da dells
I've decided to just edit this post with all Dells related info. It may not be exciting reading, but it will serve as a documentation of this trip, I'll put the pictures in here too when I get them. (Scroll Down for pictures!!!!!)
August 4th
The kids and I are in Wisconsin with my sister and parents. Things are going relatively well. Roo being, well, TWO, is probably my biggest challenge. He's either awesome or a nightmare...running around like he's hopped up on gop or sleeping. Speaking of sleeping. I'm sleepy. I will continue this post in the morning.
August 5th
Okay, It's morning. I'm still sleepy.
The kids and I are all living in the same room, the same room where the sun comes streaming, I'm sorry screaming in at six a.m. Roo refuses to stay in bed or in our room (I know this because I tried at least containing him in our room but he screamed bloody murder). So I get to wander, sleep starved, around the condo preventing him from doing such things as twisting my sister's glasses in to a tangle of glass and wire, climbing on top of the entertainment center, and waking everybody else up. I just suggested to Laura(because he woke her up) that I wanted to put Roo in some sort of sensory deprivation tank so he will sleep until a decent hour. (I've got that mother of the year thing sewn up this year).
Quick highlights of the trip so far:
*Circus World Museum was cool. In the children's circus where kids are chosen from the audience to play different parts, E was chosen to be the ring master, she was so super excited because that was exactly what she wanted to do (Who IS this kid? At her age, I hid behind my parents at stuff like that- plus every kid she meets she introduces her self and makes friends- soooooo not me at her age- or now). She was awesome too, by the way. She got to dress up in the whole ringmaster outfit and say "Ladies and gentlemen, Boys and Girls..." and all that good stuff. She's such a performer. K got to be what she wanted too... a prancing pony complete with white horsey head and tail. We also saw these amazing Chinese acrobats. Oh, and we saw an Elephant poop what E described as bowling balls.
Now I know the picture quality isn't the best...but K is actually airborn in the above pic!
The above pic was taken just before the "bowling balls"
*We accidentally,okay it was my suggestion, went to a vegetarian restaurant that did not serve alcohol. We didn't realize this until we were seated and scanned the menu. I thought, Oh no this is not going to fly, but it was a really good dining experience. It was called the Cheese Factory Restaurant Laura and I split veggie lasagna and an eggplant parmesan sandwich, my mom and Jack split a four cheese pizza, K and E split spaghetti and grilled cheese, and my dad got the eggplant sandwich as well. The service was really good, they had this old-time juke with songs from my parents hey-day which my mom loved, and the kids all got pinwheels.
*The girls, Laura, Dad and I went fishing. It was slow going at first,
and then as soon as Laura started singing, "There are no fish in Lake Delton!" She caught a fish right below the pier. Then it was ridiculous. All we had to do was drop our lines right at the edge of the pier and we would catch blue gills....only blue gills. I completely lost count of how many we caught because it was just that easy.
*I beat everyone at Scrabble - I rarely beat this crowd, they're extremely good(and my Dad even had a 7 letter 67 pt word)yea me.
Okay, well the rest of the family is waking up. Time to go on a boat tour of the Upper Dells. Can't wait to see how Roo is going to attempt to go overboard.
August 6th
Well yesterday's boat ride was good. Roo stayed on board, though he was very wiggly and needed constant wrangling. It was a perfect day for it, though. Pretty overcast and not too hot. This was a tour of the Upper Dells where we were able to get off the boat and do two mini hikes to see some beautiful scenery with all these amazing sandstone formations, some waterfalls, and the dog jump at stand rock.
Laura and I took the girls to Wizard Quest. It was kind of confusing and we needed more time. Sadly, we only freed one wizard. But I did get to jump into a ball-pit. Then we had a late dinner at Paul Bunyon's Cook Shanty. Yes, I said cook shanty. It's fun to say...Try it. See?
Today (Sunday) we went to the Dells Mining Company where Laura treated the girls to the "better buckets." For my readers unfamiliar with the Dells mining experience, one purchases a bucket of sand and rocks with gemstones mixed in. There are "good" buckets with your standard unpolished gemstones, "better" buckets with the same but a guaranteed polished gemstone in a handy dandy little zip lock so you don't lose it, and "best" buckets with guaranteed diamonds and the deed to a lake front condo. (Okay, Laura couldn't remember what was in the "best" bucket, but it was supposedly very impressive in the gemological world. Also the "good" "better" "best" terminology was made up by me.)Then you sit at troughs of running water with box-like sifters, pour in your sand/gem mixture and let the water flow through to reveal your "finds."
The girls really dig doing this, and it really is quite cool. Once all of your sand is sifted, you bring in your baggie-o-gems to a room where a nice gem dude, who was just a liiiiitle to excited about the gems, tells you what you've found and tries to sell you their gem polishing and jewelry setting services.
It was interesting. K actually got her birthstone, garnet, as her gar-on-teed gem in a baggie, and E got a pretty blue topaz. The gem guy would tell E what one of her gems was and before he would get the chance, K would pick the exact same one out from her stash. She was extremely good at it.
We also headed down to Wollersheim Winery where Roo put the whine in the winery tour. It's pretty much what I expected him to do, so no big deal. I hope the other tour people didn't mind. I try not to make eye contact with people when we're in public and Roo is doing his thang. I removed him during the wine tasting portion. It is a beautiful place and learning about the process and history of the place was very interesting.
Then we went fishing again for our endless supply of blue gills...or so it would seem! K caught what I thought at first was a skinny little blue gill but it was in fact a small small small-mouthed bass. Then Laura, a little later, caught his slightly bigger brother. It was fun and added some variety to the night.(addendum: Laura now thinks they may have been trout)
We rounded out the night with Laura and the girls and I going to Cold Stone (yum) where the girls learned that marshmallows get hard in ice cream, and I discovered that cakebatter and chocolate chips is the best combination in the history of ice cream combinations.
August 7
After packing and forgetting E was in the condo bathroom and locking her in there, we were on our way! What? Oh, you want me to explain that? Fine. Like I said, "Mother of the Year" here I come. We didn't actually forget her...at least we didn't drive away without her. See, E was in the bathroom, Laura and my mom were getting together last minute stuff, and Roo was raring to go so I said, "Okay, I'm taking K and J down." I failed to mention that E wasn't with me. I thought they knew where she was because I thought they'd be a few more minutes. So I'm wrestling Roo into his seat and everyone else (or so I thought) was milling around the van when I hear a little voice from above, "Hey guys! You forgot me!" Laura and I put two and two together and were like OOPS! She was fine and thought it was funny (thankfully) or she's playing it off and planning on making a secret call to DCFS.
We went to the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory place. It's pretty fun, lots of hands on interactive type things to do. Laura and I both rode on the tightrope bicycle thingie.
Then we drove home with no major incidents. It was a very good trip.
Fini
August 4th
The kids and I are in Wisconsin with my sister and parents. Things are going relatively well. Roo being, well, TWO, is probably my biggest challenge. He's either awesome or a nightmare...running around like he's hopped up on gop or sleeping. Speaking of sleeping. I'm sleepy. I will continue this post in the morning.
August 5th
Okay, It's morning. I'm still sleepy.
The kids and I are all living in the same room, the same room where the sun comes streaming, I'm sorry screaming in at six a.m. Roo refuses to stay in bed or in our room (I know this because I tried at least containing him in our room but he screamed bloody murder). So I get to wander, sleep starved, around the condo preventing him from doing such things as twisting my sister's glasses in to a tangle of glass and wire, climbing on top of the entertainment center, and waking everybody else up. I just suggested to Laura(because he woke her up) that I wanted to put Roo in some sort of sensory deprivation tank so he will sleep until a decent hour. (I've got that mother of the year thing sewn up this year).
Quick highlights of the trip so far:
*Circus World Museum was cool. In the children's circus where kids are chosen from the audience to play different parts, E was chosen to be the ring master, she was so super excited because that was exactly what she wanted to do (Who IS this kid? At her age, I hid behind my parents at stuff like that- plus every kid she meets she introduces her self and makes friends- soooooo not me at her age- or now). She was awesome too, by the way. She got to dress up in the whole ringmaster outfit and say "Ladies and gentlemen, Boys and Girls..." and all that good stuff. She's such a performer. K got to be what she wanted too... a prancing pony complete with white horsey head and tail. We also saw these amazing Chinese acrobats. Oh, and we saw an Elephant poop what E described as bowling balls.
Now I know the picture quality isn't the best...but K is actually airborn in the above pic!
The above pic was taken just before the "bowling balls"
*We accidentally,okay it was my suggestion, went to a vegetarian restaurant that did not serve alcohol. We didn't realize this until we were seated and scanned the menu. I thought, Oh no this is not going to fly, but it was a really good dining experience. It was called the Cheese Factory Restaurant Laura and I split veggie lasagna and an eggplant parmesan sandwich, my mom and Jack split a four cheese pizza, K and E split spaghetti and grilled cheese, and my dad got the eggplant sandwich as well. The service was really good, they had this old-time juke with songs from my parents hey-day which my mom loved, and the kids all got pinwheels.
*The girls, Laura, Dad and I went fishing. It was slow going at first,
and then as soon as Laura started singing, "There are no fish in Lake Delton!" She caught a fish right below the pier. Then it was ridiculous. All we had to do was drop our lines right at the edge of the pier and we would catch blue gills....only blue gills. I completely lost count of how many we caught because it was just that easy.
*I beat everyone at Scrabble - I rarely beat this crowd, they're extremely good(and my Dad even had a 7 letter 67 pt word)yea me.
Okay, well the rest of the family is waking up. Time to go on a boat tour of the Upper Dells. Can't wait to see how Roo is going to attempt to go overboard.
August 6th
Well yesterday's boat ride was good. Roo stayed on board, though he was very wiggly and needed constant wrangling. It was a perfect day for it, though. Pretty overcast and not too hot. This was a tour of the Upper Dells where we were able to get off the boat and do two mini hikes to see some beautiful scenery with all these amazing sandstone formations, some waterfalls, and the dog jump at stand rock.
Laura and I took the girls to Wizard Quest. It was kind of confusing and we needed more time. Sadly, we only freed one wizard. But I did get to jump into a ball-pit. Then we had a late dinner at Paul Bunyon's Cook Shanty. Yes, I said cook shanty. It's fun to say...Try it. See?
Today (Sunday) we went to the Dells Mining Company where Laura treated the girls to the "better buckets." For my readers unfamiliar with the Dells mining experience, one purchases a bucket of sand and rocks with gemstones mixed in. There are "good" buckets with your standard unpolished gemstones, "better" buckets with the same but a guaranteed polished gemstone in a handy dandy little zip lock so you don't lose it, and "best" buckets with guaranteed diamonds and the deed to a lake front condo. (Okay, Laura couldn't remember what was in the "best" bucket, but it was supposedly very impressive in the gemological world. Also the "good" "better" "best" terminology was made up by me.)Then you sit at troughs of running water with box-like sifters, pour in your sand/gem mixture and let the water flow through to reveal your "finds."
The girls really dig doing this, and it really is quite cool. Once all of your sand is sifted, you bring in your baggie-o-gems to a room where a nice gem dude, who was just a liiiiitle to excited about the gems, tells you what you've found and tries to sell you their gem polishing and jewelry setting services.
It was interesting. K actually got her birthstone, garnet, as her gar-on-teed gem in a baggie, and E got a pretty blue topaz. The gem guy would tell E what one of her gems was and before he would get the chance, K would pick the exact same one out from her stash. She was extremely good at it.
We also headed down to Wollersheim Winery where Roo put the whine in the winery tour. It's pretty much what I expected him to do, so no big deal. I hope the other tour people didn't mind. I try not to make eye contact with people when we're in public and Roo is doing his thang. I removed him during the wine tasting portion. It is a beautiful place and learning about the process and history of the place was very interesting.
Then we went fishing again for our endless supply of blue gills...or so it would seem! K caught what I thought at first was a skinny little blue gill but it was in fact a small small small-mouthed bass. Then Laura, a little later, caught his slightly bigger brother. It was fun and added some variety to the night.(addendum: Laura now thinks they may have been trout)
We rounded out the night with Laura and the girls and I going to Cold Stone (yum) where the girls learned that marshmallows get hard in ice cream, and I discovered that cakebatter and chocolate chips is the best combination in the history of ice cream combinations.
August 7
After packing and forgetting E was in the condo bathroom and locking her in there, we were on our way! What? Oh, you want me to explain that? Fine. Like I said, "Mother of the Year" here I come. We didn't actually forget her...at least we didn't drive away without her. See, E was in the bathroom, Laura and my mom were getting together last minute stuff, and Roo was raring to go so I said, "Okay, I'm taking K and J down." I failed to mention that E wasn't with me. I thought they knew where she was because I thought they'd be a few more minutes. So I'm wrestling Roo into his seat and everyone else (or so I thought) was milling around the van when I hear a little voice from above, "Hey guys! You forgot me!" Laura and I put two and two together and were like OOPS! She was fine and thought it was funny (thankfully) or she's playing it off and planning on making a secret call to DCFS.
We went to the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory place. It's pretty fun, lots of hands on interactive type things to do. Laura and I both rode on the tightrope bicycle thingie.
Then we drove home with no major incidents. It was a very good trip.
Fini
posted by Kathleen Ryan at 10:44 PM
2 Comments:
Maybe instead of calling I should just read your blog
Good post. Quite a lot jammed packed into a few short days. Somewhat like one short day in the Emerald City. I hope you're happy, I hope you're happy now. There's been some confusion over rooming here at Shiz.....
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