Vacationing in Wisconsin!

This year the annual camping trip with Randy's family was in Wisconsin.  Eight of Margaret and Cletus' kids made it this year. In the back row is Donna, Dale, Bob and Coco.  In the front is Kathy, Randy, Margaret, Joe and Sara (the kids are in age order).

This is all the grandkids that made it the trip.  In the way back, standing, is Eric.  In the middle row is Cody, Madison holding Elenaor, Max holding Luke, Alex, Kelli, Amy holding her son, Hunter.  Front row is Sophia, Julia, Timmy, Parker, George, Oliver and Henry.

Here is the whole gang!

This year we hardly left the resort, which was great! There was a terrific playground everyone enjoyed.  Just look at that big smile.

Two little boys I caught arguing over something, so they didn't want to smile to have their picture taken.  But don't let their frowns fool you, they had a lot of fun that week.

Even Randy joined in the fun and dug a big hole. . .

to bury Timmy in!

Cousins, George, Elenaor, Lukey and Julia (being pulled by Uncle Chris).

Alex, Max, and Sophia greeting Madison on her arrival.  Behind them you can get a look at the patios of the motel sweets, where we hung out visiting and eating quite a bit.One afternoon Dale and Audrey were nice enough to fry all kids of yummy goodies, including twinkies.  While the adults hung out the kids played water balloons,

played on the nearby swings (Oliver and Kelli),

(Timmy),

and played in the sand at the sand volleyball court. (Henry, Parker, and George).

We spent a fair amount of time at the pool. Here's a popsicle break on Monday, the first day we swam. Everyone took a turn getting wet that day.  A smaller group went later in the week. And Friday while I packed our suitcases, Randy took our kids to the pool, with Oliver, Parker and Eric. Where Alex, Max and Sophia played together the best they have maybe ever played, while Henry and Tim puttered around the pool.

There was also lots of fishing to be done. Here Timmy looks on one morning as Randy helps Alex get his pole ready.

Cousin George's birthday was right before our vacation started, so he got a few presents in Wisconsin.  He was nice enought to share his Planes Lego set with all his cousins.  Timmy, Parker, Oliver, Uncle Joe, Henry and George all having fun.

We were so glad to have Grandpa and Grandma Leymaster visit while we were vacationing. They have a trailer in Wisconsin about 3 or 4 hours from where we were staying, so they made the drive up to spend a day and a little with us. (Timmy, my dad, Henry hiding, Sophia, Cheryl holding Luke).

More fun at the park. Sophia, Tim and Oliver.

One morning the resort offered organized games for the kids.  Sophia was the only one who really played from our family. She did the potato sack race,

a race which involved caring a bucket of water on her head that had a whole in the bottom,

and some hula-hooping time.

Lukey decided he'd join in on this game.

Following the games was some food! Roasting hotdogs and then smores.  Here Madison does some grilling beside Aunt Sara who's helping Parker.

Timmy, Grandma and Sophia watching all the grilling.

Randy took Tim down to do a little fishing and Timmy caught a fish!

Randy helping Tim release the fish.

We celebrated the milestone birthdays while we were all together, so Max -10, Eric (Shook) - 30, Randy -40, Dale (Steffen) - 50, and Steve- 60, all got a grey or black cupcake, depending on how old they just turned or were turning.  Everyone sang Happy Birthday before the birthday boys blew out their candles.

Max and Randy with their birthday cupcakes.

Sophie and Maddy.

Dale was nice enough to take Sara and I out with Timmy, Oliver, Sophia, Madison, Henry, George, Parker, and

the two busy, wiggle worms, Lukey and Julia.  We were especially thankful for the very sticky, slimmy, rainbow Twizzlers someone was so kind to give each of the kids as they boarded the pontoon. :)  It was a wild ride.

Much fishing was done.  Here's Alex with one! (Somehow we never got a picture of Henry with one of his fish, but he did catch one.)

Max and Randy ready to catch a big one.

While on vacation we relaxed (like Parker, Eric and Timmy),

ate too much good food, (Julia with her plate full of chips and container of dip Aunt Kathy gave her.)

and just hung out enjoying each other's company.

And hung out a little more like Madison, Donna, Grandma, Sophia and Kathy.  We also had a couple camp fires in front of the motel sweets.  During the afternoon a couple days we sat in the shade of a tree instead of on the patios.  While relaxing on the grass one afternoon the sprinklers got us!  A couple days later Lukey got a sprinkler right in the face.

And no time together is complete without plenty of sword fighting.  Donna and Steve outfitted our bunch with lots of foam swords, which made some very happy kidos.  And although there are no pictures Randy and I were able to do some exploring on a canoe, including a little float through a culvert, with Randy's brother, Dale.  Also, Randy had a day of golf with some brothers and a sister-in-law.  And a couple days we had fun checking out the beach.