Suddenly, it seems like Fall is upon us. We left Idaho on Thursday morning, September 27th to start our drive to Wisconsin and the boys had still been wearing shorts and T shirts to school up until then. But then we got to Wisconsin and it was mostly cold and rainy while we were there. We did have a couple days of sun, but most of the time it was definitely sweatshirt (and maybe even winter coat!) weather. Then we returned to Idaho to find that Fall had also arrived there. The boys and I actually had a stand-off on Monday when they had to go back to school because they both insisted that they should wear shorts! (The temperature outside was 29 degrees when I looked at my phone.) I argued, "It is NOT summer anymore! You need to wear pants!" When they continued to protest, I went a little mom crazy and told them, "I am taking all of your shorts! They are mine now!!!" and then took every pair of shorts out of their dresser drawers and hid them in my closet. I told them they can "check out" basketball shorts to wear to bed if they need them. Crazy? Maybe. But they need to learn.
Anyways! So, yes, it is Fall now and I'm a little sad about it. I plan to travel someplace warm like Hawaii when Josh is retired and spend winters there. But for now, here we are in Idaho. As we drove home from Wisconsin, we got to see some really pretty views, especially as we drove from Bozeman, Montana down through the Big Sky/Yellowstone area and down back into Idaho. We wove through a lot of mountain canyons and saw lots of orange leaves on cottonwood trees. I tried to take pictures but this was really the best one I got out my window:
We got home Sunday night at about 7:00pm after two days of long driving. We stopped in Bismarck, ND on the way home from Wisconsin and on the way there we stopped in Jamestown. One the way there, we found a hotel with a water slide that we stayed at overnight, which the kids loved. On the way home we just had a basic pool and hot tub, but it was fun because we had swam a lot in Wisconsin at the Kalahari.
So when we first arrived in Wisconsin, we went to my mom's house and had dinner and just chatted for a couple hours. Then we headed over to my grandma Dahlke's house (where we sleep while we are there.) We always just take over my grandma's basement because she had a living room and a spare bedroom and bathroom down there. But Gabe now also takes over the spare bedroom/office upstairs and sleeps on her day bed. he says he likes it because it's all to himself and he can have it pitch black. (At home he shares a room with Caleb and Caleb likes to have a little night light.) So we chatted with my grandma and then got to bed.
The next day (Saturday) we didn't do anything too exciting. We hung out at my mom's house and we took the kids to Lakeside park to play. My grandpa Bestor stopped by and said hi, but quickly had to leave to get to breakfast with my aunt, Nancy, and her grand daughter, Anna. My grandpa is always in high-demand, so it's hard to schedule time to see him sometimes. ;) He's always got things to do and people to see.
Sunday, we drove up to Oshkosh for church. They are adding on to our church building in Fond du Lac, so our ward is driving up to Oshkosh for the next six months (or until it is finished). It brought back memories of when I was a kid and we used to have to drive to Oshkosh for all of our church activities and Sunday church. It wasn't until I was about 14 that we split off from Oshkosh and got our own ward building in Fond du Lac. I was telling my kids how we used to have to drive all that way and they thought that sounded horrible. Here in Rexburg our church is just down the road (within walking distance of our house.) So, because the building in Oshkosh is being shared by the other ward, I was able to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while - the Lamont's, the Rhodes' (not any relation to Josh), Alissa Palmer, and more. I was having major de ja vu being back there and around all those old people from my youth! After church we went to my mom's and watched football and hung out. We also played a few rounds of bingo. Avery and Brayden took turns being the "callers" (with help from me and Rachel.)
Monday, my mom and I went to the Oshkosh outlet mall and we dropped off Josh and the kids at the EAA flight museum while we shopped. We honestly didn't know how exciting that was going to be for them (we really just wanted to get rid of them while we shopped) but when we picked them up a couple hours later they said it was surprisingly really fun and interesting! They had lots of old planes and then some hands-on type of exhibits for the kids. We left Oshkosh at about 3:00 and came back to FDL, then left our kids at my mom's house while Josh and I went out to dinner with Gini and Drake. We went over to their house first and then rode with them to this Mexican restaurant. I wasn't too impressed with the food but it was fun to get out with Gini and Drake and catch up. It was funny to see her again so "soon" (for us every six months is soon.) Drake is liking his coaching job at Marian and they are currently house hunting for a bigger house in FDL.
Tuesday morning we went bowling with my mom. I, for some strange reason, was struck by this super human bowling ability that first game and did amazing! Usually my mom is the one to beat (she was a bowling champion back in the day... hahaha nerd alert... lol) but I even beat her on the first game! I bowled a 125! (Which isn't even that good, but still good for me.) Josh did end up coming from behind and winning just BARELY with like a 130. The next game, my ability vanished and I stunk. My mom won that round.
Tuesday night we met up with grandpa again and he treated us to dinner at the Chinese buffet. My mom, Rachel, Brayden, Jasmine, and my grandma Dahlke all came along too. It seems to have become a tradition to meet up there every time we come to visit. Usually the tradition is also that I get to spend about three hours in the bathroom afterwards, but it seems like I passed that on to my grandpa this year as he informed us that he experienced the diarrhea effect this time afterwards. ;) haha (I hope you are reading this and laughing right now grandpa. Don't worry, only you and about two other people read this blog.)
Wednesday was our big Lambeau Field trip day! Josh and Caleb were especially excited about this. But first we met up with grandpa again for breakfast at McDonalds. The kids got to play a little in the newly redone play place!
My mom rode up to Green Bay with us and came on the Lambeau tour too. Rachel was working and Jasmine and Brayden were in school, so they didn't come along. When we first got there, we took some pictures outside and then went in and bought our tickets. The tour was only about an hour long, but we got to go up to the fifth floor and sit in one of the box suites which was really cool. That's probably the only time we will ever be in there! (Unless we magically win the lottery!) Then they took us all the way down on a secret special elevator to the basement level. We were able to walk out through the tunnel that the players run out of when they come onto the field. Then we went out onto the field and took some pictures. Caleb looked at the padded green wall where they do the "Lambeau leap" and decided it was too tall for him to be able to jump up on. After that, we went and played at the "Title town" kids area. They have some playground stuff and a big practice field where you can play around on. They also had this big hill that the kids ran down, but in the winter I guess you can tube down it. That whole section is brand new. They were actually still working on finishing the inside of the surrounding buildings for shops.
Thursday morning we went over to my mom's house and ate breakfast (like almost every morning, which I forgot to mention) and then right after that, my family drove to Wisconsin Dells to check in to the Kalahari. Mom, Rachel, and Jasmine and Brayden didn't come until a few hours later at about 1:30. But we wanted to get down there as early as possible so our kids could have more time to play. However, we weren't able to actually check into the rooms yet, so we ended up just doing to indoor "dry" amusement area with go-carts, laser tag, a ropes course, and more.
Once the rest of the crew arrived, we checked into our rooms and got our swim suits on and headed down to the indoor waterpark area. It was so nice because it wasn't busy at ALL at first! We were the only ones there it seemed like from about 2-6pm. Then people slowly started to arrive, but still not bad at all. Caleb and Gabe got to spend a lot of time on this surfing area where you learn how to ride the waves! There is a little coach that sits there and kind of tells you what to do, but mostly you just keep trying until you fall off and wash up back to the top!
There were about 10 big waterslides that were indoors also. Some of them you rode just one person at a time and others you would sit on a tube with 2-3 people. There was one ride that me, Rachel, Gabe, and Brayden walked up to the top. When we got there we asked Brayden if he wanted to do it and he said he wanted to ride with Gabe! We were a little nervous because it was kind of an intense ride, like a roller coaster but in a tube! So we told Brayden "hold on tight" and told Gabe to kind of wrap his legs around Brayden's waist! (Gabe was sitting in the tube behind Brayden.) After they got down the first time though, Brayden exclaimed, "AGAIN!" haha. He loved it! We couldn't even get Avery to go on that one! There were some other smaller slides that she did again and again. There was also a wave pool and a lazy river.
So we spent a long time there and then at about 6pm we left and went out to dinner at Culver's. Then we went back and did the indoor stuff again like the laser tag, ropes course, go carts, mini golf, rock climbing wall, and some other things. Mom and Jasmine had to leave early the next morning for a braces appointment for Jasmine, so they had to get all their stuff in that night! The next morning, Rachel and Brayden stayed with us and we did the water park again until about noon, then we checkout out and did a couple more rides on the go carts, then headed home. It was very fun and tiring!
We got back to Fondy at about 3pm on Friday. Then we spent some time doing laundry and packing up our suitcases at my grandma's house. Then we had dinner at my mom's house and relaxed and chatted. It was our last evening in Wisconsin and we were all sad and tired!
Saturday morning we loaded up our SUV and said goodbye to the whole crew - grandma Dahlke, grandpa Bestor, mom, Rachel, and Brayden! (Jasmine was at home asleep... we know where we stand with her. lol)
Then we drove away at about 7am! Until next time, Wisconsin!
As we drove home, we were able to listen to General Conference on our phones. It was a historic moment when President Nelson announced that they would be changing the church schedule from being 3 hours long to just 2 hours long. It has been 3 hours long for my whole life, so this was a pretty big deal! Part of the reason they are doing this is because the church membership has grown so much over the past 20 years that they are using lots of the church buildings for multiple wards on Sundays. They are having a hard time scheduling three different wards of people into the same building to allow for the big sacrament meeting, then the two hours of Sunday school classes. In our building for example, there is a group that meet at 8:30am (us), then another starts at 11:00, then another at 1:30, so some people don't get home from church until 4:00! Part of this new church schedule is that they will have some lessons available online that families can talk about at home. I'm a little worried about my kids' willingness to sit and listen to me as I try and teach them Sunday school lessons at home, but we will try! Most churches probably only meet for about an hour every Sunday anyways, but here we are just excited it's now only 2! haha. The other big thing they talked about was how we want to emphasis that our church is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and not just "the Mormons." This is because some people apparently don't know we believe in Jesus. (Duh... it's in the church name, people!) So now the "Mormon Tabernacle Choir" is also the "Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square." (We are going to call it TabCATS for short haha)
So, now we are back at home and getting back into the swing of school and work again! Gabe had to make a diorama inside a shoebox from a book he read called "The Tripods". Luckily we did that before we left for Wisconsin so it was all ready to turn in the day we got back! It had lots of little trees (that I ordered from Amazon) and he painted a woodland scene around it (I helped a little.)
Gabe is officially done with soccer. He had his last game right before we left for Wisconsin. (See picture below) Caleb has one last football game this weekend so he has still been practicing after school this week. Halloween is just around the corner and the school and church parties are coming up this weekend!
That's all for now!
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