Last Day at the Dells...

We woke up on our last morning of vacation and it was raining. 

Good excuse to lay around and watch TV in bed (and eat yogurts in bed, too!)

Watching the rain from our deck.

Rain didn't stop our water park fun...we just went to the indoor parks!

A favorite thing for the boys was to drive around these water bumper cars! 

 

 

The sun came out in the afternoon, so we headed out back outdoors.

Sam doing somersaults in the water.

jack swims around and scares other swimmers with his shark move.

and, of course, Jason couldn't be out done so pulled a synchronized swim move...check out those toes!!

The boys loved the water parks and wanted to continue swimming...

 

But, they were also tired of swimming and water parks...it's a lot of water time in four days!!

Summer Reading...

What I've  read this summer...

The first three Game of Thrones books...that was a lot of reading. None of them are less then 600 pages!  I wanted to keep reading, but needed to stop that genre for a bit!  Now I am nervous that I won't be able to remember all the characters...there are a few hundred of them!!!

This book is also a good read...it is dark and crazy!  Nick comes home one day to find his front door wide open, the house a mess and his wife gone.  Did Nick set this all up and kill her, or is she really missing.  It's told from Nick's point of view and from his wife, Amy's, diary entries.  It is twisted (in a dark way) but it sucked me in..those last few words of a chapter, so you have to read the next chapter, type of thing..  If you read it...let's talk about the ending!

Jason insisted that I read this one, so I knew it would be a gory shoot 'em up. Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad (the shooting parts.) Two friends, Ben and Chon run a marijuana operation and have become well off due to their success.  the Mexican Baja Cartel find out about their success and basically wants to take control of Ben and Chon's operation..."no" is not an option.  When things get "tight" the cartel kidnap their friend Ophelia. This is when it gets even more interesting on how Ben and Chon go back and forth in their deals with the Cartel.

This is another John Hart novel (he wrote the highly recommended by me...Iron House) and it was a good story, too, but in a different manner. It moves slower, more development of the characters and the story itself...but the ending is awesome and unexpected.  For 13 year old Johnny, life is good until the day his twin sister Alyssa is kidnapped.  Over the next year, his entire family and life falls apart.  Johnny still believes in his heart that his sister is still alive and vows that he will find her...on his own, due to everyone he trusted has given up and thinks Alyssa is dead.  The hunt takes him to the dark side of town....where no child should ever have to venture.

Hope you have enjoyed some fun summer reads!!



Mini Golfin' at the Cove...

While on vacation, we miniature golfed several times at Pirate's Cove. Jack has been mini golfing several times, but this time he really understood the concept (to get your ball in the hole, not flying to the next hole!) and suddenly we had an addict on our hands!!

There are five different courses at this one place.

Lots of photo ops while waiting for your turn to golf.

 

Jack wore his bright green golf shirt. and was super excited when he got his first hole-in-one!

 

He was very animated the entire evening of golf!

More holes in ones by the "calm" boys!

 

Sam made a new friend at the end of the course...

Looks like Jack and the new guy hung out telling old pirate stories!! 

The following evening, we headed back to the mini golf place...thank goodness there are five different courses!

Again,  he LOVED these little photo ops...I wonder if he was a pirate in a past life?

As you can see, Sam has on clean clothes.
As you can see, Jack wore the EXACT same outfit as he did the night before..Mom, it's my golfing outfit!

Jason started out strong with a hole-in-one!

As did Jack..just feeeeeed that addiction!!

Hole 2...my fist hole-in-one of the vacation!!  Yep, Jack got another one...we are pondering the idea of starting golf lessons for him...hmmm...jack would probably find that boring - no dips, dives or windmills on
a "real" golf course!

Looking over the pirate's cove...finding nothing but fast food restaurants!

Jack blowing a little magic on my ball...didn't work!
I did learn some "official "golf" talk...Jason shared when he golfs with his friends and has a bad shot or putt, they say, "Nice putt, Katie."  Now, I once took some golf lessons about ...15 years ago.  Jason took me to the driving range for some practice. Unfortunately, and much to jason's sheer embarrassment, I had to yell "FORE" two times.  For some odd reason, my ball kept flying backwards (it would have had a wicked back spin had it gone in the correct direction!.) After I had to yell FORE the second time, Jason looked right at me and said real quietly, "go. sit. down."  I haven't golfed since!

Hurray!! sam got his hole-in-one, too!!

 

Again, it was a great time of mini-golfing!!
No yelling fore and we all got a hole in one!!

Tornado Weather...

Yesterday afternoon, the tornado sirens went off... for real.
A little background...our town tests the tornado sirens the first Saturday of every month at noon.  When they would go off, I would pretend to panic and it would send Sam into a tizzy...I know this isn't nice...I have apologized...now when he hears the siren, he asks himself...is it the first Saturday of the month...he is a quick learner.

Well, yesterday the sirens go off and Sam sprints to me and says, "IT'S NOT THE FIRST SATURDAY! WHY ARE THEY GOING OFF?" 

We have dish TV, so our TV signal goes out and we can't check out John McClaughlin and see what's up, so I call Jason.  There is all sorts of noise in the background on the phone..I told him what was happening and he says, he doesn't know what is gong on because he is being evacuated to his safe place and tells me to take the boys to the basement.

So I grab a few things and head to the basement...Sam starts to panic..."I DON"T WANT TO DIE!!" 
"Sam, you are not going to die today."
 "DO WE NEED TO GO IN TO THE CELLAR?" The cellar is actually a little room in our basement that makes our wine cold. We have talked that if there was a tornado that we would go to the cellar.
"Sam, we don't need to go to the cellar...I think the sirens went off because of the strong winds." "
ARE YOU SURE?...SHOULD WE PLAY A GAME?"
 "Sure Sam, go get a game." 
What' s Jack doing this entire time?  Wrapped up in a blanket...laying on the floor and just watching the show!

So, this is what our safe place looked like yesterday...a game, my computer, a flashlight and my phone (which I am using to take photos.)

Jack wrapped up in his blanket...it's cold in the basement!! 

Moose was tucked in between Jack and I.

And then it happened...of ALL cards Sam could draw during our game...the TORNADO CARD!!

 

It says, "BAD NEWS: A TORNADO HITS!"
I laughed!!! Bummer!!

PS...when I was Sam's age, I too, was terribly scared of bad weather and tornadoes. (BUT...I was 4 when the tornado hit our town and saw all the damage one could cause...I have an excuse! :) My fear was so bad, that my mom created a tornado map.  She highlight our town with green.  Then highlight all the surrounding counties with yellow...I couldn't start to worry or ask lots of questions until one of the "yellow" counties was mentioned.  Remember, this was before any Doppler radar and the news would only tell you counties.  I still have my map.

A Reading Suggestion...

Holy Guacamole!!

I have needed a good read in some time. One that you can't put down.  One that you think about when you aren't reading it. One that doesn't necessarily twist and turns, but things just keep coming up unexpectedly. And this is the book that did all that for me (No it wasn't 50 Shades of anything!!)

John Hart's Iron House.

My mom kept suggesting that I read this book. For vacation, I knew I was going to finish the book I was reading, so I packed this one to take along...just in case.  I started it on Thursday (read while the kids swam) and then read all the way home on Friday.  By then I was half way done with the book and still couldn't put it down!! My mom and a friend read it in less than three days. The first chapter sets up the "love" story and the second chapter the book gets rolling!! YEA!!

Anyway, I don't want to say too much, so I am going to tell the "gist" of the story mostly from the flap..otherwise, I will get too excited and share too much! The story is about Micheal and his younger brother Julian. They were both abandoned when they were babies and then brought up in an orphanage...the Iron House.  A boy is killed at the orphanage and Micheal makes a sacrifice for Julian. Jump ahead. For twenty years, Micheal has been a leader in organized crime, he meets Elena and decided to "quit" the crime life.  The "boss" of the organization is dying and Steven, the bosses son, wants Micheal to pay for leaving the life. They will be able to go after Micheal as soon as the old man dies...and that's about all I can tell you.  :)



More Water Parks...

We spent all of our time last week doing just a few basic things, such as eating, water parking, mini golfing or sleeping.
It was the PERFECT vacation for one reason or another for all of us!

The kiddos went down water slide...(Sam did all the heavy lifting!)

...after water slide...

...after water slide...

..,and of course after water slide!!!

 

 

If they weren't going down slides, the were enjoying the other "play areas" in the water park.

 

 

Jack showing us his blistered hands...they are on his pinkies and ring fingers.

A stop in the water action to do a craft!!!

Stuff a Moose!!

We couldn't pass that up!  jack asked the gal if we could just buy a moose pelt.  Our Moose can't have stuffed items, because she tears the living stuffing out of them, so we get her pelts!!

 

That night, we went "uptown" Wisconsin Dells and watched a corner magic show...the magician was good and really drew a crowd.  We then went for dinner and off to mini-golf (a vacation must!)