Summer Family Vacation 2011

Thank You Jesus for an awesome vacation time with my beautiful family.

Just enjoying being together!

Let's go! On August 19th, we started off for the 3 hour car ride to Chicago. Our first destination for five days and nights would be vistiting Craig and Heidi Kevin's bother, sister-in-law, and their 2 toddler boys.What patient boys!
Dalton and Bentley both did an awesome job riding in our van the whole trip.

The first day we enjoyed going to Navy Pier to watch an air show-
But it was very short lived because a down pour soon soaked us as we ran for cover.

What a switch in the weather as we enjoyed going to the beach the very next day.
How adorable!
Look at all that water!
What a beautiful smile!Venturing out to the water with Daddy.On our fourth day, here came the rain again so we decided to check out the jumper balloons at a gym open for toddlers and moms. Dalton found his favorite one and stuck to it.Bentley was very cheerful patient boy.
Our boys had a great time with their cousins! It didn't matter if we were just taking walks together or reading a bedtime story.

Even though our last full day in Chicago was a hot day, we enjoyed seeing all the animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo.


The gorillas were a big hit with our family. It was pretty neat to see them right up close.

We enjoyed a family picnic before we left Craig Heidi's home.
Daddy's hands were very full sometimes!
Just relaxing and having fun!
One of the most endearing moments for me as a mother is watching my children care for each other.reading together

The last two days of our trip we had a blast staying at the water park in Debuque.
In addition to the water slides, Dalton enjoyed splashing around in the water with Bentley.
Bentley enjoyed splashing around in the water too.playing basketball with Daddy,
and just lounging with daddy.
After his first try going down, Dalton wanted to keep doing more slide.
I enjoyed going down the slides with Dalton as well.
To my amazement, Bentley didn't mind the longer, more agressive slide at all. In fact, it didn't even seem to fase him as he continued sucking his thumb all the way to the end of the slide.
Kevin captured a precious moment at the water park