Chicago 2010....(continued)

On Wednesday Scott, Jill, Mike, Jeff & I got up around 6 am to drive 3 hours to
Wisconsin Dells to go to Noah's Ark, the largest water park in America.

We spent the whole day going on tons & tons of slides.




The very first slide we went on was called Scorpion's Tail.
This is what it looked like.
This was a crazy slide! If you look close, up at the top there is like a glass capsule thing that you
climb inside & they close it around you. You stand with your feet together & arms crossed on
your chest & then the thing counts down...3, 2, 1...& then the floor drops out from under you!
It was pretty intense!
Scott, Mike & Jeff went on it again at the end of the day. Jill & I passed and had a caramel apple instead. :)

After the water park we went to Ponderosa for dinner. Less than 5 minutes after we got inside the
restaurant it started pouring outside! And the guy at the front counter told us the city was on
tornado watch. YIKES!
Such a fun day!
On Thursday we spent the day in Wheaton.
We did some shopping, went to lunch at Chili's & just relaxed. We drove back to the lake & stayed there that night.
On Friday we did some more playing with Dean & Deanna's camera.
Jeff has it strapped to his leg here.

Dean & Deanna skied at the same time with the camera on Dean's head.

We also got Jill up on the wakeboard which was cool because she had never done it
before.

It was so cute, as soon as she'd get up & feel like she was going to fall
she'd scream & then fall. :)


Later that evening some of Mike & Jeff's friends came out to the lake.
We did some more double skiing :)
Jeremy & Jenny did it.

Then Scott & Haley.

On Saturday lots of the family came out & Mike bribed the little girls
with silly bands to go wakeboarding with Jeff & to try out the little kid ski.
Here's Natalie with Jeff.

And Lauren with Jeff.

Natalie on the little kid ski.

Lauren on the little ski.
Once they actually got out there & did it, they loved it & wanted to do it again & again.

Side story about the kid ski.
Earlier in the week we were out on the boat & there was a guy on a waverunner waving us down.
We stopped & he had a rope in his hand that was hooked to something stuck down in the mud.
When he tried to pull it up it kept tipping his waverunner so he asked us to do it.
We hooked the rope to the boat & started going & it pulled up this little kid ski.
It was covered in mud. Who knows how long it was down there or even how it got there. But we got a free little ski. :)

Later in the afternoon, Jeff & I had to go in & pack & get ready to go to the airport.
When we got to the airport they told us it wasn't looking good for us to get on the
flight. They had some people that had missed an earlier flight that had first priority.
We waited until everyone had boarded & there was one seat left.
Jeff's so great & told me to go & he would fly home the next day,
so that I could be at my cousin's homecoming the next day.

We had such a fun trip! Thanks to everyone who made it so great!
We can't wait until next year!

Chicago 2010....(continued)

On Thursday morning we did some more skiing & a little wakeboarding in the
morning.
Melinda was flying home that night, so we let her do everything she wanted to do.
Then Jeff & Mike wanted her & I to try skiing at the same time.
We tried for probably an hour & never got up at the same time.
It was seriously so funny because she would get up & I wouldn't & then the next time I would
get up & she wouldn't. We never once both got up.
By the end, we were laughing so hard that it was pretty pointless to even try anymore.

We had to leave around 3:30 to take her to the airport.
We stopped & took a picture in the corn. I don't really know why, just because it
was everywhere :)

And then we stopped at The Yum Yum Shoppe on the way out because we hadn't made it there yet.

We dropped her off at Midway airport & I was so nervous for her! She had never flown
by herself before & she was flying standby & she hadn't charged her phone & it was
almost dead. I told her to turn it on real quick when she was boarding the plane
to let us know that she got on ok. Did she? No. We didn't hear from her until 11:00
that night when she landed in Salt Lake. I was so worried the whole time! But at least she made it safely.
Dean & Deanna arrived later that night. It's always so fun to see them!
They brought a new toy with them this year that we spent the next week and a half playing with.
It is a little waterproof HD camera/video camera that you can attach to your head or
your chest or the wakeboard/ski....pretty much anywhere you want it. Then it just
goes along with you as you are out there on the water & just kind of gives a different point of view.
We weren't sure how the videos were going to turn out, being jerked around so quickly
behind the boat, but they actually turned out awesome! The videos are super clear & really fun to watch.
I will post some when I get them from Mike.
Here Jeff has the camera strapped to the front of the board.

And here it's on Nathan's head.

The next few days were just a normal weekend at the lake. We spent time with all the
family. I built lots of sand castles with Lauren & Chelsea!

Monday & Tuesday we did more wakeboarding, skiing & tubing.
Tuesday night we went skiing with Jeff's friends on the Illinois river.
The only picture I took was of these little baby coyotes we saw along the side of the river.

To be continued.....

Chicago 2010....(continued)

We waited until Tuesday to try & teach Melinda how to ski because we knew there would finally
be less boats on the lake & we'd have better water.
Here is Jeff giving her some pointers.

She tried quite a few times & I could tell she was getting frustrated, but she just
kept trying & got closer & closer every time.
Once she finally got up, it was easier to get up again.

Then the rest of us did some skiing.

Jill bought a new ski this year that's for girls & I loved it!
It's shorter than the one we had been using & gives us more control of the ski.
I even started trying to cut this year.
This is what it is supposed to look like.

And this is what my little cuts looked like :)

Jeff took a video of me so I could see what I was doing.

I feel like I progressed a lot throughout the trip & was pretty proud of myself :)
I definitely felt more in control out there than I ever have before.
Tuesday was such a nice relaxing day. Scott & Jill were the only ones who came out
so it was fun to spend the day with just them.
Scott barbecued hamburgers & brats for us for dinner & while he was doing that we
went & tried out a new toy that Jeff & Mike bought this year.
The Manta Ray.

If you want to see what this tube does look it up on Youtube.
It flies.
We never got it up though because you had to be going dangerously fast speeds to
get it off the ground.
It was still pretty funny watching Jeff ride it.

Later that evening we went into Wheaton & spent some time at Jeff's parents house
and then went to Buffalo Wild Wings around midnight! Oh so yum!

On Wednesday we took the train into the city.
Here we are waiting for the train.

We walked around downtown a little bit & took some pictures.

Then took this cute little taxi down to the United Center.

Jeff's cousin Scott works for the Bulls & offered to give us a tour!
First he took us down on the floor.

Then down to the locker room.

This is Michael Jordan's old locker!

Then the players lounge.

Then we went up to Scott's office. (Where we found out that they had just signed Carlos Boozer!)

Scott was so nice & gave Melinda & I shirts, hats & pants!

He gave Mike & Jeff shirts & hats also & a deck of cards. (I forgot to take a picture of their stuff.)

After we left the United Center, we walked down to the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower).

It was SO SO hot & humid outside!

We went up to the top & it was so nice because there was hardly anyone there &
we didn't have to wait in any lines!
In case you were wondering, the Willis Tower is 313 Oprah's tall.

And 283 Obama's tall.

In the Sky Box.

I don't really know what I'm looking at, but it's cool to see the city below us.

After leaving the Sears Tower we went to Giordano's for dinner.

It's hard to tell in a picture how thick this thing is.

Then we went back to the Lake House & of course had to put on our new pants & take

some pictures :)

To be continued....