Hoerth Family Camping 2010 @ Wisconsin Dells

Before we headed out for the weekend to Hoerth family camping in the Dells… Jay and I hit up the Wisconsin Valley Fair is Wausau on Wednesday night. It was the night that Lady Antebellum was going to be playing in the bandstand and we really wanted to see them. Well… I really wanted to see them.

VIP tickets sold out within minutes of them being on sale about two months ago and I thought that because of that there were no tickets left for sale and we weren’t going to be seeing them. Then Jay told me that we could get seats in the bleachers with general admission to the fair and I was stoked to be able to go see them. They are one of my favorite bands/singers!

Unfortunately, we kept hearing on the radio all day that the grand stands were packed full and here I was back to thinking we weren’t going to be able to see them. Both Jay and I decided we were still going to go and enjoy the fair even if we weren’t going to be able to actually see them… we knew we would be able to hear them. I left my camera at home because I didn’t think we’d even get close enough to get a good shot and I told Jay to not make me regret not bringing my camera along. Did that make sense? Lol!

We got there around 5:30pm… with two hours before Lady A was supposed to take the stage. It only cost us $27 to get in the fair and pay for parking… tis not bad! The grand stands were indeed full, along with most of the grass seating. Since we had two hours before the show, we decided to walk around for a little while and explore the fair grounds. I had the most delicious elephant ear! We headed back to the stage area around 6:30pm and found a spot on the ‘floor’ next to the VIP seating and stood there for an hour before they came on. And… I totally regretted not bringing my camera! We were THAT close! Of course we had to stand the whole time and my view was blocked here and there because of the tall people standing in front of me, but it was SO worth it! We would have NEVER gotten that close for what we paid had we gone to an actual concert of theirs’ at a stadium of some sort and their performance was GREAT! SO worth it! It was a great night all around!

And then because we didn’t have any supper, we stopped at Perkins once we got back to Point at 10pm to eat. It was a nice ‘date night’ with my honey and did you know that Perkins chocolate shakes are SO yummy! I stuffed myself full with our meal and then we both went home and crashed!I worked for a little while in the morning on Thursday and then went and finished up my clinic paper work for the summer and packed the rest of our stuff for camping. We had a ton to bring along. Does that ever happen to anyone else?!

Jay got home an hour early and we packed up and headed off to the Dells for Hoerth family camping. I couldn’t wait to see the little man! I missed him bunches! As soon as we got there, he ran and gave me the biggest hug, just what I needed!

We didn’t do a whole lot on Thursday night. Everyone was getting there and setting up and just relaxing and chilling with everyone. Around 9pm a bunch of us headed out to the casino. It was my first time going to one and it was lots of fun. Not something I think I’d do very often at all, since the majority of the time people lose money, but for a first experience I enjoyed myself. Jay and I both of a rewards card with $10 of free money and then because it was my birthday month, I got an extra $5 so right off the bat we had $25 of free money! Then Jay got $60 in cash for us to spend. He usually sits at the black jack tables, but this time we stuck to the slots because it was my first time. I told him he could have done that if he wanted to though.

It was fun betting on the slots… we mostly stuck to the penny slots and at one point I had put in a dollar and won $25. Of course I lost all of that, but at the end of the night I hit it ‘big’ again on another machine and won the money back and cashed out with $30. Overall, we lost the $25 free money, and only $3 of the $60 we took out, so not too bad for my first time. I had fun! Ayden of course stayed back at the campsite and played with his cousins and Jay’s brother watched him which was nice.

On Friday we hit up the deer park and a little zoo/garden thing. It was a fun and tiring first half of the day!

Ayden loved feeding the deer at the deer park! I thought it was pretty neat too! Here are Jay’s grandparent at Storybook Gardens in a really old car they had on the grounds. Ayden all tuckered out after a morning full of activity. He took quite a long nap, I was really surprised because he never naps anymore!Then on Friday night we went mini golfing at Pirate’s Cove. They have five courses at the place. We took the medium level one and I got a hole in one on the first two holes! I couldn’t believe it, but of course it was all down hill after that. We all had a great time, and it was another late night! All of the nights were pretty late, but considering all of the activity that we were doing, Ayden was great all weekend! On Saturday morning I went to some flea markets with Jay’s parents, his grandparents and an aunt. It was pretty neat, although I didn’t really get anything. I saw a lot of cool things that I could use at photography props if I were in business, but since I’m not, I didn’t get anything. It was a nice way to pass the morning.

The rest of the day was spent just lazyin’ around the campsites and visiting with people. Ayden buddied up with one of his cousins who is just a few months younger than him and they played together SO well the whole weekend! It was nice because Ayden hasn’t really gotten close to any of his cousins on Jay’s side of the family because we don’t see them very often.

Sunday morning we went go karting. There was a track right down the road from the campsite that let kids drive by themselves and Ayden was tall enough. The go karts didn’t go very fast at all and Ayden had TONS of fun!

Here is Ayden and Connor (his new best bud) waiting patiently to get on the go karts! The two best buds of the weekend! We couldn’t keep them apart! It was too cute!

This was probably the first year that I really really enjoyed Hoerth camping. I’ve been going for a few years now… not every year and I didn’t always stay the whole time, so I wasn’t expecting to have such a good time this year, especially since we were going to be staying from Thursday thru Sunday. I’ve probably mentioned it before, but I’m pretty introverted when it comes to Jay’s dad’s side of the family. It is so big that I often feel overwhelmed. But this weekend I made an effort to be more social and not so introverted because I wanted to have a good time.

And, the Hoerth’s tend to get out of control at camping, which really isn’t my thing… so I wasn’t looking forward to that. Thursday night was pretty low key, Friday night was pretty good, not too too wild, although I went to bed by midnight. I do know that a few people got a little wild. Saturday night was the wild night, but still not even THAT bad, although I did go to bed earlier than Friday night. They did play some of their normal drinking games of which I watched a little bit.

I did put a halt on Jay’s drinking though Saturday night (he didn’t really drink much Thursday or Friday). He had had glass upon glass of some drink over the course of the day and by about 7pm I told him that he had had enough and to my surprise he didn’t have anymore, even after I had gone to bed. I don’t mind him drinking a little bit, but I don’t want to see him drunk or hear about his drunk stories so I put a kabosh on it and he respected that which made me happy.

We got home around 1:30pm yesterday and just relaxed for the majority of the afternoon. Put stuff away, showered, and just enjoyed being home. It was a great weekend, but I was glad to be home as well!

And we were going to do it all over this weekend with my dad’s family, however I will miss most of the day on Saturday because I will be photographing another wedding… of which I am sort of bummed about because Schwobe camping is fun too, but I’m still excited about the wedding because I love taking pictures. Like you didn’t know that!

CIAO! LOVE ME!