~*WISCONSIN*~

We traveled to Wisconsin June 7th-June 21st. It was really a great relaxing vacation! We flew into Milwaukee and spent the night in a nice hotel...we even had a jacuzzi in our room :)

The next day Mom, Dad and Katherine Grover came to pick us up...here they are upon their arrival...

We spent some time with Grandpa & Grandma Grover. We went bowling with them too, Grandpa beat all of us 2 out of 3 games! There is nothing like a good game of cribbage with grandpa and some delicious home cooking from grandma! We really cherished the time that we had due to us living so very far away. Grandma made her yummy apple crisp...yummy yummy! (Grandma doesn't like her picture taken but hopefully you can see how beautiful she was by this side shot :)

While we were in Wisconsin there was a family reunion for my Grandma Grovers side of the family. It was great that Jonathan was able to meet my extended family as now it is his family too! It was quite the adventure; a long drive there, really really hot temperatures, and not a whole lot to do. Everyone is aging like crazy, i guess that is what happens when i haven't seen them in almost 5 years.

We went and spent an afternoon/evening with friends of ours. Holly & Michael, and their wee little ones.  We had a really great time of fellowship and of sharing in delicious food together. Oh how we wish that distance didn't separate us!

Jonathan tried his hand at water skiing at the Sawyers lake cabin. He got up for a few seconds before getting an extreme amount of water up his nose. I tried, and on the second try did the splits. There is nothing like the feeling of your legs ripping off your body!  OUCH!!!

We took an afternoon to head up to my Grandma Nanas. There we got to visit and hang out with Grandma Nana, Great Grandpa and Grandma Stenerson, my aunts and uncles and cousins. We ended our time there with a friendly game of volleyball.

We made a couple visits to Grandma Betty. She lives in an assisted living type facility. She was very happy to see us. unfortunately our visits are never very long. There is not much to do except sit there and talk and Grandma would get distracted by the television leaving us sitting there wondering what to say next. We did get to go out on the patio though and feed her birds and feel the warm sun rays on our faces.

It was really great getting to be in Wisconsin for the summer because there were so many fun things to fill our time with. We found some amazing passes online that would get us in to many of the big attractions in Wisconsin Dells for free...or for a very very low price...so we got to do all the touristy things we wouldn't have normally done. We went mini golfing, to a comedy hypnosis show (in which i attempted to be hypnotized. it worked for a short time until i was disrupted by the awake man next me. quite the experience), Mt. Olympus water and theme park, went to Devils Lake State Park, saw the Tommy Bartlet Water and Ski Show...and rode the Original Wisconsin Ducks! (pictured below)

We rode the ducks on Father's Day and then took my parents out to the Del Bar. ( A really nice restaurant in Wisconsin Dells) We had some really delicious food and good conversation. It was special to be able to share Father's Day with my dad being that we live far far away. We had steak and shrimp...we all tried snail for the first time, including my mom!

Our visit like I said was really wonderful. It was a much different trip than any of our other trips to Wisconsin. We let everyone know that we were coming home and made our plans once we arrived. This was OUR family vacation, a time of relaxation. We didn't have to run around and see everyone like a bunch of crazy people. We missed out on seeing some people, but relationships really change over time and distance. We got to catch up with family and get some quality time in.