Week in Wisconsin...Part 3
The third leg of our journey was spent at "The Wilderness", hotel and indoor waterpark in the Wisconsin Dells. We arrived there Monday afternoon and stayed until Wednesday morning. It was great! In addition to three different indoor waterpark areas, they had a large indoor climbing/play area that the boys loved.

Big kids (i.e. Daddies and Mommies) could go in the play area, too. Here's Daddy pictures with a skunk, out of which you could shoot balls at others in the play area.
Smiley guy in the play area.

Tuesday morning...Tate are you ready to go swimming? Yeah!

Happy dance.

We went Tuesday morning to the duck race that they hold each morning in the lazy river of the one waterpark area. Each child got to choose a rubber duck. Their names were written on them and entered into the race. Tate's duck won a prize in the first race! Here are Daddy and Cade waiting between races.

Tate lounging on a kid-size chair in the wave pool waterpark area which has a special roof so that you can tan all year round.

Tate had a BLAST riding on a tube in the wave pool!

Cade taking it all in.

The boys sitting at the edge of the waves.

Running out of the water.

The boys in the water. Tate doing his three-legged monkey hop in the water. :)

All that playing really wears you out!

Week in Wisconsin...Part 2

The middle part of our trip was spent in Ashland, way up on Lake Superior. We had the pleasure of staying with the Sapper family...Scott, Becky, Brooke, and Kyle. They were gracious enough to allow us to invade their lives from Friday afternoon until Monday morning. Scott took Erik ice fishing on Saturday, while the women and children spent most of the day at home. Saturday night, the Sappers volunteered to watch the little boys so that Mommy and Daddy could go out to dinner...by themselves! Sunday after church, the three girls (Mommy, Becky, and Brooke) went on a little shopping trip, which also included lunch out and then ice cream on the way home. The guys all stayed home, played, napped, and watched hockey and basketball on tv. It was a great visit! Thank you, Sappers! We got a few good pictures from our visit, but we didn't take that many while we were there. Unfortunately, we didn't get any good pictures with Scott in them! Sorry, Scott! :)

Four cute kids (It only took about half-a-dozen tries to get all four of them to look at once!)

The Sapper family has a pet hamster. The boys weren't completely sure what to think about her, but were tickled when Brooke got him out and held him near them.

Playing with the "Bend-a-roos" and foam letters that the Sappers bought for our visit.

We got to go out to play for a while on Saturday after the dads got back from fishing.

Kyle making his move.

Cade taking a trip down the slide with Becky looking on.

All bundled up.

The boys getting a push on the sled.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Carroll family today. We love you all and pray that God will grant you comfort and peace in the coming days.

Happy Baptismal Birthday, Levi!
We love you and hope to see you soon to celebrate your third birthday and your three years of life as a child of God!


Week in Wisconsin...Part 1
We left last Thursday at about noon to begin our Wisconsin vacation. We travelled up to the Wisconsin Dells that afternoon and spent the rest of Thursday and part of Friday at Chula Vista hotel and indoor water park. The boys were amazed by the size of the water park and had a lot of fun on the kiddie slides.

One of Cade's many trips down the slide. Happy kid in the water.

The "boys" in the shallow area for kids.

Tate striking a pose...part of the huge water play structure in the background.

Look Out, Wisconsin!
Here come the Hildebrandt boys! (and their parents, too!)

Family Fun Night: Snowmen (Part 2)
We had so much fun with our first snowman family night, that Mommy decided to plan another one! Before Daddy got home, the boys helped Mommy make a snowman pizza. Cade helped Mommy mix up the dough, and then both boys helped spread the sauce, sprinkle the cheese, and place the pepperoni to make a snowman face.

Tate got to dump the sauce on the crust and spread it around. Then Cade got his turn.

While the pizza was cooking, Mommy and the boys went outside and made a mini snowman to use as a centerpiece for dinner, and so that we could see how he changed throughout the night when we took him inside.

Tate wanted to take a picture of Mommy and Cade. (We hung our coats on our chairs, and wore hats and scarves during dinner.)

Mommy failed to take a picture of the snowman face before the pizza was baked. If you look VERY closely, you can see still see it. The snowman browned up a bit more than we thought it would...but it was sure tasty!

Ready to eat!

Goofy kids with winter hats and pizza faces.

Mommy, Tate, and the little snowman.

Checking out what Mommy put on the table.

Not sure what he's suppose to do.

Mommy had to show the boys what to do with the shaving cream (snow)....Cade still wasn't sure. He had a look on his face like he was sure that Mommy had gone crazy.

Surprisingly enough, Tate was the first of the two boys to dive in!

Cade decided it looked fun...and MESSY!

Ewwww!

Look, Daddy!

Gonna get you, Mommy!

Messy!

Having LOTS of fun!

After the boys had had enough of the shaving cream, they needed to get in the bathtub! When the got out of the tub, we resumed Family Fun Night with another snowball fight (at Tate's request).

The snowball fight was followed by dessert. We had snowy earth cookies (thanks to Mama Meow). (Okay, so the cookies aren't really called that, but that is what we called them tonight!)

Tate loves to wear hats of all kinds, so he thought it was GREAT to wear a winter hat all evening.

We set our little snowman by the fireplace to warm up. ;)

This was the last picture taken of our little friend. By the time the boys went to bed, he was mostly just a puddle.

Tate was SO excited about Family Fun Night. We all had a great evening!

Family Fun Night: Snowmen
While Mommy got dinner on the table, Daddy read the books, "Snowballs"by Lois Ehlert and "Snow Day" by Lynn Plourde. Tate checking out the snowman soup we had for dinner.

Our "melted snowman" centerpiece and a bowl of snowman soup.

After dinner, we had an indoor snowball fight. (using balled up socks) Both Daddy and Tate had their eyes set on Mommy as their next target!

Cade wanted a horsey ride during the snowball fight...and Daddy continued to enjoy pelting Mommy with snowballs!

Snowballs for dessert!

Cade enjoying a snowball and hot cocoa.

He dropped his snowball in his hot cocoa. :(

Next we did family snowman pictures.

Tate the snowman

Daddy the snowman

Mommy the snowman (or snow-woman)

Cade the snowman

We got a late start to our Family Night due to Mommy getting a late start on dinner and Daddy getting home late, so the boys (especially Tate who hasn't been feeling especially well) were starting to fade. The boys got their jammies on and we watched a short Frosty the Snowman movie before the boys went to bed. We may have a Snowman Family Night Part 2 sometime this week to do some more fun things! It was a great night!