The Veldmans: The Dells

Here I am again, a little behind. Let's rewind a week and a half ago to March 2nd. Ava and I started our day out a music class. We got home, had lunch, finished packing up the car, and headed to Minneapolis to pick Daddy up from work. We then hit the road for what Ava calls our "trip".

Ava did a great job on the drive which was about 3 1/2 hours. She sang, slept, and had a little snack. When we got there she was ready to go. We hit the water park Friday evening, all day Saturday, and again Sunday morning before we headed home. Ava had more fun in the water than I could have imagined. She even talked Auntie Kim (who is deathly afraid of water) into taking her down the water slides multiple times (thanks Kim for being such a trooper). They had a great area for small children that was only a foot and a half deep so Ava could go down the slides there, walk through the water, play with the fountains, etc. To my surprise, she even liked going down some of the bigger water slides with Nate and me. This girl loves the water! I am unsure however who had more fun...the kids or the grown men! The "boys" went down for a fun filled 2 hours on Saturday while the mommies and kids took a nap. We stayed at Chula Vista in a large condo. There were 5 couples with 4 kids ages 2 and under in this condo. It worked great. It was so nice to be able to take the kids back for a nap, be able to cook our own meals, and have a space where we could gather together to visit and let the kids play.

I went to college with this great group of people, and many years ago we started doing an annual Valleyfair trip. A few years ago we stopped doing it, and decided that this year we should start up the tradition again, only pick a different venue that's a little more family friendly for small children. It was so great to see everybody again, catch up, and see the kids. We are already looking forward to next year!