(I’m listening to “Chrysalis” by S. Carey)
It’s always great to go on vacation and it’s always great to come home. The family and I spent the last 9 days in Wisconsin and Minnesota visiting the in-laws. During this particular stretch of time from June 27-July 6, there’s a lot going on. It’s the wife’s dad’s wife’s birthday, it’s our niece’s birthday, and the 4th of July is sandwiched in between. Lots of celebrations and lots of family get-togethers are had. It’s a fun time to be around. Plus, the wife’s mom and dad both live on lakes so there are always plenty to do with the kids.
The kids. Yes, we brought them along of course. Everyone loves to see Littles and Tiny. Littles is “three and three-quarters,” as she would say, and loves to play with her cousins. She’s a breeze to travel with at this age. She plays independently, stays out of trouble, and when all else fails, you can read her books or put a movie in front of her and she’ll give everyone a break. Tiny, on the other hand, is nuts. She’s 14 months old, walks like a baby deer, puts everything in her mouth, climbs on everything, is in constant motion, and does it all with a huge smile on her face. She’s cute, crazy, and exhausting. It’s like following your drunk friend around at a bar, making sure they don’t do anything stupid; only they don’t know they’re drunk, they don’t know they’re doing stupid things, they don’t understand you when you tell them not to do dumb things, and the more dumb things they do, the better time they’re having!
At home, it’s easy to limit the “damage” Tiny can do. We have our house baby-proofed and she can roam around and do pretty much whatever she wants. No sweat. When we’re somewhere else, that home field advantage goes out the window. We’re worried about stairs, outlets, anything that can be swallowed, etc. In short, the “vacation” becomes a trip. Vacations are relaxing. They’re a time to take a break from the daily routine, a time to unplug, unwind, kick the feet up, avoid responsibility, and chill. Vacations don’t happen with young kids; trips do. That’s because we still have the wonderful responsibility of the kids. Granted, we do get a lot of amazing help from the family, but we’re still ultimately responsible. It’s still a very fun time, but there are different levels of fun.
In fact, about half way through our trip, the wife introduced me to something called, “The Fun Scale.” It’s something she read online and found when Tiny had woke her up at 4:30am. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Without further ado, here’s the fun scale.
Type I Fun – True fun, enjoyable while it’s happening. Good food, snowboarding in powder, margaritas, spending time with old friends, great shows, etc.
Type II Fun – fun only in retrospect, not fun while it’s happening. Things like working out, going to a yoga class, or running a marathon. One time some friends of mine and I hiked a ridge at Schweitzer mountain in Idaho. We hiked this thing for quite a while before we got to a place where we could drop in on our snowboards. Our lungs were burning, we had frozen sweat on our faces, and we were worked. We snowboarded down and at the bottom, one of the guys says, “Anyone want to do that again?” We all did.
Type III Fun – not fun at all, not even in retrospect. As in, “What the hell was I thinking? If I ever consider doing that again, somebody slap some sense into me!”
She brought up the fun scale because there were times on this trip where we had all the types of fun. Type I – seeing family and friends, celebrating birthdays, etc. Type II – having to chase Tiny around everywhere. I remember telling the wife, “I don’t remember doing this with Littles. Was she ever this crazy?” The wife reminded me that we didn’t travel with Littles between the ages of 14 months and 24 months because she wouldn’t have sat still on a plane. We went to Hawaii with my family when Littles was about 18 months. We flew grandma in to take care of Littles because we couldn’t fathom her on a plane for 8 hours. Smart move. Type III – Thinking the 6:30am flight was a smart move. We woke up at 3:00am, got packed and ready to go, then woke the kids up at 4:00am. “They’ll go back to sleep, right?” Wrong. They stayed up the whole time. We almost missed our flight because of the Disneyland line at the Frontier desk and only made it because and angel of a Frontier employee escorted us to the front of the line because our shuttle took FOREVER to get us from the parking lot to the airport. All throughout the rest of the trip we called out what kind of fun we were having. We’d just say, “Type II” or “Type III” or “Type I” and just giggle.
In retrospect, the trip was great and most of it was Type I, but Type II and even Type III definitely happened. With that said, here’s a photo diary of our trip:
Tiny on the 6:30am flight. This “nap” lasted about 5 minutes.
We’re making it to Wisconsin. I’d like to point out that everyone in the car is sleeping, except for me. Thank you 6:30am flight. There’s more Diet Coke in my veins than blood at this point.
This is where I had my bachelor party almost 9 years ago!
The view of the lake at grandma’s cabin in Wisconsin. Very peaceful, especially after a nap.
The previous photo was the view from grandma’s deck. This is what was actually happening on the deck. Can’t turn my back for a second. Crazy climber!
Littles giving me a beat down in “Corn-hole.” All of her yellow bean bags are in the holes, my red ones are not.
It rained a few of the days so we all went shopping in downtown Danbury. Quite the metropolis. It’s like going back in time 30 years. I love it!
First candy necklace for Littles. It’s safe to say she loved it!
The rains cleared up, so the wife and I hit the quads!
They have awesome trails out here. People ride from town to town on these trails and do bar crawls. I think that’s legal here.
Told ya! All signs on the trail point to a bar.
Taking Littles for a ride!
“Here, fishy fishy fishy.”
Getting some stick-time in on a SUP board.
The wife doing some yoga on the SUP. Impressive!
Littles making Tiny laugh. They’re becoming thick as thieves. Pretty soon, they’ll be plotting against us.
Time to hit the lake!
It’s never too early to learn how to drive a boat. Grandpa Ned giving a lesson to Tiny with family friend, Amy, Littles, and Grandma Evie looking on.
Momma and Tiny
Grandma Evie and Littles
Daddy giving Tiny the boat bottle.
Four leaf clover hunting! Success!
All tuckered out. Getting a head rub from grandma…
…and getting books read by grandpa.
When the kids are in bed, mom and dad hit the casino! This started out as a house with a casino in it called “Hole In the Wall” casino. It has now grown to this. In all my years going here, I’ve taken money from it once. I’ve gambled a lot of places and have seen some success, but not at this place. Type III fun indeed.
On our way to Minnesota we drove through a town called Luck. Could have used that at the casino.
We also drove through the town in which the wife and I were married. Siren, Wisconsin. We were married just to the right of the tree in the foreground.
There’s the exact spot we were married! It’s a bit overgrown now.
Minnesota welcomes you! Time to see Grandpa Paul and “Just DeDe.” DeDe is Paul’s wife and when they first got married, the grandkids wanted to know what to call her. She said, “Just DeDe,” so that’s what we call her…Just DeDe. lol
And here’s the view from Grandpa Paul and Just DeDe’s deck. Yep, another lake. There’s 10,000 in Minnesota, so they’re kind of hard to miss.
Here’s the sunrise on the lake. The wife got to see this because Tiny decided she was done sleeping and wanted to see it. 5am wake up call. Type III fun. lol
She’s in a pretty good mood for being up at 5am. They both are!
There’s no better time for a boat ride on the lake than 7am. Oh wait, there is.
Littles decided she wanted to go too, even though she’s not quite awake. Meanwhile, I’m still asleep somewhere.
and we’re all taking a rest in the hammock.
It’s not all about relaxing. I did manage to get a run in and enjoy that Type II fun. Tiny thinks I smell, which is a switch. Usually she’s the one that smells.
Then we went to my brother-in-laws farm. It’s a really cool place. I think it’s about 100 years old and has been in their family since the beginning. In this picture, I’m helping clear out a section of the old barn that will become an events center where weddings will be hosted.
Here’s our nephew, Anton, holding one of their chickens. Mr. Excitement!
There’s lots of room to roam at the farm. This picture is a snapshot of what our life is like…constantly chasing after Tiny. She’s everywhere and into everything.
A good, old-fashioned, 4th of July BBQ at the farm!
Littles wishing everyone a happy 4th from the treehouse. What a great smile. I love this picture of her.
and we can’t ever forget Tiny! She probably has some pebbles in her mouth, but hey, that’s what happens at the farm!
Lighting off fireworks at the farm. This is our friend Angela’s kid, Luka. No, he doesn’t live on the second floor.
This is our friend, Angela. The wife has known her since high school. She teaching her how to use the selfie button on her phone. Mind blown!
Sunset at the farm. Love those midwest views!
We did get to see a lot of family and friends on this trip! I got to meet up with a couple of old friends. This is my good friend, Nate. We met at KCAU, the TV station where we worked at in Sioux City, IA. I lived there from 2001-2004. It was great seeing Nate again. I was also able to meet up with my college buddy, Jake. No picture of him though.
This is Littles and Just DeDe at the park. I can feel the heat and humidity just looking at this picture. 90 degrees, 90% humidity. Yuck. Type III for sure. That didn’t stop us from playing outside though.
Tiny may be immune to heat and humidity. We’re looking into it. Completely unfazed and having a ball.
First time down a slide! The look on her face is priceless. It turned into a huge smile at the bottom!
Littles drew a flower on the driveway. I’m throwing this in here because this is the first discernible thing she has drawn. We’ve graduated past scribbles!!!
We really enjoy playing games. This is Paul waiting for DeDe to take her turn in Skip-Bo. We beat them in spite of their cheating. 🙂
After cards, the wife and I noticed a high-school party going on across the street. The parents were out of town, so we’d thought we’d go and crash it. We have our booze and are ready to party!
All good things must come to an end. Here we are in the airport getting something to eat before our flight. We found out that Tiny loves her some egg rolls!
Littles is enjoying her crab rangoon!
Now we’re on the plane and ready to go home. Littles is settling in with Beauty and the Beast. She stayed in this position for the entire flight. Note her feet on the tray table.
I think it’s safe to say this is how we all felt after our vacation/trip.
We had a great time with our family and friends. It was so good to see everyone and celebrate so many different things; but, there is something to be said for being home after 9 days away. We had all the types of fun, I, II, and III, and it’s great to be in our own beds, back into our routine, and to have a real changing table. What a trip! Until next time.
Dad vs. Human 
Great job. It’s all fun with the whole family. Kids need a vacation also and it’s great to have them along. We know don’t we? We will do it again. Thanks for sharing your vacation/trip with Mom and Dad and everyone.
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