The weekend of January 30 - Feb 1st we were back in the Dells for a fun weekend at the Kalahari with Daddy's family: Grandma Mamie, Uncle Eric, Auntie Jill, Claire & Nick. It was a Christmas present to all of us from Grandma.
All four kiddos ready for a fun weekend!!
Once everyone made it to the resort we started out with dinner at the Ivory Coast restaurant located in the resort. Nick and Nate did some serious coloring while we were waiting for our food:
After dinner it was off to explore the resort. We found the Indoor Amusement Park, picked up our wristbands and started riding rides!
Mads LOVES her cousin Claire!
Our first ride was a spin on the ferris wheel. The boys were on one bench:
and the girls were on the other!
Group shot!
The other crew was in the other cart behind us!
Then is was up to the Go Kart track! We started with driving in pairs. Nate & Daddy:
Mads & I:
Uncle Eric & Nick:
And Auntie Jill & Claire:
Then we did some reconfiguring for our next race and Uncle Eric drove alone...
Claire & Jill were zooming along
But Uncle Eric was right on their tail!
The more we drove the go karts throughout the weekend we found that Uncle Eric wasn't afraid to pull any shenanigans to try to win! :)
The cousins in front of our room, 1015!
We woke up on Saturday morning and Grandma Mamie suggested that we have Maddie's birthday cake for breakfast!! Since Grandma & the crew weren't able to come to Monroe for Mads' birthday beach party we took her party TO the "beach!" (The beach at the Kalahari!)
Mads and her sweet beach birthday cake - made by Grandma Mamie!
The cousins!
Such a pretty six year old!
She blew them all out in one breath this time!
Just look at this cake!!
How fun!
Mads was so surprised to see pink and purple cake inside!
And, what's a party without presents?
After we were full of cake for breakfast is was off for a day of fun!!
Sheesh - look at these monkeys!
Our first stop - the GAMES!
Nate and Mads were pros at the big wheel!
Look at that technique!
Nathan's fist pump for scoring 75 tickets!
Skee-Ball, not a big ticket winner - but always a classic!
Lots of fun at the Stinky Feet water shooting game!
Complete with toilets to sit on!
Arcade fun!
Uh oh, more Go Karts! Auntie Jill's turn to ride single:
Claire even took a turn driving alone!
Mads rode with Daddy:
Aunt Jill is making her move!
She whizzes past Uncle Eric and Nick!
Two thumbs up from Claire!
The kids had some fun on the ropes course. This was a new feature that we hadn't seen in previous years. The kids LOVED it. I can't even tell you how many times they did it throughout the weekend!
Nate all harnessed up:
Mads is ready to navigate the tricky course:
The kiddos are ready!
So much fun!
We showed Nate how the harness works by making him hang from it! :)
Claire wanted to try the ropes course, but she is too big for the kiddie course and was a little nervous to go on the big course. So I harnessed up and we went up together!
She did great!! All the way up to the third story!
After the ropes course our crew went to the mini golf course.
I love these guys! :)
Golfing group!
Andrew shows Nate how to finesse the club:
Mads wasn't too shabby!
Time for more games!
The kiddie carousel:
Then we took a break for lunch. Nate found a jumbo corn dog on a stick!
Claire found nachos!
Group shot!
After lunch Daddy & Mads took a snowmobile ride. ;)
Nate had a BLAST on the bumper boats!
Then in comes Mads!
BUMP!
Look at her braids flying!
Nate heads in to bump his sister:
Around 2ish it was time to wrap up our time in the Amusement Park, so we needed to gather our tickets up. I couldn't resist having the kids swim in them!
TICKETS!
Feeding the tickets into the counting machine:
1493 tickets!!
Grandma and her grandkids while the Dads were counting tickets:
Time to shop for crap! :)
How many tickets for that cutie?
Decisions!!
And... this is what 1493 tickets gets you:
A squishy ball, moustache tattoos, a stuffed snake, two medium plastic trucks, one small plastic truck, two dress-your-bears, two snap bracelets, two rolls of smarties, and a giant pixie stick.
Once we were done with the games and rides for the day we took our prizes and headed off to the locker rooms to change for some fun in the waterpark! YAY!
Nate wasn't able to ride all of the slides due to height restrictions... but he was able to go on the "Yellow Slide"
It was for two or three riders, so the boys loaded up one raft:
And the girls rode with me!
While we were riding the Yellow Slide Grandma was floating in the Lazy River. Once we were done on the slide we went to catch up. Mads and Claire shared a float to begin:
Nate and I snuggled into a tube together:
Then we shuffled. Nate went with Daddy:
and Mads came over with me!
After taking a couple trips around the Lazy River and a few shenanigans (Daddy pushed Mads and I through the waterfall, and Daddy did a super awesome gymnastics move trying to get in his tube... LOL!) we then did some swimming in the activity pool.
There was a door to swim under that took us to the outdoor hot tub!! We spent a lot of time in the warm water!
The kiddos!
Group shot!
The other crew!
Goofing off to see how long the boys could stay out of the warm water and in the cold winter air!
AH! Too cold!
At this point my camera battery died, so I don't have any pictures of the other slides we rode. But we did have a BLAST!
We finished out the evening with MooseJaw pizza delivered to our resort room. Our kids hit the bed and Grandma stayed with them while Jill, Eric, Claire, Nick, Andrew and I went back to the waterpark. Andrew and I were too tired to make it to the 10PM closing time. We were back to the room and in bed by then! The rest of the crew finished out strong, though!
First off on Sunday morning we packed up and loaded up the cars so we could spend more time in the arcade before heading out.
The kids had some fun on the luggage cart!
Too funny!
Jungle kids!
Nate found a sweet snack - a loaded cookie! (I did end up surprising them with a cookie to share at the end of the trip. Loaded doesn't even begin to describe the cookie... there were Snickers, M&Ms, Kit Kats, then it was drizzled with caramel. All on a chocolate chip cookie!)
The girls were able to get a braid in their hair.
They couldn't wait to check out the final product!
It wouldn't be a day at the Kalahari without more trips around the Go Kart track.
Mads rode with Auntie Jill:
and I rode single!! (I almost won, but Uncle Eric was pulling those shenanigans and he and Nick wouldn't let me pass - they hogged the road and tried to spin me when I went to pass!)
Mads had her eye on the climbing wall all weekend. Finally on Sunday she was ready to give it a try. Daddy went with her for support...
GO MADS!
Daddy made it to the top!
Mads gave the Cloud Wall a try too!
We had to go find the rest of the crew and we found them by the animal carousel. We hopped on for a spin.
Mads chose the hummingbird. How sweet is that?!
Mads, Claire, Nate & Daddy!
Daddy rode on the zebra!
Whoa! Who's tougher - the lion or NATE?!
Group shot!
So... a little backstory here. Grandma Mamie, Auntie Jill & Daddy like to tease that you spend so much money to win tickets and all you get is a few Tootsie Rolls. Well, in the prize counter was a TOOTSIE ROLL towel and pot holder set! The kids HAD to get it for Grandma!!
The lady working the counter even threw in some actual Tootsies with it! :)
The kids and the best.prize.ever!
Presenting it to Grandma!
We had just a bit of time left, so the Daddies and all the kids but Nate (he was too little) went for a last round of Laser Tag. (They had played two games on Saturday)
I don't want to be against these guys!
After Laser Tag we promised Mads one more trip up the climbing wall. Claire wanted to take a turn this time! :)
SWEET JOB MADS!
Mads in action:
Claire gives it a go!
We then left the Kalahari and headed to Monk's for lunch. The kids wore their flip flops in the snow!
Side note - Jordy Nelson from the Packers was also eating at Monk's that day!! :)
We had a fabulous weekend filled with SO much fun! Thanks so much to Grandma Mamie for a wonderful time!
