Greetings from Wisconsin! We are in the midwest visiting my mom and Grandpa and other family. It's been wonderful: lots of snow on the ground but very little coming from the sky. Mac "shoveled" the snow in my mom's front yard for at least an hour today. Just moved piles around happily. He is definitely a snow boy.
We just got back from four days at the Kalhari Resort in Wisconsin Dells where my mom had the annual HeadStart convention. We mooched space in the room and the waterpark passes that come with it! The kids had a blast at the waterpark, even though most of the stuff is too big for them. Last night, Mac and I ran down to the waterpark alone while Grandma Mary hung with Adeline in the room. I thought Mac might actually go down the big raft ride with me. He wanted to, but got freaked out when we got to the top. So... we scoped it out for when he's Five. Then, the world won't look so scary. To his credit, he was much more into the water slides and spraying water than I expected him to be. He even went down a waterslide that had water spraying from the top. Granted, he looked at it from the top, told me he was scared, I pointed out that it was shallow at the bottom and he could go look at it if he wanted, so he went down (by himself) and scoped out the bottom, then came back up, went right by Addie and I without saying anything, climbed into the chute and went down! I let out a whoop and he gave me the biggest smile and arm pump ever when he got to the bottom. Then, he went down about 20 times in a row, teaching Adeline how to do thumbs up each time he went by her. She waited patiently at the top of the stairs for him. It was good practice for me to abandon any 'need' to have the kids do what I thought would be fun for them. I just followed them around and added to the joy when needed. We watched the raft ride for a long time. We flicked the fountains with our toes for even longer. Then we sat on them for a bit. We pulled the rope for the little bucket (thank goodness the Kalahari doesn't have the gigantic bucket dumping hundreds of gallons of water like Great Wolf lodge). We went up the stairs and back down. We kicked our feet in the water. And for almost one glorious hour yesterday morning, we lounged on the lounge chairs, eating snacks and just sitting in the sunshine (coming in through the windows). How wonderful to let time slow down. Still... I would have loved for Curt to be with us. Next time honey?
The trip from Portland to Chicago was so easy. I'm almost afraid to mention it because I don't want to jinx our return trip. Adeline was screaming and clinging to me the morning we left and I was seriously concerned. Once we got her into her carseat at the airport, she was fine and never made another peep the whole trip. Keeping my fingers crossed for the return trip.
Grandpa Degner is doing really well after breaking his hip a month ago. He's still at the rehab facility, but planning to go home on Saturday. The facility is less than a year old and beautiful. I took some cute pictures of Grandpa and the kids, but the best picture was one of Grandpa taken by McKinley. I'll post it when we get home. So sweet. He's getting good with the camera.
Last Saturday we made some time to hang out with some of my cousins and their kiddos. McKinley was so enamored with Stellah (9 months old) and Caitlyn (5 months old). He kept asking if they could come play in his room. At one point, my mom asked if he would get a blanket from his room for Caitlyn to lay on. Mac ran back there to get one. We could hear him doing something... and after about five minutes he came huffing and puffing down the hallway with the huge comforter off the bed. He'd been working to get it off!
There's a bunch of Wisconsinisms that I thought might give some of you a few laughs:
- they say "stop and go light" (or maybe that's just my mom)
- they call lunch "dinner" and dinner "supper". I never know what anyone is talking about. Dinner and supper are the same in my book, although I never say supper.
- they really do say "oh, yeah." and "fur sure"
- the accent is for real. honest. I used to have a very small one too.
- cheese. it's the state food. well, besides beer or brats. I don't mention that we don't eat dairy. I'd fit in more if I grew horns than if I mentioned that we don't drink milk or eat cheese. I have let the kids have a little while we've been here and both now have the tell-tale red rash on their faces. Amazing how fast it happens and how quickly it clears up when we go back to no dairy. And tomorrow I know that Kraemer's Dairy here in Watertown has fresh cheese curds, and I may just have to go get some. Because hey, if we're eating only a little dairy, shouldn't cheese curds be part of that? And for those of you who've never eaten a real cheese curd. You are missing something!!!
- pretty much everybody owns snowblowers. It's a rite of passage and a necessary survival tool here. The guy next door to my mom has one that has this plexiglass shield around it. It's been cracking me up all week! I must get a picture of it.
- Walmart. They. are. taking. over. They are everywhere. Seriously, it's almost hard to believe how prevalent they are. Again, I don't mention how people in Portland practically riot to keep Walmart OUT. There's a really amazing book I read a few years ago, but can't remember the name. I think the authors first name was Barbara... book about how Walmart only pays thier employees enough to shop at Walmart... anyone remember the name?
Well, my mom has been reading to McKinley for at least two hours, so I better go start him towards bed. He's been so delighted to be able to stay up later while we've been on vacation. He told my mom tonight that Adeline goes to bed at 7:30 and he goes to bed at 9:30. Then he looked at me hopefully... I said "only on vacation".
I'll add pictures to this post once we get home. Hugs...
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