Wisconsin Dells vacation!

On Friday, December 12th, we loaded up our car (which will never hold the room for another baby!) and headed to Abby and Kaleb's house in Milwaukee. Carson did great on most of the drive there; he was out cold for a while! Once he woke up, he screamed for a good while. One of the worst things has got to be your kid screaming in a car and you can't really do anything about it.

But once we got to Abby and Kaleb's, Carson was in heaven. He absolutely loves being around babies/other little kids, and Owen and Symon are definitely two of his very favorites! He had lots of fun reading with Aunt Abby, chasing Owen and Symon around, and checking out all the new exciting toys! Carson sure played hard! I just love seeing him interact with his cousins; he loves them so much. It makes me so excited to see Carson as a big brother. :)

On Saturday, we went to the Milwaukee Zoo. Carson has been really observant, loving to take in everything around him ever since he was a baby. And so he loved the zoo! His favorite were the fish - because his face could be right up against the glass, and the fish would come right up to him! My favorite part was probably the giant room of Christmas trees before even entering any of the zoo exhibits! It was gorgeous!

Saturday night, Alex, Kaleb, and Jake went to a Clippers game. I forgot to give Alex my camera, but they had amazing seats and said it was a great game!

Church on Sunday was really awesome because Abby and Kaleb's ward had a Christmas program. The primary kids sang (basically my favorite thing ever), and there was a gorgeous Christmas piece played by a harpist and flutist. Abby gave a really great talk on receiving, as well. The whole thing definitely got me more in the Christmas spirit!

Monday we left for the condo at the Christmas Mountain resort in Wisconsin Dells. It was a really nice place, and the best part was our 70s-style condo that had just been remodeled! Brand new everything! - beds, flat screen TVs, bathrooms, seriously everything! It was SO NICE!

It was also really nice because Alex and I had our own condo, and it then connected to Abby and Kaleb's. It was awesome just because we had so much space! Especially with 3 kids under the age of 3! It was honestly bigger and nicer than our apartment, and so it was really quite a luxury! Even the view from our condo was amazing!

Right down the road from where we were staying was the lobby, and the indoor little water park and the outdoor hot tub. The water park there was perfect for the kids! They loved it! (a cute little water slide, a slightly bigger one, even a teeter totter!) The rest of us loved it, too!

With the package deal Abby and Kaleb had on the trip, we also got 2 sets of day passes to a much bigger indoor water park nearby. It did not disappoint! As a kid, my mom took me and my brothers to Sunsplash, which was cool, but this was MUCH cooler!

There were a bunch of big water slides, and even 2 where you went down on a raft! There was also a lazy river, a pool, 2 hot tubs, and a little kid water park section! I was honestly like a little kid there! I just loved it! We all did! I think Carson's favorite part was going on the lazy river, snuggled up with Daddy on the raft. :) He also really loved jamming out to the music! It is SO cute how much Carson loves music and dancing!

The trip was also so nice because we could just hang out and relax in comfort in our condos! It was just the nicest trip! And one night, Abby and Kaleb went out for dinner, and another night, Alex and I did. We went to a nearby place called House of Embers and it was really nice! This time of year, there was hardly anyone there (same with the water parks too!), so we had almost the whole restaurant to ourselves. We got to be right next to the fireplace, too.

And the food ... oh my GOODNESS, it was amazing! I forgot my camera, unfortunately, but the food was DIVINE. I got a small section of ribs...honestly the best ribs I've ever had. And I also got lobster tail that was out of this world. Oh my gosh, I thought I had died and gone to heaven it was so good! Alex also let me have his spinach salad that had pecans and then this maple pecan dressing. Ahh, I loved it with all my soul!

For dessert, we split a chocolate toffee piece of cake that had caramel in it and a chocolate ganache frosting. It also had some kind of fancy, fancy sea salt. My mouth waters just thinking about it! ...We also shared an orange-infused creme brulee, which was absolute heaven in my mouth! Everything was just delicious! And it was so nice getting to go on a date with my Alex. :)

Possibly the best part of the trip was the full body massage that Alex got for me. He and Abby set it up without me knowing, and Abby came with me. It was an insanely long Swedish massage that included a honey mask and scrub on my feet, along with a facial. The massage was amazing and so relaxing - with oils and everything that really helped to alleviate my sore muscles. My feet were left so soft, as was basically every inch of me! The facial was really nice too because I got this cool-feeling mask, along with scrubs on my arms, and all sorts of "lotions and potions," as Alex always calls that sort of stuff. Ah, I know it was so expensive, but it was SO sweet of Alex to treat me to that! I came out of the whole thing feeling so soft and so relaxed! I felt just amazing!

The trip was fantastic, and I'm so glad we were able to go with Abby, Kaleb, Owen, and Symon. I'm so grateful for family, and I feel so blessed to have married in to such a wonderful one. :) Hopefully this is a trip we can take more often!