Family vacation

Our original plan was to take the kids to South Carolina this year for a week's vacation, but when those plans didn't work out we decided on splitting up our vacation into a few days each week and heading to a few places on our bucket list for the summer that we hadn't yet made it to - Bay Beach and Wisconsin Dells.  

We had lots of fun!!

First, it was off to Bay Beach

Alex's first merry go round

The wait for the train was LONG

But once we were on we loved it!

Next we headed to the kiddy rides

Helicopters!!

Boats

Alex took a great nap in his stroller while sissy enjoyed all the short lines on the kiddy rides

Ladybug

Weee

Mommy and sissy headed to the top of the big slide

Wow, it's high up here!

Daddy and Bubbers watched us from the bottom

She was pretty excited to be tall enough to ride the scrambler!!

I was surprised at how brave she was - she loved it!!  And she kept yelling at me to stop holding on to her.  Lol.

That night we spent the night at Oma and Papa's and this guy got the full spa treatment from Oma.

We were hoping to go to the zoo with daddy, but it rained on the way back.  We did get to meet up with Brook and the kiddos for the zoo that week.  

We finally went to check out Stonefire Pizza, too - Makenna loved the rides.

And me and Bubbers worked on our game.

Makenna actually did pretty good at baskeball too.  

I schooled Daddy, even with Alex strapped on.  He, of course, wouldn't be beat so he spent all our tokens until he finally beat me out by one.  Lil bugger.

Uh oh, standing in the tub.

Trouble.

Enjoying our last morning snuggles before she starts 4k

Love these 2!

Part 2:  Trip to the Dells

Well, our trip didn't quite start out as planned.  We had some car troubles and had to drive back home over an hour to switch cars.

Thankfully Daddy could drop me and Alex off at the outlet malls to do a little shopping while he and Makenna drove back home. 

Once we finally got to the Dells, this little one couldn't strip down fast enough - she was ready to swim!!

Let's do it!  Her exact words - This is Super Duper Awesome!!

After a long day, these two crashed and slept great all night!

The next day we walked around the downtown Dells.

Had some fun

And when we got back it was time for a little mommy Kenna GIRL time!

All the outdoor pools closed on Labor Day but we found this one that they had open.  Score!

She really needs to learn how to stand on her tippy toes.

Alex even joined in on the waterpark fun once he woke up from his nap.

Exploring "Chicken-man"

She LOVED the slides this year!

They have a really pretty river walk outside the hotel so we went for a stroll and I got some sweet pics.

Time for one last swim before we head home!!

What a great couple of trips!!  Now it is back to our new routine - school for Makenna, a new sitter for Alex one day a week and back to work for Mommy and Daddy.

What a fun summer!!

Twas the night before 4k....

Where oh where does the time go?  5 years ago on this very night your daddy and I sat in our living room with 20 of our closest friends and family and prayed over you.  It was the night before your frozen embryo transfer.  We praised God for the journey He had planned for you from the very beginning.  We prayed that as the doctors prepared to thaw you out after being frozen for 3 years, you would not only survive the thaw but you would hold on so tight to your mama's belly and grow, grow, grow.

I still remember that night so very clearly - we were at our old house - I can actually remember where most people were sitting, jammed into our living room.  Tears flowed down my cheeks as I wondered if God would finally answer our prayers for a baby.  As I looked around the room, I remember thinking that God' plan was perfect - that each of these people here He had brought into our lives for a reason - some we would have never known had it not been for our struggles with infertility.  They were definitely the toughest years of our lives, but brought us so many blessings - a deeper relationship with God, so many new friends, a greater appreciation for what it means to finally be a mama and of course - 2 sweet, sweet babies.

So much has changed in 5 years.  New house, new baby brother, new challenges, new milestones - yet so much stays the same.  God is still in charge.  God still has an awesome plan for your life, little girl.  So as I sit here wondering where time went and how I will feel seeing you get on that bus all by yourself tomorrow, I know God is in charge.  I know He will take care of you.  My job is the same as it was 5 years ago - to pray like crazy, do everything I can to help you to grow and trust that God will do the rest.

As for you, you are so very ready for 4k.  Today you were a little disappointed that you can only go for a half day - you really want to go all day long.  For now, sweet girl, you are still mine in the afternoons.  You are mine to love on, mine to be silly with, mine to snuggle with, mine to dance with and mine to play with - for one more year.  So as you dream tonight about your 4k adventures, this mama is praising God for that answer to prayer 5 years ago and praying that the next 5 don't go quite so fast!!

I love you, Makenna Lee!  You really are our "gift of happiness" and I pray that God would use you as you go out into the world (ok, maybe just 4k - but that feels like a big old world to me tonight;)) you would continue to do what you are so good at - bringing smiles to people's faces - that you would be a gift of happiness to everyone you meet.

Ok, she is NOT as big as she looks in this picture, right?!

Sweet dreams my little 4k-er, Sweet dreams....

And Happy 5 year Thaw-versary:)

Our ALS challenge!

Brad and Makenna were nominated by our sweet neighbors - Phil Koch and Maddie Koch.  They whole heartedly accepted the challenge, in fact Makenna has been watching videos of everyone else's challenges tonight in preparation. 

They nominate Cliffy Janssen (Papa) and cousins (Drew, Madison and Bryce-man)

I'll admit I knew little about this disease before all this awareness and I'm thankful that this campaign is doing such a great job educating!  Maddie's grandpa (Phil's dad) passed away from this horrible disease 2 years ago so I know the cause is near and dear to their hearts.  Rather than just accept the challenge and move on, we'd like to donate to the cause as well.  

As many of you know, these sweet kiddos wouldn't be here without the miracle of embryo adoption. 

Makenna (and our angel baby)

Alex

As a result, we try hard to make sure any cause we are donating to doesn't use embryos for their research. We are thankful that many organizations are finding that adult stem cells are just as, if not more useful, than embryonic stem cells and we've found a study that is being done at the Mayo Clinic that uses adult stem cells and have decided to donate here:

 http://www.mayo.edu/research/labs/regenerative-neurobiology/projects/therapy-amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als

Let's beat this ugly disease!!

*Who noticed Alex crawling away towards the neighbor's dog in this video?!?!  LoL!