Back from the Dells

I know, I know...it has been a while since my last post. We went on our family fall fest weekend and the wi-fi connection at the hotel was so slow.
Thursday, Mom and I worked on a craft project. It was the never ending project, the one you ask yourself how much money you think you are saving by doing it yourself. In the end, the project turned out nicely.
We baked on Thursday in preparation for our trip. We made cookie, brownies and rice krispie bars. We got the bags for the kids packed up and then got the kids to sleep.
Ellie went to school for a half day on Friday. I stopped by a rummage sale in the morning - nothing good. I came home and packed up our bags and we got ready for our getaway. We picked up Ellie and got on the road.
We had a nice drive up to the Dells. We stayed at Chula Vista which is way off the beaten path. We checked in and pretty much went right down to the water park. Rob tried out all the slides. Nick really liked the medium sized slides and was doing them by himself. Ellie did the slides and joined me in the lazy river. Jo and T hung out in the kids pool and Ole played some basketball in the pool.
We went out for dinner and found a restaurant that has a train deliver your food - Buffalo Phil's. We sat track side and every time the train came around new characters or animals were on the train. At one point they turned off all the lights and the train came by with a bubble machine and light up Thomas trains and they had a lazer show - pretty neat.
Saturday we divided and conquered. The big boys took the kids to the railroad museum and the girls went to do some thrift shopping. We met up at the outlet mall. We walked around and then had lunch. We visited the apple orchard and got a couple treats.
We got back to the hotel and went to the water park. We didn't stay too long because the air was a bit cool. We came back to the room and got dressed. We had a voucher for arcade tokens so we took the kids to play games. Jo and I investigated dining options at the hotel.I think each of the kids hit the jackpot on at least one game.
We got some fruit trays to take back to the room and ordered a pizza for the kids. We placed an order at a local restaurant for dinner. We ate while the kids played. Mom had story time in the big bed and tried to calm the kids down enough to sleep. The beds at the hotel were the worst beds any of us have ever slept on.
This morning we had breakfast and then packed up to get going. We stopped at Ellie's favorite cheese shop on our way home. I think she discovered a new favorite. We discovered a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Whitewater. We all enjoyed our food. Jo liked her pulled beef so much we asked to have a container of it to take home. She was pretty sure that she would be craving it again soon.
We stopped off at Elegant Farmer and had dessert. They had make your own caramel apples. We also picked out a couple pumpkins from their patch. We came home and unpacked. Nick fell asleep during the last part of the ride home and he was not happy to have his sleep disturbed when Rob woke him up.
I got laundry in and our bags unpacked. We snacked for dinner because we were all pretty full from lunch still. It took forever to get Nick to sleep because of hi car siesta. Ellie was out without a problem.
I have the hot pad on right now. Between the very crappy beds and a few days in the car my back hurts. My feet are really bugging me too. I am impressed that I didn't get any of Rob's yucky cold/throat crap, though. I guess my immune system has finally rebounded. Visualising my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree