Mini-Vacation Part 1

Brian and I planned a mini-vacation for the kids over this winter break. Just a couple of days, jammed packed with fun stuff for energetic boys. The best part was that we kept it a surprise, all of it, they found things out on a need to know basis. So, I packed us up for a night at the Milwaukee Hilton City Center, located right downtown. The view was awesome. We left our house and told the boys we were going shopping, they were not excited to leave their Lego creations behind. They watched a movie on the way down and Haley slept. When we parked they had lots of questions, Brian went and pulled out the suitcases and they were so excited that we going to sleep in a hotel, and maybe the hotel had a pool :) The reason we chose this hotel was that they have a waterpark in the hotel! The boys could not believe it, they couldn't wait to go down waterslides, play basketball and go into the humongous hot tub. Needless to say we had a wonderful time spending hours and hours swimming and turning into prune-like creatures. I still can smell chlorine. Here are some pictures of our fantastic time!

This is the view from our room. I think we were in it for 3 minutes, just enough time to change into our suits, before heading down to the waterpark.

Haley's favorite part of our hotel room was the mirrored closet with sliding doors. She would hide inside the closet and close the doors, getting some quiet time to herself. Haley also needed to check herself out in her swimsuit before heading down to the pool. Such a girl.

You can tell by the smiles that the boys are VERY excited to be at the waterpark. Tyler is in front and Jacob is behind.

Little miss Haley liked the zero-depth entry and would just walk in and out of the pool.

Big muscled man Tyler conquered the lillypad/monkey bars with gusto.

Water spouts and water canons were a big hit with all the kids.

Our family

Jacob showing off his toothless grin!

I took Haley down one of the "big kid" slides and she wasn't too sure about the whole thing.

Blue eyes is giving daddy the sad eyes after her slide experience.

We had a wonderful, wonderful family time and can't wait till we can do it again!!!!

Check that off the list....

I think I have a problem, I am addicted to blogging. Seriously, I think it's like when the boys get a new toy and play with it non-stop for the first few days then it starts to collect dust during the month of February. As it might be with me for blogging, but for now, I am loving it! Brian and the boys have Christmas vacation this next week so we have been planning things that we always say we are going to do but then don't. Thus, our Christmas vacation bucket list...we can check off feeding the ducks.
You can spot Brian pulling the boys on their sleds up and down the street after every snowfall. What a good dad. Here he is pulling them on our way up the street to feed the ducks.

The boys were really excited to feed the ducks but the ducks weren't so sure about us.

Tyler was very worried about the ducks. He wanted to make sure that all his bread would not go to waste. The ducks made alot of noise which thrilled Haley.

This is the first time that Haley went out in the snow. She wasn't so sure about it, especially when you have two big brothers pushing in it. The expression on her face tells you that Brian and I are in trouble when she is 16! On a side note, she would not take off her snowpants when we got inside, the pink powder puff likes things her way :)

No ordinary Sunday!

After church today we decided to drive by a new children's play place (www.famfunland.com)
in town just to peek in the windows and find out how much it would set us back to visit. I walked in alittle after they had opened the doors to find a brand new (3 weeks open) facility filled with bright lights and noises to tempt even the biggest kids at heart to stay and play for awhile. As I walked back to the van I new that we would be staying and playing, the cost was very reasonable and looked like super fun! There were three huge rooms, one was a food cafeteria equipped to make us burgers, fries, hotdogs, and chicken nuggets that we indulged in for lunch. A room filled with video games, including air hockey and skee ball (my personal favorite!) The final room had a built up jungle gym for big kids and a mini-sized one for 3 and under and a couple of inflatables. We spent 3 hours earning prize tickets, eating lunch and letting the kids burn all that winter blues energy. We will definitely be back, soon!!!!

Haley loved her "just my size" play area.

This is a picture of the 3 and under section. The play thing for the boys was like this, just jumbo sized! Of course we didn't have our camera when we needed it, so these pictures are from Brian's phone. What would we do without our cell phones!

Happy Birthday Brian!

Happy Birthday hubby! The boys helped Brian blow out his candles on his cake as he turned 34 today. And as my mom said, "one more year and he's half-way to 40!" I love to give him grief about his age since I am younger than him by a year, or so. So for the next 4 months I get to be 32, the younger woman, to my older man! The day went great we had family over for lunch followed by cake and ice cream.

Tyler picked out this very unique neon yellow watch for daddy. A must have for all dads :)

Jacob was very proud of his gift to daddy, a FM only radio with earbuds! Oooohhh!
(Also noteworthy is the yellow neon watch!)

Haley enjoyed rocking with ALL her babies, Grandma Gail, and cousin Izzy (pink stripes.) They all rocked for a long time with Haley patting Izzy's head and snug as bugs.

Grandpa Andy and Grandma Gail with the four grandkids. Such a beautiful group!

What a cool picture to see my kids with my parents makes me smile. And then I think about how fast the time goes by. I remember when the boys were babies, looking just like Isabella. Now, they are the big kids, the big brothers, and the big cousins. Oh, now I feel old.

Happy Birthday Brian!

You are just as young as you were when we met, just as wonderful a man, and I am just so happy to have the rest of our lives to get old together.

Merry Day After Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas Day! Jacob and Tyler got everything their hearts desired, including an electric guitar for Tyler and a drum set for Jacob. They have been asking for these instruments since last year x-mas. Brian and I were hoping that it was just a phase and we would never have to have a garage band in our living room. Nope. The one and only important present from Santa was an electric guitar (Tyler calls it a "rock guitar") with built in amp for volume. And Jacob wanted a drum set with one cymbl, drumsticks and a stool. A tall order for Santa this year, but he came through and also came through for me as Santa brought me earplugs!

Tyler rockin' out with his ruby red guitar!

"A one, two, three, four" Jacob leading the band.

So with tongues poised in fierce concentration some serious strumming and drumming have filled all the quiet space in my house. But none the less, The Benes Brothers Band has been formed.

Off to Grandma's house we go....Haley would like more taco dip, please!


Here is my sister, Elizabeth, with her daughter, baby Isabella -2 months old- cutie!!!

Ready, quick take the picture! We just need one picture, pleeesse!

Haley and daddy take an afternoon break. Who wouldn't love to snuggle her!

Grandma and Haley get some quiet time.

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas day and it went all too fast. I have been preparing for Christmas since before November and it all ended so quickly. We have wonderful memories to reflect on and lots of toys to play with. I hope everyone also had a wonderful holiday and great memories to cherish.

Christmas Eve and more snow!

Snow, snow, snow! It feels like it has been snowing for days (oh, it has!) Brian and the boys love to get out and clean the driveway. We have huge mountains of snow and the boys just love it. They have built lots of tunnels and belly slides. It is a boys dream. Today was in the 30's and snowing. They were outside forever just burning off that crazy energy.


We also made our second batch of sugar cookies. The first batch we ate too fast and we desperately needed cookies for Santa :) Here are my goofballs trying to focus on cookie cutouts but so giddy that Christmas is here. (Nice pants pulled up to armpits!) Welcome to my fun house.

Not to be outdone by her brothers. And yes, that is a steering wheel cover posing as a necklace.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Look at us!

Well it finally happened, we have joined the blogging community! I am not truly sure what that means but I am learning. Brian and I decided that we would start a blog so that we can share pictures and daily drama of our family with those who are close to us and those who are far away. So, without further introductions, I give you the crazy week of Christmas in our house...

The boys are officially on Christmas vacation. They had a wonderful Christmas party at school and ate lots of sugar then came home to not want to eat lunch. The bitter cold is going to keep us indoors today as we gear up for more snow this week. But our backyard looks so beautiful with 14 inches of drifting snow. Lots of cookies to make and sample and presents to wrap but we like to take time out to dance to our favorite x-mas songs. I am going to try to figure out how to do pictures, so be patient. There coming.
Stay warm today!