Adventure in the Dells

Yesterday we got back from a long weekend in Wisconsin Dells.  It was the kids' & my first time there, and Nate has only vague memories of vacationing there around age 5.  We stayed in a 'Resort' that probably looked fabulous in the 80's.  Our stay included wristbands for Mt. Olympus Park that were good every day of our stay, so we went twice.  It has more waterpark-type options than our local Valleyfair but doesn't compare otherwise.  I was surprised how the Dells & surrounding area looked.  There were too many kitschy attractions and most of them are crammed right next to each other on a busy, narrow, pothole-laden road. 

We had a fun time riding the Original Wisconsin Ducks.  They weighed something crazy like 7 or 8 tons but could navigate turns and hills pretty well.  The driver told corny jokes the whole time.

The Dells view from our Duck boat

We also saw the Tommy Bartlett Ski, Sky, & Stage Show which was okay but didn't have enough waterskiing action - half of it was jugglers and random Vegas-type acts.

Lower left - some dude with a big head sat in front of us right before the show started.  Argh.

Our kids are not the strongest swimmers yet so we couldn't take full advantage of the waterpark action.  Adrienne was the biggest daredevil.  She went on one of the big ones at Mt. Olympus, but stood in line for an eternity.  Good thing they had just as much fun at the little waterslide at our hotel:

Poor Zach wanted to go on every single ride he saw.  He was content once we found the kiddie rides, though.

And just for kicks, I'll end with this goofy pic of Z.  Must have been a bumpy landing.

dog days

Summer should be hot and sunny but not disgusting, and last week was just that.  Not the greatest timing for Michael's tennis camp, but what can you do.  At least it was in the morning.

 

It was also the week of our county fair.  We stumbled around there for a few hours on Wednesday night until a cranky sweaty Zach decided we should go.  I went back on Saturday to do a shift at the MCCL booth.  Up this week:  middle school orientation/picture day for Michael.  We're hoping to cram in a family vacation before school starts, too.

So long, Mr. Rogers

The kids and I had a movie night last night.  I made them watch one I enjoyed as a kid, Disney's Swiss Family Robinson.  They mostly liked it.  It has just enough action and adventure to entertain even modern instant-gratification kids.  But during a few sequences when the characters would dare to have conversations, the kids' attention would immediately start to drift.  I had to tell them to hang on, there's a good part coming up - some animal fun, or explosions, or some pirate will fall off a cliff.

Back in my day we didn't have instant everything.  No cell phones or internet.  Microwaves were the new thing, but they took longer to cook stuff then.  These days we take offense if a web page takes more than 4 seconds to load.  TV commercials flash images in strobe-light fashion while blaring fast paced music or voice-overs.  I worry sometimes whether my kids will be stuck with the attention span of a gnat.  You can try to limit TV, computer, video game time etc., but the cultural influences are all around us.  They aren't entertained by things like good old Mr. Rogers re-runs.  He sits too still and talks too calmly and peacefully, I guess.

mi hija bonita

Adrienne now has the palatal expander in her mouth.  Her speech is affected by it, but not as much as I was afraid it would be (after reading horror stories on the net).  I have to crank it wider once a day, which causes her some discomfort.

Yesterday was Nate's birthday.  Due to limited options, he got a pre-decorated butterfly & flowers cookie cake that we had to neutralize with a little masculinity.  Who else can boast of having a hermaphrodite cake on their b-day?