Overnight Getaway

Our good friends, Josh and Amanda, texted me early last week and asked if we would like to go to one of the water parks in the Dells for a night.  I, of course, jumped at the idea!  We shopped around for rooms and rates, and eventually decided to go to Glacier Canyon Lodge, which is a part of the Wilderness Resort.  I've only been to Kalahari, so I was excited to try a new water park.  Drew has NEVER been to a water park!!  Can you believe it?

We left Saturday, late morning, and began our drive north.  We were so lucky to be leaving while it was snowing pretty good.  Getting out of Illinois was a little tricky, but once we got a little ways into Wisconsin, the roads cleared up and we had a pretty easy drive.  Annelise took a little nap on the drive up.

When we got there, I went inside to check in.  I was told that our room wasn't ready yet, but we could still go use the water park.  I had packed a bag with just our swimsuits to be prepared in case our room wasn't ready.  We drove around to where our room would be located and went inside.  Then, we began the two mile hike to one of the indoor water parks.  Seriously.  Once we got to the entrance to the park, I didn't even really see any locker rooms, or places where we could change.  So, we decided to walk allllll the way back to our car, go grab some lunch, and just wait for our room to be ready.  On our walk back, the resort sent me a text to let me know that our room was ready.  Hurray!  We still decided to just get back in the car and go eat.  A pregnant woman's gotta eat!  And so does the toddler, if I'm being honest.

We just grabbed a quick lunch at Culver's.  I even let Annelise have some lemonade.  I usually only give her water to drink, with the very, very occasional juice.  I explained to her that it was a special treat because we were on a little vacation.

After lunch, we got back in the car and took the short drive back to the resort.  Once there, we located a luggage cart, and went up to our room.  I loved our room!

We rented a two bedroom deluxe suite.  This came with a full kitchen, a dining table, living room with fireplace and tv, a bedroom with a king size bed, a bedroom with bunk beds with a twin and a queen, a murphy bed, and a bath and a half.  Perfect size, maybe even a little large considering we were only going to be there for a night.  But, with kids and six adults, it was nice to have the extra space.  I really liked the knotty pine and brick decor.  It just felt very log cabin and homey.

We unpacked our stuff and waited for Josh, Amanda, their two kids, and her sister and boyfriend to arrive.  Annelise had a great time just running around the room and exploring things.  She especially loved to close and open all the doors, which has been her favorite activity lately.  Once they arrived, and got their stuff settled, we all changed into our swimming suites and headed down to the water parks.

This particular resort has four separate water parks, one of them you have to drive to.  We decided to go to Klondike Kavern first.  This park was just ok to me.  Annelise (and I) thought the water was pretty chilly.  She was not a fan and had no desire to play in it at all.  Honestly, I was really bummed.  I thought for sure that she'd love the water park and have a blast.  We rode around the lazy river a whole bunch and she didn't seem to mind that.  I could tell that she was cold and she huddled up against me.  We eventually got out and wrapped up in a towel.  We talked to everyone else and decided to go try the other water park that was just a short walk away.

We walked over the Wild WaterDome and this park had the wave pool.  We dropped our stuff and went into the water.  This one was warmer, but not by much.  I could actually tolerate this one enough to sit in the water, but Annelise still pretty much hated it.  After only about 20 minutes, we all decided to head back up to the room and figure out some dinner.

We ordered some pizza and garlic bread for dinner.  We were all pretty hungry at that point, including the kids.  After eating, we decided to go back downstairs to the arcade and playground that they have.  Annelise played in the playground with Drew while I sat and watched.  My belly hurt and I was a little crampy.  We came back upstairs around 10:30 PM and got Annelise ready for bed.  I followed quickly after.  Drew and Josh went to the casino to play.

I woke up around 8 AM, and Annelise was right behind me.  Josh walked down the hallway to a little coffee/convenience store and got us all some doughnuts.  We all ate some breakfast, showered, and then packed up the room.  We had to be out of the room by 11 AM.

Once we got the cars all packed up, we drove over to the Wild West water park to try that one out.  I really didn't have high hopes for it.  But, this water was so warm, just like bath water.  I was in heaven and Annelise was much happier!  Thank goodness!  I was going to be so disappointed if she hated every water park.

We spent a ton of time playing around in the kid's area.  Then, we decided to take Annelise on one of the family tube slides.  She was antsy waiting in line, and we had to explain to her that the people in front of us go first and we have to wait our turn.  Once we finally got to the top, we all hopped into the tube and down the slide we went.  This particular slide was entirely enclosed, therefore dark the whole trip down.  Annelise didn't seem too phased by it, and even asked to go again once we got down.  That girl loves rides, slides, roller coasters, anything like that.  We went down one more time and then decided to get some lunch.

In the park, there was a little cafe, with all the typical junk food.  We ordered a slice of pizza, fries, a yogurt, and Drew got a burger.  Annelise loved it all and kept pointing to either the yogurt or pizza depending on what she wanted a bite of.  After we ate, we decided to hit the road.  Drew had to go to work tonight, and he wanted to get back home with a little bit of time to unpack and pack up his lunch and stuff.  The drive home was uneventful, and Annelise fell asleep shortly after we got on the road.

I'm so glad that we were able to get away, even for just a night.  It's nice to break up the monotony of our routine and go do something different.  This was Annelise's first time in a hotel and she loved it.  She had so much fun exploring and seeing all the new things.  We've actually already been talking about doing something like this again for her birthday.

Let's Catch Up

Blogging has fallen so far on the back burner that it would take me forever to do individual posts on everything.  Hopefully I can stay caught up after this and make it a point to blog a few times a week.

First, Drew lost his job.  His company closed their doors and everyone but a few keys employees was terminated.  It came as quite the surprise to everyone.  Apparently, the company has been bought now.  Drew is waiting to see if they are going to ask him to come back.  He's been applying for other positions, both here and in other states.  I'm torn about whether I want to move or not.  On one hand, it would be a great opportunity and a chance to try out a new place.  I've only lived here in Illinois.  And we've got to face it, this isn't exactly a great area for aviation.  On the other hand, it will be hard to leave our families.  We've both got extended family in other parts of the country, but it will still be hard to leave our "home".  We're both just saying lots of prayers that Drew gets a job quickly and that he is able to grow and expand his skills in it.

We recently took a week long, extremely spur of the moment trip to North Carolina.  Drew's BFF, Drew, was talking to his dad one day when we arrived at his parent's house.  He was talking about how he was going to start laying some laminate hardwoods that weekend.  Drew decided that we should go out there and help him.  So, we left the next evening.  Annelise did such a great job traveling and while we were there!!  For some reason, her bedtime was extremely late every night.  Not quite sure what that was about.

Drew spent the whole time laying the floors and didn't really do anything fun.  Poor him.  Annelise and I were busy little bees.  Jen and Emma took us to a place called Discovery Zone Kids.  It was a blast.  There was a huge place for Annelise to play.  When we first got there, she spent about 10 minutes just looking around at everything.

But, once she warmed up and had a chance to take everything in, she had a great time.

She especially liked playing in the water table.

I had the awesome opportunity to meet a lady that I've been friends with for quite a few years.  We met while we were both planning our weddings on an online chat forum.  Lindsay only lives about a half hour from where I was at.

She also has an adorable daughter named Lila.

There are a lot of blue eyes in that picture!!

Drew decided that he wanted to travel back home during the day, so that we could see the mountains as we drove through them.  That idea was all fine and dandy, until night fell and we ran into a snow storm in Indiana.  And then, we got stuck on a closed highway that got shut down because of an accident.  So basically, a 12-13 hour roadtrip turned into 18 hours, and we didn't get home until about 4 AM.  Not so much fun!  It was definitely the second worst road trip ever.

Now that we've been home, we just been focusing on getting stuff done around the house.  Hopefully we can knock out a bunch of little projects that have been on the back burner while Drew is off of work.