splash

We just returned yesterday from a couple days in Frankenmuth, and had a wonderful time!  It must be the sign of a successful weekend if my always-full-of-energy little boys are so tuckered out from playing hard that near the end of our time they ask if we can start going home.  We stayed at Zehnder's where they have a very nice indoor waterpark.  (I think this is our fourth year there?)  We chose to take the boys out of school and go midweek in order to beat the crowds, and we are so glad we did!  It was getting pretty busy by the time we left, and it is so much nicer when it's less crowded.
We left home Wednesday morning and had a great drive over.  It's only two hours, but with young children, two hours has the potential to feel like 10.  We even made it without putting a movie on!  And Jackson was happy the whole time.  Yay!  We were a little early and needed to kill some time before we could check into the hotel, so we had an early lunch at Taco Bell, where Jackson garnered plenty of attention from a couple ladies behind the counter (par for the course with him).  Then we took just a little drive through Frankenmuth, which requires going right past the waterpark and you should have seen Caleb's reaction when we went past - ha ha!  He was videoing our arrival giving a little commentary, and then was kind of just in disbelief that we were driving past.  Mike and I had a good laugh!  I'll have to see what all he got on his video.

As soon as we arrived and checked in, we got our swimsuits on and headed down to the waterpark to get busy playing!  Jackson was a little unsure at first, but he warmed up to it and ended up doing awesome.  We found that if we put one of those infant life jackets on him, he loved just floating around on his back.  The other boys would have NEVER done that, they hated it whenever we tried to get them to float on their backs.  But Jackson just crossed his legs, laid back, and relaxed!

Logan spent most of his time underwater, just coming up once in a while for air.  Caleb and Logan had both requested swim masks before we went, so I got them each one and they loved having them for swimming.  Logan did do a few of the slides, but for the most part he prefers just swimming and being underwater as much as possible (he is his father's son!).  Whenever we were scanning an area for him and didn't see him, we just had to wait a few seconds and then we'd see his blue-masked face pop out of the water.  :)  His skin seemed to react the worst to all the chlorine in the water, so that's kind of a bummer while we're there, but it's all pretty much cleared up already.

Levi discovered that he loves the "green slide" and went down it probably a couple hundred times.  He would just do it over and over and over again - and most of the time there wasn't a line so he could have a pretty quick turnover.  And he went from going down with a lifejacket and mask, to not wearing either one!  That's what he was doing when we left yesterday, and he probably could have kept going even though his brother's were tired and ready to be done.  It was so cute to watch him because even when he was the only one using the slide, he would always look at the lifeguard and wait for their 'ok' to go down.  I'd like to take credit for good parenting, but that means I also have to take credit for the not so good moments (of which there are plenty), so I'll just say we do our best and leave the rest to God.  :)  I tried to get Levi to go down one of the tube rides with me, but he changed his mind at the top and went back down the stairs.  Maybe next year.

Caleb loved going down slides and also swimming around with his mask on.  He especially liked the "family ride" which is a big tube ride that he went down several times with either Mike or I.  After a few times down he always wanted to be the one in the back because that person goes higher up on the side and gets splashed more.  He also kept telling me, "No screaming!", but I couldn't help it.  :)

We all enjoyed going around the action river (it's like a lazy river except it has a pretty strong current).  Either Mike or I would hang onto Jackson a little as he floated in his lifejacket, and the other boys would just swim around.  Sometimes Levi would get a little flustered and so we'd stick pretty close to him.

I was so happy with how all the kids slept, especially Jackson!  We've had some bad hotel experiences with the kids, but this was about as good as I could have hoped for.  Jackson actually napped in the afternoons (while I enjoyed a book and maybe a little snooze myself, and the other guys kept hard at it in the waterpark), and slept great both nights.  It took everyone a little bit to settle down the first night even though they were tired from playing, but it wasn't too bad.  Somehow Levi managed to sleep between Mike and I, and he's not the best one to share a bed with, but I never sleep well in hotel beds anyways.

We talk all year long about our annual trip to the waterpark, and this time did not disappoint!

love

Shout out to my two loyal readers!  Bonus points to whichever one of you reads this first.  ;)  And, oh yeah, I have three readers because I set Mike up to automatically get an email whenever I post (I think he does actually read it and not just delete the email...).  Ha!

I guess life has been at just a normal state of busyness.  Nothing too crazy, but we're certainly not bored either.  We are loving Mike's slow season at work and are trying to really soak it up, realizing that Friday's off can only last so long.  I LOVE FRIDAY'S OFF!!!!  I can hardly even begin to describe how wonderful it is.  Just having him around more is something I don't take for granted, and there's a couple fun little traditions that seem to be going on.  Mike takes Caleb and Logan to school in his truck on Friday mornings, and the last couple weeks he's taken a walkie-talkie with him, and left one with Levi to see how far they would keep working.  So that's kind of fun.  And, at the end of the day when he picks Caleb and Logan up he brings hot chocolate for him, and they just love that.  I mean, as a first grade boy, how cool is it to have your dad pick you up from school in his pick-up truck and have hot chocolate ready for you??  Yeah, he's pretty much an awesome dad!  (And, I promise I'm not just saying that because he's reading this!)

Our laundry room project seems to be progressing slooooooowly.  The new drywall is mudded and ready to go.  We're basically ready for the carpenter to come, but haven't heard yet when he'll be able to make it here.  I would like to have some painting done before he comes, but I've been dragging my heels a little bit.  I finally broke down and bought a paint sprayer, which I think is going to be a useful tool to have for many projects, but I feel a little overwhelmed about the learning curve.  It arrived a few days ago, I took it out of the box today, I'm not sure if I'll be ready to test it out tomorrow or not.

The boys' big thing right now is GaGa Ball.  (I have no idea where the name came from?  But that's what everyone knows it as.)  They play it at recess, and here at home.  There's a small 'pit' you play in, and I guess it's kind of the opposite of soccer in that you don't want it to touch below your knees (if it does, you're out).  I think at school Caleb plays it more than Logan, but at home they all play it with Mike up in their room.  (Jackson may have even said, "GaGa Ball" the other day....)  A couple weeks ago Caleb got some pretty good bloody knuckles from playing.  That boy always has some sort of injury like that.  And, from what it looks like so far, Jackson seems to be headed in the same direction.

A couple weeks ago Mike and I were able to go out on a date.  Wait, what?!  Yes, a date.  An actual, get-a-babysitter-and-go-out-to-eat date.  We had a very nice time eating dinner at Brann's Steakhouse (Christmas gift certificate!), and browsing at Barnes & Noble.  The babysitter we've had a couple times now seems to do a great job, and is not intimidated by four little boys.  Yay!

I just have to say I am loving my crazy life with my five crazy guys.  It's not all sunshine and roses - there are plenty of challenging times, but it's a beautiful life.  I would try to elaborate, but as words are not my strength, I'll just have to leave there.  Thank you, Lord, for Your blessings!