A First Camping Trip

Jonah and Rees went on their first camping trip!!! 

 They were SO EXCITED as we made all the preparations to go away for the weekend!!

Our favorite place to go camping is in Green County, Wisconsin ... land of rolling hills, amish farms and everything GREEN  ... oh, and CHEESE galore!

We ALWAYS stop at our favorite cheese factory in Monroe, ... the Alp and Dell.  They have a wonderful selection of cheese and tasting samples of many of the various cheeses.  Our kids L-O-V-E cheese tasting!  ...  well, except for Jonah.  

At this point, he does NOT like cheese but we are confident that he will eventually love cheese as much as the rest of us.

CHEESE IS LIFE!!!

Our camping destination is Yellowstone Lake State Park just outside of Argyle, Wisconsin.

We started going to Yellowstone Lake about eight years ago.  Molly and Brynn's faces seemed to be mosquito magnets and their bites would be so bad that their eyes would often swell shut.  We heard about the Park because of their reputation for being home to thousands of bats.  The bats help to keep down the insect population.  Well, we decided to give the park a try and amazingly their was virtually NO MOSQUITOS!!  The beauty of the area was an added bonus!!

As dusk is approaching, we stand outside the houses and listen carefully.  When we could actually hear the bats inside ... Rees said, "they waking up and get a dressed."  Oh my, I love that boy!  

As it gets even darker, we witnessed the bats coming out of the houses.  It's pretty amazing to watch as they fly out and swoop through the air and into the woods to find their feasts.

My Chinese Dumplings ...

Take a look at this happy little guy!  

How do you think he looks?  Can you see the amazing change that is taking place in his face?

We continue to turn Jonah's palate expander each day and the bands that he is wearing with his appliances are helping to relocate his teeth into their appropriate spaces.

It has become quite difficult to understand when Jonah speaks, which is due to the fact that everything inside his mouth is in a different place.  He will begin speech therapy next week and he will hopefully be on his way to improved speech. 

Our fishing adventures for the weekend were mostly uneventful ... BUT ... the kids had a good time trying to catch a fish!

Molly was our only fish-catcher for the weekend.  She caught one fish, we think it was a crappie ... it was a good one ... but we still threw it back.

Brynn was a little bummed that she did not catch any fish. 

She did get the opportunity to touch a fish, though ... from someone else's catch.

Jonah was brave enough to touch the fish too ... but Rees decided to look only with his eyes.

The first camping trip with our newest boys was a bit bumpy in spots but there were some very special moments ... this was one of them ...

Ahhh ... and so was this ... 

We took our traditional drive over to New Glarus, a delightful town founded by early Swiss settlers, now an obvious attraction to tourists.  We usually stroll over to the Maple Leaf for an ice cream cone ... 

... however, we'd also like to point out (if you happen to go to New Glarus) that we regretfully forgot about this newer establishment ... Kennedy's Ice Cream and Grill.  

It's just a block away from the New Glarus Tourism Center and it has the same ice cream at a lower price, from what we can remember.  We realized our forgetfulness when we walked over to the Tourism Center (to use the public restrooms located just outside the building).

Rees and Baba took it upon themselves to play a little "scare-you-around-the-corner" game while we waited.

It was a nice weekend all in all.  Jonah and Rees had a fantastic time and would have been happy to stay there living in our camper forever, I think.  They did not understand why we had to go back home ... but they reluctantly went along with it. They are very much looking forward to our next camping trip!