Overall I'd Give It A B+

It seems we've started a tradition.

Last year for spring break we took the boys to Tundra Lodge and Resort in Green Bay to play in the indoor waterpark and shake some of the winter gloom. It was so much fun we decided to one-up ourselves this year and take the kids to Wilderness Territory in Wisconsin Dells. We thought we had a lot of chaos last year with the three boys, but throw a fourth little one in there and it was chaos personified.

Much of the trip drove me crazy. The boys were way too sassy and whiny. Grace was way too tired. I was way too grouchy and harpy. Todd was way too moody. And yet we somehow managed to have a pretty great time.
Grace loved her very first swim suit.

Tommy loved following his daddy around,

and copying every thing that daddy did.

See how happy he is?

Ben was still very wary of the big bucket that dumped out water (especially after it dumped all over him, Grace, and myself and shocked us all, poor Grace) and didn't want to do much playing anywhere near it. Joey was off in a flash and I could barely get him to hold still long enough to catch a picture of him.

Here we are taking a breather to calm little Gracie down after she just got dumped on.

When she had calmed down we decided to head over to the wave pool. Todd stayed with Grace while I managed the boys in the waves. The waves were HUGE and I was surprised by how brave the boys were. We laughed so hard as the waves pounded us, one after another, that I could barely hold onto the raft. At one point one of the huge waves knocked the raft over and all three of the boys tumbled under the water. Luckily, I was able to grab all three in one fell swoop and get them back on the raft before the next wave hit. Whew! It was fairly impressive, if I do say so myself.

Here we are during one of the much needed rest periods.

All that swimming and playing wore us all out. After about 5 hours of playing in the water we were too tuckered to go out to eat. We decided to have dinner in our hotel room that night and then the kiddos all crashed.

Grace had fun waking them up the next morning. The boys loved their room so much that they didn't even want to get out of bed.

But, after their bowls of cereal the boys were ready for round 2. And so it started all over again.

The ride home went much better than the ride there. All the kiddos crashed and slept for a good portion of the 2 and a half hour drive.

Now we are back at home. Thankfully.

Though the trip did not start out the greatest, thanks to a lot of grouchy, whiny, sassy people (most especially me), it really did end well. And it showed us that we can probably take more trips and do more than we had anticipated. It is work. And it is exhausting. But in the end it is definitely worth it.