Monday, August 9, 2010

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!IMG_9162 IMG_9173 IMG_9177 IMG_9231 IMG_9237 IMG_9252Here are Jay’s grandparent at Storybook Gardens in a really old car they had on the grounds.IMG_9301 IMG_9308 IMG_9318Ayden all tuckered out after a morning full of activity. He took quite a long nap, I was really surprised because he never naps anymore!IMG_9354Then 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!IMG_9398 IMG_9405On 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!IMG_9434 IMG_9455 IMG_9465The two best buds of the weekend! We couldn’t keep them apart! It was too cute!IMG_9507

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! 

Pictures from Wisconsin Dells

I took a TON of pictures this past weekend, way more than I probably should have, lol, but isn’t that usually the case?! Yeah… thought so! Here are just a few pictures of some of the scenery and other things that I took. A total recap of the last few days, along with LOTS more pictures to follow!IMG_9310 IMG_9331 copy IMG_9336 copy IMG_9385 copy IMG_9397 copy IMG_9430 IMG_9280 IMG_9316IMG_9373 IMG_9378IMG_9390 IMG_9392 IMG_9396IMG_9424 IMG_9428 IMG_9429CIAO! LOVE ME!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Live, Laugh, Love…

Untitled-1I am living, laughing, and loving life right now! That’s not to say that I don’t have my ‘moments’ throughout the day, but for the most part I’m feeling pretty good about everything. And that’s definitely not to say that every day is a great day or that things don’t tend to not go my way more often than not, but I just feel good.

Jay and I have been in a good stretch for quite a while now. I’d like to say it happens all the time, but relationships are not without their faults and we do fight, we argue, we have our off days, but it’s been good for quite a while now and I love that.

He sent me the sweetest text the other night while he was gone. Whether he sent it because its what he was thinking at the time or it was the result of him being out with his buddy and having too much to drink, I don’t know. But, I choose to believe it was because he meant it, lol! I don’t ask what he does while out with his buddy, I don’t want to know. I do know he doesn’t get all wild and crazy in ways that he knows I would adamantly disapprove of, but I still don’t want to know how much he’s drinking or what he’s doing. Make sense? Well it does to me!

Ayden has been a very good boy lately. Sometimes I feel in over my head with him and wonder how we will make it through another minute. And then I wonder if I can’t even handle one, what is going to happen if/when we have any more kids? But I know I’m not only mom who feels like this at times.

Jay has been great with Ayden lately as well. Jay is a great dad, but we definitely differ on our parenting techniques. And being the mom and the primary care giver (although I have work and school, I’m also the one around Ayden more), I feel like I know best, and that isn’t always the case. I just find that Jay and I haven’t argued as much over our parenting differences lately and seem to be more on the same page which is good. We aren’t totally different, but he’s a lot stricter than I am.

The summer semester has come to a good close. I am done with all of my assignments and clinic is done. Just need to finish up some paper work and then I have about two and half weeks off before the fall semester starts. I can’t believe that we are going to be starting school again before we can count to ten! Its crazy how fast time goes. It seems like just yesterday that Ayden was starting summer school and now another six weeks have come and gone.

Ah… life has just been good lately!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Walking with Dinosaurs

My mom is spoiling my son for this birthday this year and taking him to the Walking With Dinosaurs show in Green Bay this Wednesday night. Not only does he get his present early, but he’s going to see something totally cool! This is a show with 15 life sized dinosaurs!

Okay, maybe not cool to everyone, but I KNOW that Ayden is going to flip when he finds out what it is! He’s recently really gotten into dinosaurs again and we’ve been watching one of the three Jurassic Park movies at least every day and he reenacts them with his dinosaurs and legos at home, its crazy! I’d give anything to see the look on his face when he finds out where they are going!

He knows he’s getting his present on Wednesday and he knows it is in Green Bay, but that is it. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was at least a little big jealous that my mom is taking him and not me, haha! But she said that she’d have him call afterwards and tell me all about it! Yeah!

At least he’d better want to, I talked to him tonight for a bit and then he didn’t want to talk anymore. I miss my little guy and he’s only been gone for less than 48 hours!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Weekend fun at the cottage!

Last year my aunt and uncle rented a cottage in a town not too far from where we live and invited us over. We had lots of fun and ended up staying longer than we had planned. Jay had asked me a few weeks ago if he thought they had rented the same cottage again this year and I told him that I thought they had already been there and we were busy that weekend. Well, turns out I was both right and wrong. They had been there, but they had also gone again this last weekend and once again this invited us.

On Saturday, Ayden and I left bright and early to travel back ‘home’ because we were meeting up with one of my friends from grade school that I hadn’t seen in a few months and her little guy. We were going to have a picnic lunch and then she was going to show me her new house. Unfortunately the weather had other plans and we ended up meeting at Mickey D’s and let the kids play there and had lunch there. Afterwards we went to her house and I got the tour and the boys played together for a few hours while my friend and I caught up. It was a nice time and it sucks that we don’t live closer, but I’m just happy we are still as close as we are!

After that I went to drop Ayden off at Jay’s grandparent’s house because they were going to watch him as I headed home. Jay was at a golf tournament all day with his family and a friend and they had plans to go to the after party and so forth so I wasn’t going to sit at his parent’s house all day with Ayden when no one else was going to be there. Instead, Ayden was going to spend the afternoon at great grandma and grandpa’s house before ending up with Jay’s parents that night. From what I heard, Ayden had a great time and caught like seven fish off of the pier. He was fine when I left as well. We are very close with Jay’s grandparents (both sides- although we see his mom’s parents more often because the family is smaller) and for that I am grateful. I and probably mentioned this before, in fact I am almost certain of it, but I feel closer to his grandparents than mine.

In any case, after I dropped Ayden off, I headed back towards Point and stopped off at the cottage my aunt and uncle were at. Just so happened that it was them, their two kids, my dad, brother, sisters (after almost six years it is still weird to say sisters- usually I say my sister and Alexis), another aunt and her two kids, and another aunt and two of her three kids. Lots of people and lots of fun!

Here are some pictures of the fun all of the cousins were having on the lake. I thought about joining them, but the water was too cold for me and then who would have taken the pictures? Hehe!

My brother and two of my cousins attempting to make it out to the raft/platform out in the lake on a tube since there was a lot of seaweed right next to the pier and no one wanted to get in and swim in it out to the platform. Once you got out to the platform there was a LOT less seaweed! IMG_8915Two of my cousins jumping off the platform! The water was pretty deep so most of the kids wore life jackets.IMG_8946Alexis venturing out to the platform! I was surprised my dad let her go out there without him since last year he wouldn’t let go of her even though she had a life jacket on. She did great and the big kids kept their eyes on her, especially my sister Emily and my brother. She wasn’t going anywhere and she jumped in just as much as everyone else. She’s a fish just like Ayden. He would have had so much fun with these guys, but it didn’t pay for me to drive halfway back to Point, turn around at the end of the day to bring him back to Jay’s parent’s and then drive back to Point myself. He doesn’t know what he missed though since he didn’t know I was going.IMG_8957My sister being pushed off the platform by another cousin. It was hilarious!IMG_8990 IMG_8994See what I was saying about Alexis having just as much fun?! She let Emily and my cousin, Ryan, throw her off the platform!IMG_8999The big boys trying to all stand up on the tube, they made it for about two seconds!!!IMG_9029The girls totally beat the boys!IMG_9060Rosie, Tyler, Ryan, Alexis, and Emily!IMG_9077Everyone having fun on the tube! Don’t know where they thought we were going to go though!IMG_9092A bald eagle we saw flying over the lake! Wish I had a higher power zoom lens to get even closer, but oh well… I did what I could and thought they turned out pretty well!IMG_9079 IMG_9081 IMG_9104IMG_9082 IMG_9086IMG_9093 IMG_9103More later… I slept like crap last night, so its time to take advantage of having no kiddo at home and my ability to nap.

CIAO! LOVE ME!