Wisconsin Dells 2011

This is quite the belated post... The second weekend in June, we met up with the Roiger, Groene, and Ladwig clans for our annual Wisconsin Dells get-together. As usual, it was absolutely wonderful getting a chance to visit with everyone, and equally as usual, we left wishing we would have had more time to talk and play.

The cousins and second-cousins played great. It was so sweet to see how much of a liking Olivia took to Hannah (and vice-versa, I think!), and how she wanted each cousin to take a turn riding in the truck with us as we went to various restaurants. Sigh...if only we all lived closer to one-another. Another big hit for Olivia was getting a new blankie from her great-grandma. Gracie was a bit clingy to Mommy, but she slowly opened up throughout the weekend. Gracie was a trooper adjusting to only one nap a day and later than usual bedtimes without any meltdowns.

Exercise = Sleeping in unusual spots!

However, perhaps the biggest hit of all (for Brian and I included) was watching the girls just have a blast at the water-parks. Olivia was a bit hesitant to go down any slides by herself, but she was all about going down with Mom and Dad. She even voluntarily went down the "dark" slides three times - I was pretty impressed with this! Gracie was pretty much obsessed with any waterfall type of anything, ventured into the wave pool and lazy river, and went down lots of little-kiddie slides at the various parks. One of my favorite memories of Liv had to do with the transit we took as we were so far away from the parks. It would have made anyone smile to see Olivia running from the front yard of the condo into the main room in uncontrollable excitement while yelling "The bus is coming!" or "The bus is here!". Olivia would only sit by her cousins on the bus and didn't hesitate to tell Brian and I to sit in the front with Gracie. Gracie was equally excited about the bus, but I think much of her excitement about everything was initiated with Olivia's full-blown enthusiasm.

A daddy who'll go down any slide = Great bonding!

Click below to see Olivia and Brian going down the green slide...not the greatest video (my good one wouldn't load), but something is better than nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ51v66lz1M

Unfortunately, I didn't end up taking many pictures of the weekend because I was too hesitant to bring my camera anywhere. It was a different story this year as Gracie was all about the pools instead of just hanging out in the Baby Bjorn like last year! As for me - I can't wait to go back!