The Baby

So I've noticed that people are surprised when they hear us refer to Avery as "the baby".

Yeah, she's close to 2. And she does lots of big girl things.

Like sleep in a big bed. Drink out of regular cups (I hate this).

And as of last night...does NOT have a binky. Because she's lost them all, I'm sick of searching for them and I'm not buying anymore because she's old enough to go without.

Avery is not too happy about the situation. This was her self-talk when I put her to bed without a binky for the first time last night:

"Binky. Binky. Find it. All gone. Binky all gone. Find it! No, binky all gone. Owie! Owie my mouth! Binky! No binky. Binky all gone. I fine. I fine. Scary! Scary! Scary! No. No, not scary. Nice. You fine. You fine. Nice. I sleeping. Binky!"

Repeat for....oh, about 25 minutes. Interspersed with some crying and thrashing around in bed. Followed by a loooong and loud scream it out session.

The baby is kinda crazy.

Wouldn't take her nap today, but bedtime was a little smoother tonight.

Next stop...potty training.

Don't worry, we'll still be calling her "the baby"

It's a pretty big deal

The kids and I recently took a little trip to the

WISCONSIN DELLS.

Which I'm sure you've never heard of but we've been hearing about for the past 3 years, since we moved to Minnesota.

It's kind of a strange little place. My sister described it as

"a disneyland/carnival/theme park/waterworld/las vegas in the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin"

I'd say that about sums it up.

Anyways, my mom and little bro Landon were visiting my sister Tiff in Chicago so we decided to meet up.

The Dells made perfect sense, being about halfway between here and Chicago.

The kids were sooo excited to see cousin Madden!

And Aunt Tiff, Grandma, and Uncle Landon.

First thing we did was take a DUCKS tour. A vehicle made for land and water.

Everybody loved it (the tour guide most of all)

Then we checked into our room at the indoor/outdoor waterpark resort we would spend the next couple of days at.

The room was AWESOME!

Plenty of space for the kids to run around, enough rooms so we could put kids to bed then stay up way too late talking and watching movies, a huge kitchen to prepare meals in, and of course a jetted tub in the middle of the living room.

Half of Monday, all day Tuesday, and half of Wednesday we were here.

And yes, mostly inside since it was freezing outside! The indoor waterpark was bigger and better anyways. Noah loved every minute of it and Alex shocked me with how brave she was. She'd go on anything I told her to, there was nothing we did that she didn't do too.

There was a great play area for the toddlers too, everyone had a blast.

So much so that we didn't take any pictures.

Wednesday afternoon we headed over to the Deer Park, a main attraction in The Dells (like I said, a strange little place).

The deer roam free and the kids get to feed them and pet them.

The toddlers...hated it. Totally freaked. I couldn't put Avery down even once.

The big kids liked it, although some of those deer were a little agressive.

My favorite was when Alex, laughing nervously as the deer swarmed around her said, "I rather wish they were in a cage!"

We got one last picture of the cousins and then it was time to say goodbye and head our separate ways.

It was a quick little trip but so much fun!

Thanks mom for organizing it!

p.s. I love having my sister a mere 6 hours away. I'm going to be so sad when that comes to an end. Tiff are you sure you guys want to move back to AZ?? A better idea would be to wait and see where we are moving and then base your plans around that : )

in pictures

Random things we've done this summer that I've never blogged about:

The pool.

Thank goodness Noah can swim and Alex sorta can, cuz keeping Avery alive is plenty for me to worry about.

Outings with friends.

I love that the kids are getting older so we can do more stuff and with more people. I mean you could never take five 2 and 3 year olds to the zoo by yourself. But five kids ranging in age from 18mos - 9years? No problem.

(It also helps that one of those kids is Hannah and I never had to worry about Avery, ever) : )

Golf lessons for Noah.

Parents were invited to come and watch the last day. I made arrangements for the girls and basically acted as Noah's caddy for the next three hours. It was actually really fun! I sort of understand now why people like to golf...it was so beautiful and peaceful on the course.

Going away dinner for the Fowlers.

Paella of course. And lots of other yummy dishes.

4th of July BBQ

at our house with the Kivelas and Freemans.

Good food, good company, good fireworks. Even if Avery was a little freaked - she was comforting herself the entire time, "I fiiine, I fiiiine."

Later that night we put Avery and Dad to bed and me and the big kids went to the real fireworks show - where we were cold, got eaten by mosquitos, listened to Alex whine, and both of the kids fight about which fireworks going off were meant for who. And then it took us 45 minutes to make the normally 3 minute drive home. Kids went to bed around midnight and woke up about 6am. Good times.

Actually, Noah loved it, it was totally worth it : )

Newport Beach with the Gunn Family.

On the way to the airport we got stuck in a horrible storm. We couldn't see a thing, everyone was pulled off the freeway. I broke out the iphone to make sure there were no tornado warnings - nope, just severe lightning, strong winds, flash floods, and hail. The weather alert recommended staying away from windows...which we were of course surrounded by in our van. I told Paul, at least it wasn't a tornado. They recommend that you get out of your vehicle and lay in the nearest ditch - but the ditch next to us was quickly filling with water.

It was pretty exciting (i.e. scary)

BUT the storm cleared and we made our flight(s).

Good thing we brought carry-ons.

Newport was great. It was soooo nice to have Paul there with me this time around. Not being pregnant (i.e. totally miserable) also helped : )

The kids had tons of fun with the cousins (even some really distant cousins) playing in the water and digging in the sand.

Noah's most favorite activity was looking for sea creatures out on the rocks.

Paul made him a snare to catch crabs with (and it really worked)!

It was actually really big. Ask Susan : )

Besides sitting on the beach and having Paul around I miss:

running with my sisters--in-law

eating a donut (or 3 or 4) for breakfast everyday

frozen yogurt almost every night

and several trips to the Crab Cooker for some great seafood.

Yeah it's all about the food for me. And the family : )

Soon it was time to head back to our real life.

At least Alex did so with cute hair (thank you Aunt Ginger).

Avery did more of this

And even a little of this!

Now we're home and

Avery is in a big girl bed.

What the crap.

Another month of summer.

But (most days) I'm ready for the kids to go back to school : )