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| All the kids at the playland in the Chicago Airport |
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| Samuel in the cockpit ready to fly his plane! |
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| Baby Caleb playing in the playland too! |
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| Joseph and Caleb |
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| Austin, Joseph , Betsy, and Caleb loving the play area |
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| Betsy and Caleb |
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| Betsy, Baby, Austin, Samuel at the play area next to the pizza place |
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| Caleb and Austin at the play place |
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| Caleb and Austin waiting for Joseph to ride the train ride |
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| Joseph waving to us from the train ride |
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| Samuel and Caleb on a ride |
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| Daddy and Caleb at Buffalo Phil's pizza and train place |
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| Sam on the Buffalo |
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| Betsy on the Buffalo |
We went to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin for an Army Strong Bonds Family Retreat December 8-11th. It was awesome, the army paid for everything, even flew us out there. The only down side was all the paperwork we had to fill out, online in their travel system. It took us 8 hours just to get into the system from our computer, and then another 8 hours to fill out a travel voucher for each person in our family. We couldn't just do one for everyone. Anyway so we left at 5am on the 8th and drove to the SLC airport, where we parked and got everyone to the shuttle just in time (I had to run, but barely made it) The kids thought it was fun to ride the shuttle to the airport and pass the Christmas lights on the way. We managed to get our boarding passes, and luggage checked. Again we had to do each one individually, it couldn't be done together, I really wish the army could fix that. Then when that was done, we had about 10 minutes to get through security to our gate, and there was a huge line to get through security. Thankfully we got to go through a family line and bypass the huge line. We managed to get everyone through okay, it definitely quite a production to get our family through, although it was a pleasant surprise that the kids didn't have to take off their shoes. We made it to the gate just in time, to go up to the customer service desk, and get some of our seats together, and board the plane. The baby had a paid ticket so we brought his car seat on with with us, and we got to sit mostly together. All the little video games really paid off for the kids, especially Sam's Innotab (a kids tablet for games). Everyone did good on the plane, Caleb was a little fussy, but not too bad, just required a lot of entertaining and passing around to different family members. We had an hour and a half layover in the Chicago airport, got some breakfast, and took them to a play land that was a lot of fun. Travis left to go get our seats situated for the next flight, and I was supervising all the kids. I was following Samuel around, and things went fine at first, and everyone was having fun, but then Samuel got possessive of the cockpit and where the pilot would sit to fly the plane, and started talking mean and hurting kids that would come in. I would have to give the baby to Austin, or put him down, and pick up Samuel and take him to a corner for a time out, and try to calm him down, rub his arms and legs, and talk to him about how he is supposed to act. As soon as his time-out was over, he would run right back to the cockpit, and hurt whoever was there, so I would get him back to time-out and then also tell him he couldn't play in the cockpit anymore since he couldn't behave appropriately. I had to keep the baby, he wouldn't go to anyone else, and Samuel was yelling and trying to hurt me. I glanced at my watch and realized we needed to board our next flight in ten minutes, and Travis still wasn't back yet, so I told Samuel we were leaving, and tried to gather up all the kids, and go over to our stuff, while calling Travis' cell phone to see where he was. Apparently Samuel hurt another kid while I was trying to get everyone together, and a parent came over to me and complained. I told him I was sorry, and that we were leaving. He still protested saying, I needed to watch my kid. It was upsetting for me, because I was doing the best I could, and I was watching Samuel as best I could, but when Samuel doesn't listen, and I'm watching four other children, including a baby, and our stuff, and trying to get everyone together to leave, is not easy. I just told the parent that again we were leaving and I was sorry their child was hurt. I turned away, and tried to get all the kids out of the play area, and just then I saw Travis. I told all the kids to go to Daddy, and managed to gather up the rest of our things, and follow them to Travis. Travis had forgotten the time change, and hadn't realized we were supposed to board our flight, but quickly helped me with our things, and we got to our flight just in time to get on it. We made it to Wisconsin just fine, and then picked up our rental car, and drove the hour and a half to the Chula Vista Resort, while all the kids slept. We checked into the resort, and then drove to get some dinner at a mexican restaurant in town. It was good food, and we had a good time, except Joseph and Samuel were having a hard time sitting down, and kept running around the restaurant and going over to other tables to play with the candles on them, and trying to blow out the flames. We went back to the resort and changed into our swimsuits and walked through the underground tunnel to the indoor waterpark. It was awesome, it is the largest indoor waterpark in America! Travis watched the baby, Samuel and Betsy in the little kid area, and I took Austin on a couple water slides, and Joseph tried some out too. Austin and I got a double tube, and walked up the stairs to the slides, and I asked the attendant for the least scary one, and Austin and I went down it. Poor Austin, it was dark, almost the whole time, and had numerous drops and twists and turns that were scary. She was freaked out, and said she didn't want to go on any more slides. I thought it was a bit exciting, but if that was the least scary ride, I didn't really have a desire to try the other ones. So Austin and I went on the "Action river". It's like the Lazy river, except at the beginning it's like a wave pool. They had this huge area, where you could climb and go down different littler slides, and also lots of water pouring down, and places you could dump water on an unsuspecting person below,( a couple kids got me this way). Going to the waterpark this first night, was my favorite, because there was hardly anyone there, and we didn't have to worry about Samuel waiting in lines, or hurting anyone else. We stayed at the waterpark until closing, and then walked back to our room, where we rented a free DVD and watched it. The kids had a hard time going to sleep, even though it was almost 10pm, except Sam, he was exhausted. Betsy, who has always been a night owl, couldn't seem to be quite and was making it hard for everyone else to go to sleep. Austin and Betsy were sharing a Queen Bed, and then Samuel had the next Queen Bed, and then there was a divider and Joseph slept on the pull out from the couch, and then there was a small bedroom with a door, and a king size bed Travis and I slept in, and a portable crib for the baby. After a lot of "be quiets, and hushes" everyone finally fell asleep. Unfortunately the baby did not sleep well at all, and Travis and I were up a lot with him. The next morning we had to wake everyone up to get to breakfast by 7:30am. It was delicious, it was a big buffet full of many choices. My favorite was the Belgian waffles with strawberries and whip cream, and the fresh fruit. Samuel would always get a plate full of cantaloupe. After breakfast, we dropped of Samuel and the baby at the room for daycare, and went to our first session. They taught us about different ways to improve relationships, and had us do fun family activities together, like draw a family portrait out of butcher paper, and make a family collage. The also had the kids go up and say things there family does for them, and what they do for their family. They used video clips from popular movies like "tangled", "nanny mcphee", and "despicable me" to model good or bad parenting. We had a break in-between sessions, and a buffet lunch too. Caleb wouldn't stay in day care anymore, he was too fussy (he's been teething, and fighting a cold) When we were done with all the sessions for the day, we changed into our swimsuits and headed straight for the pool. It was awesome, we went on a water roller coaster, that was tons of fun. Although the first time we went up there, Austin refused to go up the stairs with Travis, (she must have thought we were going on the scary one again), and was looking for me (I was already up the stairs with the other kids). I went with Samuel the first time. It was so fun, and fast...he was so happy and excited. As we zoomed off, he shouted "I'm on a rocket" we went on the coaster many times it was so much fun. Then we went to find Austin, who had been upset for a little while, but was finally having some fun on her own. We left the waterpark, changed and went to the room we were supposed to be at for dinner. Samuel was having a difficult time waiting for his food, and not eating the food he wasn't supposed to have, but other than that dinner was nice. After dinner we did a scavenger hunt of the resort where we were supposed to find different pictures of reindeer hung up. It was fun, and then we came back and watched another movie, and then went to sleep. The baby had a really rough night, and we didn't get much sleep again, but we rolled out of bed and went to our breakfast, and morning sessions again. I had to go and get the baby from the daycare because he wouldn't stop crying, and then I took him to the foyer and sat in a big comfy chair by the fireplace, and fed the baby and we both fell asleep. For those of you who know how hard it is for me to take a nap, know how exhausted I was, in order to do that. I felt much better after my nap. After our sessions, which talked a lot about role-playing and communication (at least the parts I was awake for) we hit the waterpark again. We had fun playing in the lily pad area and more water coaster, and going down some slides on the mats. It took some doing for Austin to go on these, but once she did she loved it. Travis and Joseph went on some more slides, and one where it drops you into a bowl and then you get flushed down to the rest of the slide, and they went backwards and got flipped off there tube, but they had a great time. On our way back to our room, Travis went ahead with Joseph and Samuel, while I waited for Betsy to get a band-aid, she got a little scrape on her thigh. Then Joseph didn't stay with Travis and we lost him for a while, and I thought we had lost Betsy too, but it turns out she had just caught up with Travis. When Austin, the Baby and I got back, no one else was there, and Travis had our only key. So I left Austin standing there, in case anyone who was lost turned up there, and the baby and I walked all the way back to the waterpark (about a 5 minute walk one way) and back looking for Travis and lost children, but didn't find anyone, so I walked back to our room, and found everyone there, but Joseph. It turns out Travis took a wrong turn,and Joseph wouldn't follow him, and Betsy had caught up with him, but they couldn't find Joseph, and went back to the room. I was changing my clothes and getting ready to go look for Joseph again, when he showed up to our room. I was sure glad everyone made it back safely, but it sure would be nice if our children would stay closer to us when we are going places. We were on our own for dinner, so we drove into town and went to a place called Buffalo Phil's Pizza place, where they serve dinner to you by train. So we went in, and was seated right next to the train tracks(model trains, not real size). The train brought us our drinks, and food. It would stop right by our table, and when we took our food off, it would go back to the kitchen. During the dinner it would also drive by with different toys and things on it for looking at, one time it even came by blowing bubbles. It was fun, and then at the end of our dinner, they gave us a pass for a free train ride in the connecting play land area. So we went on the train roller coaster ride, which was fun, except it jerked my neck around a little too much. Then the kids played on some of the inflatable toys. We really had a good time, then we drove back to the resort, and played at the water park one last time. Sunday morning we had breakfast, and went to the chapel session. It was nice having Samuel in the daycare, but Joseph was in a foul mood, and kept hiding under the table, or leaving, and Austin was throwing a fit too. But then once the final session started they got to go to there own session, and when they got back they were in much better moods. The kids and I have fun writing notes back and forth to each other during these sessions. And I was so pleased that Samuel never hurt anyone in the daycare, he did really great. Right before our final session they told us we had to be checked out of our rooms, and we thought we would check out after the session, so we quickly went to our room, packed everything up, put it in the car and checked out. After everything was over, we left and started driving towards the airport, we thought we had plenty of time, so we stopped in a little diner to have lunch, after lunch I looked at my watch and we had thirty minutes left before we needed to board our flight. I couldn't believe it, I don't know where the time went, but we drove quickly the rest of the way to the airport, and when we arrived we had ten minutes to get to our gate. So we quickly dropped off the rental car and got to the ticketing desk to get our boarding passes. There was no one there (it was a very small municipal airport) and a sign saying that the flight closed thirty minutes prior to departure. Our prayers were answered when a lady showed up a minute later, and when she saw us she quickly checked us in, and said we were lucky she came back, she normally doesn't. So we went over to the security, and waiting in line. It seemed to take forever, they kept having to rerun our bags, and they even discovered a leathermans pocket knife in Travis' backpack that he had forgotten about. (I don't know how they missed it in SLC) we finally got everyone through and made our way quickly to the plane, where they were waiting for us. We got on, but since we hadn't had time to arrange our seats together, Joseph and Austin had to sit by themselves, but we did manage to get the rest of us mostly together. We had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Chicago this time. But we found a kid-friendly USO, and got some free snacks, and watched movies during our layover time, and Travis worked on his final project that was due Monday morning. We finally made it to the SLC airport at 11pm. We got our car, and drove home arriving shortly after midnight. We woke up early the next morning and got everyone off to school, but we were sure tired. Overall we had a great trip. I would recommend Wisconsin Dells to anyone for a fun family vacation. It was sure fun, and there were tons of water parks, and theme parks for the summer too.
