National Lampoons Thanksgiving Vacation

Okay, so it isn't quite that bad. We got the first six hours of the drive down just fine. We stopped in Des Moines for the night and the kids actually slept well and were well behaved. The next morning when Scott went outside to load up the car again, he noticed a very flat tire. Blah, blah, blah, I ended up having to wait almost four hours in the hotel room with all four boys.

Anyone that know little boys knows that they get awfully restless. When Joe and Luke collided heads in midair while jumping from one bed to the other, I decided it was time to run off some energy in the hotel hallways. My big mistake was not making them put their shoes back on. Luke slipped on the tile floor and split his head open. So, there I was, four crying boys, blood all over the hotel room, no car, and still three hours from home. Then, of course, it started snowing.

Luke ended up with seven stitches. I had to wait outside while they did the job. I was a little suspicious about how I looked when the nurses around kept asking me to sit down and if I needed something to drink. Apparently my blood pressure was zero over zero. Luke was faring much better in the next room. They wrapped him up in a little "paupus" so he wouldn't struggle and he promptly fell asleep. What an angel.

Things were better at home until the stomach bug hit - the baby first, then Joe, then me. I didn't know that a nursing infant could vomit. I'd never seen it. But, they can. Boy, can they. It was a very short lived, not very intense virus, thank goodness, and we are all fine now.

Now that I've shared all of our medical woes, I feel a little bit like an eighty-year-old. When we get back home, we'll post some pictures from the good parts of the trip.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!

The Family In The Dells

To celebrate daddy's birthday and his promotion, we decided to have a mini-vacation at the Wisconsin Dells. It's kind of like Branson in the summer (I've been told) but in the winter, it's all about the indoor water parks. Patrick is in red and Luke is in blue.

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Luke warms up on the little slides before tackling this:

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The big purple one. Scott went up to the top with him, but they don't allow two riders at a time. Scott sat down all ready to go with the boys and pushed them down alone. It's a tough life, kid. Get used to it! They all did okay that first time. It wasn't a pretty landing, but they liked it enough to go again and again.
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Joe and mommy relaxing on the lazy river that wound around the kids' play area and the ends of the big slides.

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Watching a movie in our jammies in the room after the first day.
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Day two: We went to a different indoor waterpark on the same property. This is what the front looked like. At the top of the structure, there were two three-story slides. Patrick worked up to it by starting with this little one:
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After hitting the purple guy the night before, Luke was ready for bigger things.

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This was the big kids slide. (not the hurricaine or the ones where the slides wind around outside of the building, but definatly big enough for mom to be a little scared!
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This was Patrick's first time down the big slide. He got a little turned around, but recovered well.

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This is what Andrew looked like most of that day.

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We ended the morning in the arcade where they had a three story play area - lost of climbing and sliding. We wanted to make sure they got ALL of their energy out before the drive home.

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Andrew woke up and enjoyed all of the comotion.

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This was the scene less than 10 minutes after we got in the car. Note the sandwich still in his hand. He was starving, but sleep won the battle.

Little Man in the Mirror

Andrew has two new teeth. He also has a new facination with the mirror. I started trying to video him once when he first sat down because he was talking to himself and laughing at his reflection. This, of course, was elusive when the camera actually went on. So, now that I have that video, I've tried for days to upload it, and now, I'm giving up.

Quotables:

Joe: "I'm fab-we-us!" (Fabulous?)

Luke: "I'm going to vacuum like mommy. (screams) PICK UP ALL YOUR TOYS!"

Patrick: (after sneezing a second time) "Luke, bless me again!"

Joe: "Wanna watch my puffet show?"

Andrew's First Bite

With all of the boys watching anxiously, little Andrew got his first bite of solid food - the standard rice cereal. He uses his fingers to help out.
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"Yum, I thought that was delicious"

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"Open wide" just like mommy looking all stupid in this picture.
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"Hey! Is that all? I want more!"

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All of the boys enjoyed snuggling on the futon watching a movie after the big event.

Mea Culpa

I missed posting about a very important date for our family. Scott's grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last month.

Congratulations!!!

October Visitors

While Grammie and Granddad were here, they took the twins to the zoo. Here's the crew in front of the bears.
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This big grizzly looked like he was ready to pounce on one of our bear cubs.

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The boys had a lot of fun just rolling around in the leaves there.

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Andrew, however, did not enjoy his first roll in the leaves.