All Hail the Moms of the world!

Mother's day. The day we all say thanks to mom.  Lately I have been thinking about motherhood. Not so much for me but more in the sense of "I don't know how you mother's do it!"  I am not a mother (except in the eyes of my cats Felix and Duncan)  and I still often struggle with fitting in all the things that need to get done in life!  My question to all mothers is How the heck do you do it???????  Let's face it, Mom's tend to be the ones who really keep it all together. No offense to the Dad's!  I know many fathers who are fantastic.  But as I have conversations with many women in my life who are mothers they seem to be the ones who are keeping track of the schedule, carting people to and fro,  making sure there is food in the house for all the picky eaters,  getting clothes and supplies everyone needs (sometimes including the husbands!)  making dinner, keeping up with the laundry, getting everyone to the doctor when they need it, etc the list goes on and on and on. 

So I say to the mother's of the world,  I take a bow to you, because this childless individual does not know how you fit so much into one day.  I of course thank my own mother for all her time and love in doing these very things, but I also say to you, mothers I know and those that I don't,  YOU ROCK!


A bit off the subject, but  somewhat mom related:

This morning I had the sliding glass door open in my living room to let in some fresh air.  The screen was closed but sometime back the lock broke.  Now I have some rather smart cats and at times they have figured out how to open screen door (the jump up on it a few times until it slides over a bit each time).  I left the living room for just a few minutes to get something and when I came down the stairs I saw the screen door open just enough for a cat body to get through.  At first I was be a bit frantic, but I was amazed to see not only was one of my cats (Felix) still in the house, he was staring up the stairs at me as if he was waiting for me to come down before he would attempt to go out.  Even more amazing was that Ducan, my black cat, was just outside the screen door staring in at me as if he was waiting for me to come and join him.  He saw me coming and still when I stepped out the door he just meowed as if to say " Its about time mom, lets go!" 

I don't know if they were waiting or me but I have noticied that they don't really like to go outstide without me so maybe they didn't think it was okay unless I was there!  Or could they just have been behaving because it's mother's day? 

Girls just want to have fun

"Oh girls just want to have fun"  That is what this girl got to do this past weekend.  I hopped in my car and drove two and a half hours north of Chicago to the Wisconsin Dells to meet up with my childhood friend Sonya, her daughters, two of Sonya's adult friends and their 4 daughthers, That's right 10 females together ready to laugh, eat and spend time on a waterslide.

I started the weekend by first meeting up with a friend from work as she lives nearby the Dells.  We had a nice lunch and then decided we needed to check out the local Casino - Ho-Chunk.  I did pretty well actually.  At least I always say I do well when I come home even or a winner. In this case,  I broke even.  Good enough for me!

After the gambling my work friend heading home and I headed to the Wilderness Territory Hotel and Resort to meet up with my friends.  Upon arrival we promptly headed to the indoor water parks.  There are 3 of them and plenty to keep us happy.  We had a great time. 

My friend was lucky enough to get a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom two story condo equipped with a full kitchen, washer/dryer and a nice screened in patio for our group of ten and we used it all.  We brought our own food to save on money and all took turns cooking and cleaning.  Such a great plan for a big group!

On Saturday we started the morning with a visit to their in-house pottery place and made our own pottery creations.  Here is a photo of mine BEFORE it got painted:


After we finished our creations we headed back to the waterparks.  Then in the afternoon it was time to get out of those suits to see the real reason the Dells exsist and take a boat tour of the Wisconsin Dells themselves. For anyone who might not know what the Dells are here is a brief history lesson :  The Dells (term used in the singular) was formed during the last ice age approximately 15,000 years ago. During the ice age it was part of the large Driftless Area that was bypassed by the ice. The melting of the glacier formed Glacial Lake Wisconsin. The lake was held back by an ice dam of the remaining glacier. The eventual bursting of the ice dam unleashed a catastrophic flood, dropping the lake's depth to 50 feet (15 m) and cutting deep, narrow gorges and unusual rock formations into the sandstone.

So  you can understand what this says here are some photos from the tour.  The one with the walkway was part of the walking tour. It was really amazing to walk through these tunnels of cool looking rock formations.  I highly recommend the tour if you are ever in the Dells!

One part of the tour has a very special part in that one of the rocks formed in an interesting way, like a tower on its own.  For many years people of jumped from the main rock to this tower and back.  So now they have dog that jumps it ( no worries it was a cinch for the dog and they had a net) So I caught of picture of the dog in the act:
 
 

And here is a photo of the whole group of us enjoying our tour:

After the dells tour we spent some time browsing the local shops and stopped for some yummy chocolate. Then it was time for dinner and one more trip back to the  waterparks. 

On Monday we packed up and headed back to our homes. I had a great time and met some wonderful people.