Hello all and Happy Holidays!!

Well believe it or not our surprise vacation for the kids went off without a hitch. We left for "school" on Monday morning the 18th and told the kids that they were going to be late because we wanted to take them out to breakfast. The didn't even pay attention to the massive pile of luggage in the back seat! We decided to eat in Hudson and as we crossed the boarder Kayla turned around and saw the welcome to Minnesota sign and Ethan got this surprised look on his face and said "we're leaving Minnesota??" At breakfast we gave them portable dvd players as a surprise and told them they were getting them as early Christmas gifts. And they still didn't question anything! We continued driving and along the way there were a few questions of are we still going to school today? Won't we be really late? When we got to the Dells we went to the Super Walmart to get groceries because it was too early to check in and do you know that these kids still didn't question it. On the way to the resort Ethan saw a sign that said Wisconsin Dells and he got all excited and told us all about the things that you could do there because he has just seen a commercial for it. We got to the resort and Grant went in and got us checked in and we told the kids that we were going to just check out one of the rooms for another time. We got into the room and the kids thought that it was great, I then told them, "surprise! We are staying here for a week!" You have never seen 4 happier kids! We spent our time going to the three different waterparks which had everything from wave pools and waterslides and hot tubs that you could be indoors or go through a opening to the outside and of course the arcade. Lucky for Grant and I that had a mexican place that had half price margaritas from 3-6 everyday! Unless you have 4 kids its hard to understand the need for that. Haha just kidding! Aly and Brent came later on Monday as a second surprise to the kids. They had a great time too. By Friday I think that we all were pretty water logged and went back to the arcade and spent sometime in the hot tub. I unfortunately didn't get any pool pictures because I didn't want to leave my camera on a chair. We came on Saturday and did our Christmas on Sunday morning because Makenna was going to her dads. It was a BUSY week and I would do it all again in a heartbeat just to see the happy faces of the kids! We are already planning our next escape for December 2007- a cruise with the 4 kids. We will be going to Belize and Costa Rica. Can't wait for that one!!! I hope that you all had a safe and happy holiday!
Melanie