all (it could be a pool or even a small little fountain) he proudly points out "WATER PARK!!" 

In July, Drew and I took a trip alone to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  The resort we stayed at was absolutely amazing.  The service was incredible!  It didn't take us long to get completely spoiled.  Ocean views from the front of our room and mountain views from the back, who wouldn't love this paradise!

 

Being able to sleep in uninterrupted made the trip worth it alone!  We spent most of our days relaxing by the pool.  We'd wait until as late as possible before getting out of the water.  The views from our balcony were breathtaking, and we spent each night watching the sunset into the ocean before heading out to dinner. (Of course, the pictures never do it justice.)

 

 

We met some super fun couples while we were there, Brandi & Kris from Orange County and Charu & A.D. from San Fransisco by way of Chicago.  We spent a couple of dinners with them and lots of time at the pool.  It was fun to have some new vacation friends, but it sure did make the time fly by!

 

Drew and I joined Kris and Brandi on a zip-lining adventure.  I'm so glad they talked us into it.  I was convinced I wanted to do nothing except relax by the pool, but I would have been sorry if I had missed this!

  

 

 

 

One afternoon we walked around the city of Puerto Vallarta, along their famous Malecon (boardwalk)  We bought the kids some souvenirs and poked around the little shops. It was extremely hot, but worth it to take in some of the famous Puerto Vallarta sites. 

 

It was a perfect trip.  I hope we don't have to wait another 10 years to do it again.