Ellie's first plane trip!

June 6th-10th this year we traveled as a family to Lake Geneva, WI to see my cousin Kayla get married. It was an exhausting but very fun trip. We stayed at a hotel with an indoor waterpark called Timber Ridge Resort, and we met up with my cousin Cameron and his family often who were staying down the hall from us. They had two children even younger than ours, so the eight of us together was a circus!

The flight there went well... for the first two hours. Then both kids just had enough. They spent the second two hours alternately wailing, so we didn't have a single moment of "break" time. It was exhausting, frustrating, and not something I'm looking forward to doing again. Not to mention our 8 bags, 2 carseats, and a stroller that we had to lug around. People would pass us and say, "They have their hands full." No kidding.

Once we got there, though, things improved slightly. We got a free upgrade to a sweet minivan (which led us to ask ourselves, "why don't we have one of these?"), and the kids slept a lot of the way to the hotel. Having a separate bedroom in the hotel made all the difference in the world with how well we all slept, and I was grateful for it after that long day of travel!

Our time there was mostly spent playing in the water (Ellie's first time in a pool!!), hanging with family, and going for walks in Lake Geneva. My dad and Nathan and Lindy (sans kids) also came, which was fun.

The wedding was beautiful and we loved being there, but of course both kids acted up. James started yelling about "MY SNACK!!" during the vows and Ellie just started "talking" a lot during the ceremony. We spent the entire evening chasing James (literally) except for when we were blissfully sitting down to eat and they were strapped in and couldn't move. Needless to say, we called it an early night.

My favorite moments from the trip included:
James and Ellie meeting their great-grandpa and our other relatives
Walking along the quiet shores of Lake Geneva
Eating pizza with Cameron's family
Dancing with the kids
Watching James and Lily (Cameron's little girl) play together in the garden at the wedding
Seeing Eliot cuddling Ellie in the Ergo while she slept
Floating down the lazy river with James for a half hour
Going down the green slide with James (Eliot's memory)
Seeing James's excitement when he watched our plane pull up to the gate

Overall it was a very fun trip and I'm so glad we went. Ellie is a great little traveler... as long as she has her sleep! :-)

Here are our pics from the trip!

Trip to Wisconsin 2013