Wisconsin

To be entirely honest its been a good month since we left for our {somewhat} annual trip to Wisconsin. I dont remember as many of the details as I would like but the first thing I remember is thinking " I will never do this again!" This being travel with a 1 and 3 year old. 3 year old was perfection, 1 year old ... well lets just say not so much. Thankfully despite our hardships we weren't " those people" with the screaming crying inconsolable child ( this time ) even though it felt like it. We had two 2 hour flights with very short layovers in between but I don't think our 1 year old sat still or was content for any more than 2 minutes at a time. It was some rough traveling thats for sure! I am so thankful Winni was so awesome traveling but we def won't be taking a family of 4 trip again on an airplane til the kiddies are MUCH older!

 

So anywho we made it to Wisconsin late at night and got all settled. We had to do the rooms a little mixed up so Winni and I slept together in a room downstairs where it was nice and quiet ( and worked our wonderful she sletp well past 10 most mornings) and Tyson and Daddy slept upstairs.

 

Our first big thing we did in Wisconsin was go to the Milwaukee zoo with some family! We got to meet baby Lily for the first time which I am pretty sure was the highlight of Winni's trip and we got to see Aunt Carole which we don't always get to do in Wisconsin! And an extra added bonus the Milwaukee zoo was amazing! By far the best zoo I have ever been too! 

 

Posing with the baby monkey

 

 

Watching the elephants with Aunt Carole

 

My little man!

 

She is my little animal lover with no fear!

 

We were so lucky we happened to run into many many feeding time while at the zoo. We saw the fish and sharks ( smaller ones) getting fed, we got to watched the tigers eat and we saw the elephants getting fed.

 

 

The next day we headed for the Great Wolf Lodge at Wisconsin Dells! The last 3 years Greg's Mom and Dad have so graciously hosted a family trip ( for all 6 kids and 9 nieces and nephews with one more on the way) and last year we had plans to go but with Tyson surprising us with his arrival 2 weeks before we were set to go, we didn't make it so it was extra wonderful to be back this time with Winni now as a 3 year old and our son!

 

For comparison sake here is Winni from our first trip to the Dells in 2010 and now

 

 

Same spot , same sweet baby girl just all grown up now!

 

And now a picture of Tyson in that same spot

 

 

Yup this boy would seriously just crawl right on in not even noticing he was under water! He was too funny and wouldn't sit still for 2 seconds ( as usual)

 

I had a hard time balacing crazy photographer mommy and be in the moment mommy. I only brought my camera down to the water one day because it almost seemed more of a hassle than anything and even though I dont have many of the actual photos of all the smiles from my babies I was blessed to embed them in my heart and even though being at the water park was a lot of work it was worth every second watching them smile!

 

And I of course did get some pictures :)

 

 

 

As you can see the kids had an amazing time and absoluetly LOVED the waterpark!

 

We also just loved being at the Dells and every year we love to go to a local deer park!

 

Tyson looks frightened here but he really wasn't. In fact he had a pretty great time! I was most worried about him being eye level with the deer and all but he loved it and reached out constantly for them

 

 

And my little animal whisperer of course loved it

 

The deer food was pretty much like a triscut so Greg the kids kept eating our deer food. Winni was sitting on Daddy's shoulders and realized how many crumbs she could make on Daddy's head. It was pretty hilarious .

 

One of the best things we did in the Dells was get a HUGE family photo! Its not often the whole family gets together so its always so important to get these rare photos of everyone. Yet " everyone" is a loose term. The first one the family did Greg's sister was pregnant with baby #4, last year we didn't end up making it and there was another bun in the oven with Uncle Tom and Ashley, and this year we all got a surprise that there was yet another bun in the oven from Uncle Doc and Mork! Don't know if we will ever get a complete family photo but I love that the family keeps growing!

 

 

After a few days in the Dells we headed back to Greg's parents house for the last day of our trip which we spent relaxing with Grandma and Grandpa

 

 

and playing at a local park

 

And spent a little time on the four wheeler

 

 

 

All in all we truly had a wonderful trip. Ty slept some of the way home ( although you still couldnt pay me a million dollars to do any of those flights again) I'm def glad we made the journey to be with family and I just have to close this post with this picture that seemed to capture the chaos of the majority of our trip :)