Crazy Summer...

This summer was not supposed to be the summer that we were off like crazy but somehow things never quite end up as planned. I would have to say that we were gone more than we were home and that the ever so sacred summer days are now numbered. So much for counting down to summer, the countdown to school has made it's presence. As our final major galavant of the summer, we headed back to the one and only great state of Wisconsin! We had a ton of fun as always and the days FLEW by! We had so many fun times again and Marty was extremely happy to get in both games of volleyball and a softball game while we were there.

We spent one whole day at Jellystone in Caledonia, visiting the die hard camping Poehler's and Francis'. The kids had a blast doing endless water balloon wars, jumping on the Jumping Pillow, adventuring off to find Yogi's cave, chasing down Boo Boo, swimming in the water park area, having fun at the parks and making Smores by the campfire! The day flew by and we were all tired our come the end.

Water balloon refill time...
Launching balloons!


Drew having a BLAST jumping on the Jumping Pillow

All six kids jumping away... at least most of Friday we had this all to ourselves. Later on that changed and I heard Saturday was a little crazy!

The next morning it was off to the EAA Airventure airshow, apparently now the largest airshow in the world. We received VIP treatment from Marty's cousin who works for EAA. He drove us around on his golf cart to show us the highlights and provided us with an air conditioned break spot, complete with fully stocked refrigerators of soda, gatorade and water as well as an entire cooler of ice cream treats. Boy were we spoiled. It ended up being the perfect venue to "crash" in when the 40 mph + winds blew in out of nowhere! It completely cooled the day off at that point and made the evening quite enjoyable. We were able to watch the evening airshow which was AMAZING. The airplanes lit up the night sky with either lights or fireworks trailing and shooting out of their wings. We finished off the night by cramming 9 of us on a 4 seater golf cart en route to 2 different parking lots. We laughed so hard, Drew thought we were a bit looney but we sure had fun!

Yes... we waited an hour and a half to go on a 737 Southwest plane, the same kind of plane we fly ALL THE TIME! Madi and Drew thoroughly enjoyed their time in the cockpit though!

This F-18 was super cool. We saw him flying around in formation with another plane and when they split off, he gunned it and believe me the entire airshow heard him! He landed a few minutes later and taxied in to park right where we were standing.

"Gotta" love M&Ms! And I "gotta" love my goofy Drew-Man!

No pictures would do this show justice!

The next day was pretty much the entire purpose of this trip. Marty's dad was being placed on the Memorial Wall at the airshow grounds in Oshkosh. His dad LOVED being a pilot and flying and therefore this was a perfect tribute. The missing man formation flyover was definitely heartfelt for many... After the ceremony, Marty, Madi and Drew all traced his name onto the memorial paper. A huge thanks to Marty's cousin, Trevor, for making this happen in memory of his dad!

The wall!...

Tracing his name...

After the ceremony, we all went back to visit Marty's grandma, had lunch and visited. Tara or Taresey as she is lovingly known as in our house stayed and played with the kids for the rest of the day! Madi and Drew LOVE her... well they love all of those VanStippens!

We finally headed back to Racine later that night and the next day was filled with more fun filled hangouts at Grandma and Grandpa's finished off with the Grand Finale of one Giant Sleepover! I love that all these kiddos, old and young, want to spend the night with Madi and Drew when we are there! We love you Michaela, Hollie, Zach, Hannah, Kaitlyn, Samantha & Caleb! Can't wait for the next time!

So there's the super long post... if only I put this much time into my homework... it would actually be done! :)