Wisconsin Trip

We made it back from our yearly Wisconsin trip! This year we left on Wednesday, June 18th and drove for two days, arriving on Thursday night. We went the northern route through North Dakota and then on down through Minneapolis, which I have decided I like better than going through South Dakota and southern Minnesota. It seems like you are less out in the middle of nowhere for long stretches of time.

Anyways! Friday night I did my little art show at Bookworld on Main Street (aka: the small event that could make my entire trip a Tax Deduction….haha). On Sunday, June 22, 2014 - Gabe was finally baptized! Yay! Poor kid has been waiting since March to do that. I would have to say that it was worth the wait. It was really nice. Everything went really smoothly and my mom did a little lunch at the church for everyone from the branch who had stayed. I did a short talk about the Holy Ghost and my mom did one about baptism.

Then on Tuesday, Gabe and Caleb came with me and Josh to Noah's Ark (America's Largest water park) and we had a blast. Avery stayed home with my mom. She would've been too small for all the water slides anyways. We had a good day for weather and the lines were pretty small, being a Tuesday. There were a couple of rides that we waited in line for and then Caleb decided, maybe he wasn't quote ready for after all. Haha I had to walk him back down off the the "Black Anaconda" and "Stingray." I will post a picture of each one of those below so this explanation will make sense. On the "Black Anaconda" you go with three people in a tube, one person behind the next so you are in a line. Well we had told Caleb he could be in the middle between me and Josh. But when we got to the front of the line, the guy told us the smallest person had to be in the front and the biggest in the back. Therefore, Caleb would have to be in the front. Me and Josh got into the tube. Caleb stood on the deck, shaking his head no with a face like, "No way in hell I am getting that tube." hahaha So I took the walk of shame with him back down the steps and passed everyone in line, as many parents gave me the sympathetic "We've been there too…" smile. After Josh got down (they let him join another group and Gabe had gone with a group of two other boys we met in line) even Josh admitted, "Yeah, it was pretty intense. It was probably best he didn't go." haha

Then on the Stingray, there are two people that sit facing each other on a double tube. You basically get pushed off this cliff where your tube goes down a giant u-shaped slide and back up to the other side. Well they told Caleb that he would have to go down it facing backwards and he was just not about to let someone push him off a cliff on a tube going backwards. I guess it's good that we have a child that is strong enough to say "no" when he isn't comfortable with something though. Hopefully that lasts into his teenage years.

Other favorite things at Noah's Ar were the Lazy river and the Wave Pool. The boys LOVED the wave pool. Luckily they have life vests available for them to wear now, so they both did. I remember almost dying in the wave pool as a kid so I decided to sunbathe while Josh took them in.

So that was Noah's Ark!

Other highlights of our trip were going to Kohler beach, riding go-carts, bumper boats, and mini-golf at the Fondy Sports park, eating at Culver's at least 8 times (seriously), having dinner with my old friend Gini and her husband, Drake, going to the children's museum, doing the rides at Lakeside Park with grandpa Bestor (my grandpa), the fondy watermark (twice), me shopping with my mom at the outlets and rummage sales, and picking strawberries. It was pretty rainy, lots of cloudy days, but we still squeezed in.

On Sunday, June 29th, Josh blessed Rachel's new baby, Brayden in church. Then afterwards my mom invited all of the Dahlke relatives over for a BBQ. It was good to see some of my cousins that I haven't seen in forever.

Then speaking of people I haven't seen in forever, on Monday even my dad joined the party. We went swimming with my brother's family (they arrived on Saturday, right near the end of our trip) and the kids had a lot of fun. Then grandpa Bestor took us out for Chinese food. The next morning, Tuesday, July 1st, we headed out early in the morning.

It was a really fun trip. We were lucky my grandma let us stay at her condo. She has a basement with a bedroom and living space and bathroom so we were able to spread out. With my sister and her two kids still living with my mom, there was literally no room for us in the inn.

So that as our trip! Pictures to come!