Dells Part 2

On the train and ready for a ride

Continuing on from the last post... The following day, we spent a day at Circus World Museum in Baraboo, which was the winter headquarters of the Ringling Bros. circus for many years. Zach and Alex even got to be *in* one of the circus shows, staring as an elephant and a tiger!

That evening, Joe and I escaped..er... went out for date night, enjoying a wonderful dinner at a cafe in downtown Dells and then playing some mini golf.

The next day was "Train Day" with lunch at Buffalo Phil's, which brings out drinks and food to guests via model trains. When they're not carrying food, they deliver smiles with favorite character toys and gadgets like bubble makers. There's also an arcade there, so we had some fun playing games after lunch. From there, we visited our favorite train museum - the Riverside & Great Northern Railway, where Papa and Joe are members.

The final day of the trip, we had fun playing around our resort - go-carts, mini golf (indoor and outdoor) and the outdoor waterpark. We did it all!

Check out all the rest of the pictures in the Dells 2011 photo album .

Dells Part 1

The Vandermarks with Paul Bunyan

The 5 of us took a fantastic family trip to the Wisconsin Dells in August with Grandma Pat and Papa Bob. We stayed in the Glacier Canyon Lodge at the Wilderness Resort, where we were able to enjoy all sorts of fun things - indoor and outdoor waterparks and mini golf, go-carts, arcade games and more. We also visited some of our favorite Dells attractions: the Ducks, the R&GN Railway trains, Mt. Olympus amusement park and Circus Museum.

We took a ton of pictures so I split them into batches. The first couple of days, including some swim time and arcade games at the resort, a WI Duck tour, rides at Mt. Olympus and dinner at Paul Bunyan's Shanty, have been posted to the Dells 2011 photo album. Enjoy!

A big step

Zach and Alex are going to miss Ms Kate,
who taught them for all 16 months
they were at NHA

Just quick post for some fun pics... The big step was Zach and Alex's last day in the Pre-K class at New Horizon, which was celebrated with afternoon treats that we brought in for the class before they said goodbye to their teachers and friends. NHA did a great job getting them ready for their next big step: Kindergarten!

The July-Aug 2011 album has the pics from that day, along with photos from an afternoon at the Stages childrens' theater to see "Annie, Jr." and some family fun at the bowling alley (be sure to check out the video of Alex and Zach getting their groove on  when some dance music started playing for Cosmic Bowling - it's sure to make you smile!)

A year of fun in Pre-K

Alex and Zach in class

Zach and Alex spent the 2010-11 school year, along with the summers before and after, at New Horizon Academy in the Pre-Kindergarten class. They had an absolute blast learning and playing with their friends and their great teachers. Ms. Kate, the room's lead teacher, took pictures of the class frequently and posted them online for the parents to see all the fun things they were doing. I've posted the ones of the boys in the New Horizon - Preschool album. Come in and play!

Parades and picnics

A great day for a picnic!

The July photos in the July-Aug 2011 album feature two events: the annual BBQ Days parade in town and a fantastic day at one of our favorite parks. The BBQ Days parade is always a big hit, esp the bands (check out the video of Alex jamming!). And at Lake Minnetonka Regional Park, we had a blast playing on the playground and playing games and grilling a tasty picnic dinner.

If Dad ran the zoo

Thing 2, Thing 1 and Daddy with the Cat

As I mentioned in the last post, we celebrated Father’s Day by spending a day at the Minnesota Zoo with two of the best dads I know – Joe and my dad, Bob. We even ran into our good friends Robert, Kwo Ue and their daughter, Athena! The zoo is always a great time, but it was extra fun thanks to Seuss on the Loose, an exhibit that featured the artwork of the great Dr. Seuss. Our own Thing 1 and Thing 2 were thrilled!

Papa and Grandma with their
handsome grandsons

The pics from the zoo trip are in the May-June album. Also added to the album are pictures from some Wii bowling, teeball (including team pictures!), a deep-dive during swim lessons, and videos of Z&A talking about a favorite book.

Zach and Alex also reached a big milestone in June: their first ride on big kid bikes! Yeah! They did great – and they were so proud of themselves!

Having a ball so far this summer

Take me out to the ballgame!

June continued to be a busy month in the Vandermark household, starting with a week after Z&A's graduation. It started with a Saturday trip to Target Field for the Accenture Family Social at the Twins game. It was a little ironic being at an Accenture-paid event, given that I was no longer employed by them since I had started a new job at UnitedHealth Group the week before, but you gotta love a free day of family fun! :)

The following day, we celebrated Joe's birthday, highlighted with a special cake he requested - a cream cheese pound cake with strawberry sauce - and a wonderful day spent together as a family.

From there it was all about sports - Zach and Alex started their very first swim lessons (such water babies, they are!) and their first season of full tee-ball. They of course loved every bit of it!

Check out the photos in the May-June album!

The end of the week finished with a Father's Day weekend trip to the MN Zoo (it really was a BUSY week!), but those pictures will be in the next batch uploaded.