Happy Halloween!

Ben as Batman and Conner as Spiderman...

Ben and Conner had a great time trick-or-treating!  We saw lots more kids out this year and the boys saw a lot of friends so that was fun.  Conner definitely gave out first, but he hadn't felt great all day, so we weren't surprised!  Happy Halloween!!!!

Pumpkin Time!

Pumpkin carving time... and yes, again, we waited until the last minute...  Here is Ben's design!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Conner's pumpkin.  He got a hold of the sharpie and drew his own little face in the middle, but Dad helped him make a bigger face to use up more of the pumpkin! 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben and Conner both did a really job of cleaning out their pumpkins!  At one point, Conner dropped his spoon into the pumpkin and refused to get it out by himself, but shortly after that, he was getting his hands dirty, just like Ben! 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Done and Done.

 

Sleep Study...

Nick had to leave us on Tuesday night to do a "sleep study!"  We finally decided that we should look into his snoring and the fact that he is always tired!  So, he got to spend the night with all kinds of stuff hooked up to him.  This is the picture he sent me when they had started hooking everything up, but before he actually went to bed that night.  (I am posting this with Nick's permission!)  He was nervous, but he got through it very well!  After he slept for a while, the nurse came in and gave him a CPAP mask because he had 37 "episodes."  I see a CPAP machine in his future, so that will take some getting used to for all of us!  We will find out his final results in the next week or two.

Resting...

Ben didn't feel the greatest on Friday morning, so he got to stay home from school.  When we got Conner home at the end of the day, they both just laid down on the floor and rested for a while.  On a Friday afternoon, this is getting to be pretty typical.  It's hard being in school all week!

Gifts and Good-byes...

On Sunday, we had to do a little shopping so the boys could get something from the gift shop.  Ben and Conner chose these mining helmets and some cups to take home.

 

It was time to find a luggage cart and start the packing up process...

Conner and Ben wanted a picture of where they slept.  The walls were all painted and looked awesome!

We had such a great time at the Great Wolf Lodge.  The last time we took the boys there, they were only 2 and we couldn't do half the things we got to do this time!  It was even more fun being there with such great friends.  Can't wait to do it again!!!

All Day at the Waterparks!

Saturday morning started off a little rocky... our friend, Amy B. had a gall bladder attack in the early morning hours so her husband took her to the nearest hospital while Nick and I tried our hands at taking care of the 4 kids!  (Our friend is fine and returned later in the morning feeling better, but she will have to have surgery in the near future.)  So after feeding all the kids and getting everyone dressed for swimming, we headed down to enjoy the morning in the water!  Here are Emma, Olivia, Ben, and Conner playing at one of our favorite areas!

 

 

I was trying to get a picture of the big bucket dumping all the water and this was as good as I could get!

We spent all day at the waterparks, so here are the dads trying to guard the kids as the big bucket is getting ready to dump...  We spent a lot of time here tonight!  I even stood under it once!  The kids loved going on the water slides all by themselves.  The best part was standing near the bottom of the slides and just listening... You could tell Conner was coming because you could hear him giggling.  You could hear Ben coming down because he was always yelling! 

We spent every minute we could in the water today and by the end of the evening, we had very tired kiddos!

After the kids went to bed, Nick resumed his bartending responsibilities!  It was definitely nice having our own kitchen in the condo.  It was also nice being all together so that when the kids went to bed we could hang out in the living room or the dining area and have our adult time!

Pre-Halloween Party

On Friday evening, the lodge had a Halloween costume parade, some trick-or-treating, and even a monster dance party!  So, the kids all got to wear their costumes.  Of course, Conner wanted to be Spider Man this year, since he is (for some reason) a little obsessed with everything Spider Man.  Ben really couldn't decide what he wanted to be, so we suggested Bat Man when we found a pretty cute costume.  He liked it and especially liked the mask and cape that came with it so he decided that it would be pretty fun to be Bat Man!  We got the costumes a little early since we knew that we would want them for this weekend, so here is our Halloween preview!

 

   

There was a little break between the trick-or-treating and the monster bash dance, so the kids calmed down and the adults replenished our drinks. 

Watching the kids have their own little dance party was pretty fun!  Our kids do love to dance!  Pieces of each costume started coming off as the kids got sweatier!  It was a really fun time!

Nick thought he would try the Spider Man look!  After the dance party and some time to cool off, the kids were off to bed and the adults (again) stayed up way too late for our own good!

Waterpark and Arcade...

Obviously, the kids were up at dawn Friday morning, pleading to go visit the different water parks in the lodge.  So we all got ready and headed down for some fun!  It is very difficult to take pictures in the water park areas because there is literally water spraying everywhere!!!  So, there's only a few pictures, but it was definitely where we spent most of our time!  The kids' favorites were the water slides that they went on countless times, the big bucket that dropped a crazy amount of water on them, and the wave pool!

 

After spending the morning swimming, we decided to spend the afternoon (after some quiet time) at the arcade.  The boys insisted that this was the next order of business!

The boys absolutely loved playing air hockey!  They played several games.  They thought it was hilarious!  And it was pretty fun to watch them!

Of course, they collected tickets as they played all of the games and by the end, they both decided they wanted to spend their tickets on a compass for each of them.  We were a few tickets short, so we had to go back and play a few more games, but we got to that magic number and they both got to pick out their own compass.  They carried them around with them all weekend!  Ben and Conner (and Daddy)  loved that arcade!!! 

Thursday Night...

On Thursday, right after school, we took off for the Wisconsin Dells to spend a long weekend there with our friends, the Beeghlys.  When we got there on Thursday night, we settled in and the kids were loving their room!  It was a little late to take advantage of the water parks, so we played in our condo and the kids were soon sleepy.  We listened to the story time that the lodge offered and the kids were off to bed.  We enjoyed some much needed adult time and stayed up way too late, but it was a great start to our mini vacation!