Vacation snippets

Grandma and Grandpa Powers with 12 of 15 grandchildren

12 of 13 great grandchildren (note: there are only 2 girls in the bunch!)

We had a marvelous time on our vacation to the Midwest. If only it was a little closer to Texas so we wouldn't have to put 2900 miles on the car. We're already due for another oil change.

We drove up on Tuesday and Wednesday and arrived at my aunt's house within one minute of my grandparents' arrival for a cook-out. The kids had a ball playing with my youngest cousins who are 15 and 13. My aunt instructed her boys that they needed to be good hosts and we couldn't have asked for anything better. They played basketball, catch, golf and drew with chalk. Alex also became very proficient at Madden '08 football. At one point, the thirteen year old observed that "girls are very different" than boys, after spending time with Emma. By the morning we left their house, the thirteen year old said he was very tired. It does take a lot of energy to chase after 3 kids.

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Thursday, we visited with Great Grandma Hested. She made a nice lunch and the kids took several rides on an antique carousel. We also visited another cousin who lives on an acreage with lots of animals. It looked like a boy wonderland which is good since she has 3 boys.
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Friday was the long awaited 4th of July party. According to my mom, the numbers lady, there were 49 people in attendance. It was full of family fun and togetherness. The kids swam in the lake, paddled a canoe, rode in the paddleboat, took tube rides, attempted water skiing and played bongo balls. Alex and Grandpa had a little tussle when Grandpa threw Alex in the lake after Alex was dry and done swimming. Alex bided his time and pushed Grandpa in the lake when he wasn't paying attention, shoes, hat and all.

Benjamin and his cousin, George, who is 10 weeks younger Emma and my cousin's son, Cole

Emma and her newest cousin, Andrew, the little golden haired baby

Sunday afternoon through Tuesday morning were spent at Great Wolf Lodge, an awesome water park/hotel in the Wisconsin Dells. We also took a Wisconsin Dells boat tour. The boat went up the Wisconsin River and we were able to get out to see a beautiful canyon and cool rock formations. A funny quote from Benjamin during the boat ride...We were walking back through the canyon and Sean pointed out some large fish in the creek. In a shallow section, there was a large dead fish, so Sean pointed that out to Benjamin as well. On the way back through the canyon, Benjamin eagerly pointed out the fish to Sean and said, "Tired fish." Sean's stepmom did a great job planning and shopping for the trip. We only ate out once which made the kids happy so they could spend more time in the water. See the following post for a more complete description of the water park and lots of pictures. We had a great time with Sean's family.
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Tuesday afternoon, we visited with Sean's grandma at her house. We haven't been there in years, so it was nice to visit and see her beautiful flowers. The kids also were thrilled because she let the kids choose some shells out of the shells she has collected over the years on various beaches. They each left with conch shells and lots of other neat ones, plus Emma got a geode.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent 19 hours driving back to Austin. We made liberal use of the DVD players. The kids did pretty well in the car, but we were very happy to pull in on Thursday afternoon! Note the car craziness on the way home...