Saturday, February 4, 2012

Our wonderful Kalahari experience

Six plus years ago, Neil and I and our 3 kids (at the time), along with my sister and her fiance, trucked out to Ohio to Kalahari.  It was such a blast and we absolutely LOVED the atmosphere. 
Melody (9 m/o), Mario (2 y/o), Fone (3-1/2 y/o)

My bil on the boogie board

Neil on the boogie board

Fone and Mario

Neil and I and our 3 oldest


(As you can tell, our family has changed drastically since then - we've doubled in size and the kids and Neil and I have changed a ton as well!) 

Since then, we have gone to other waterparks, but those trips have never even compared to the Kalahari experience.  When you visit a Kalahari waterpark, it is truly like jumping to another world - they have it down to an art of putting you right in the middle of the Kalahari desert!  It's hard to explain how they do it, so I guess I'm telling you that you just have to experience it yourself!!  So, it was such a pleasure to have spent a weekend up in Wisconsin with our kiddos along with Neil's brother and his wife and their children. We rented one of their houses and prepped our kids that we were staying in a house bigger than our own so that it could hold 4 adults and 14 children and it would almost be a "mansion".  They couldn't wait to get there, and then we pull up to this...
Fone was absolutely disgusted and couldn't believe that we had tricked him and were going to stay at a "beat-up, run down, good for nothing, dump house" instead.  Little did he know that visiting Kalahari is all about an experience.  He would soon find out and after being there for 2 nights, he fully understood! 

Here are some pictures of our fun weekend...

enjoying the theater

Pookey and his sweet cousin

Ariel loving the kid lazy river

Melody (top) and 2 of her cousins enjoying the kid lazy river

Pookey chilling out in the kid lazy river

Rub A Dub Dub - boiling 4 girls in the Tub

Ariel and her cousin playing pool

Max and his cousin already addicted to game systems

the 3 oldest boys (Fone and Mario in green and their cousin) - playing DS

Yummy!!  How many kids can you count??

Silly Ariel and her cousin eating dinner

Neil and his brother eating with all the kiddos

Dinner time - Mario, Fone and their cousin

2 sweet nieces enjoying dinner in their beds while watching TV!! 

Fone on the boogie board

Fone getting a lesson on the boogie board

Fone on the boogie board - he did SO good!!

My trickster husband - he would throw the boogie board forward and then catch it

Having way to much fun - he was even able to do a flip and then catch it again! 

Ariel, 2 cousins, and Melody - beautiful girls!!!!!

Pookey playing with his baby cousin

Fone and his cousin

Mario and his cousin

Neil, Melody, Ariel, Max and 2 nieces climbing up the steps for some slides!!

Fone and his cousin finally reached the top to slide down!! 

Fone and his cousin trying to keep the book from crashing down

Pookey and his sweet cousin
Melody, Pookey, and Fone playing in the dry place place

Mario, Pookey, and Fone climbing around in the dry place place

SLIDE!!

ropes obstacle course

Max playing in the dry place place

Melody zip-lining

Pookey and Fone

our whole crew

Mario, Ariel, Max, Melody, Fone and Pookey

tired, sleepy Pookey

tired, sleepy Ariel
tired, sleepy Max

Thank you God for time away from all our schedules and busyness just to be a family!!  
What a blessing vacations like this are!!!