My Kalahari Journal

Kalahari - Day One
Well, we made it. Dispite the cold our good old van started and got us to our destination. Rachel almost lost her cookies, her silly mom forgot she gets car sick. The wind was blowing pretty good and there was alot of weaving going on, poor thing, she felt pretty crummy. We stopped and rearranged the seating and all was well. We arrived with 2 hours till check in time and we headed for the water. Tried a few slides, then relaxed in the hot tub. AHHHH.

Kalahari- Day 2
Well, we had our first full day at the Kalahari today. Richard made his day trip to Chicago for INS stuff and all went well, he got back around 4 pm ( thanks again Michele!). So, the we had a girl day. We spent an insane amount of time in the hot tub between slide rides and lazy river rides. While Nan napped Rachel and I did some artsy craftsy stuff and ate some.... chocolate. Our room is right off the lobby so we sat at a table near the Sweet Hut and played cards and did a puzzle, its was good time with my oldest girl. I had a brief moment of panick when after retreiving Hannah I turned around and found that Rachel wasn't by the stroller anymore. She had wandered off to find her turtle Duga's mom, in the little kid area of the water park.....deep breathes deep breathes!!!!! Oh, and did i mention that yesterday when we swam while we waited for our room to be ready that Nan didn't have a swim diaper on. I caught her getting ready to poo just in time, and put her over a trash can I AM NOT KIDDING. So, remember this when she is a high schooler, that her first " potty " experience was over a trash can at the Kalahari, she'll just LOVE that. Tonight I am trying the fudgy truffle , recommended by the woman who makes all the Truffles here.... i told her of my goal to have a truffle each night. And, just as it always does, I met someone here who is from Rhinelander.....a neighbor in fact. She said she was hiding with her husband from winter ( preach it sister!!).

Kalahari Day 3
Ah, where do i begin.....well, i didn't lose anyone and there were no crazy poop experiences.....Nan DID escape from the girls shower room NAKED and ran toward the surfing area ( trying to attract those surfer boys). Its good that everyone here has kids the same age, everyone just laughed about it. Rachel has entered a sort of vacation comma. She wanders as if lost, or overwhelmed, or just tired at this point. Its kinda funny, but also driving me crazy. There was a woman who was obviously preggers at the pool yesterday and today, she mostly sits around and sleeps and drinks ice water ( which i totally understand). Today she was in the hot tub with a guy who I assume is her husband, she was putting on a pretty good show for him. Moaning and groaning about her preggers state and rolling her eyes when he was looking and shutting it off if he looked away. Now lets be honest ladies....we've all done that for one reason or another.....All i could think was " get out of the hot tub miss preggers!". I must be an old married woman......ahhhhh!I conquered all the slides today. Rock on! Then Richard took a turn. Tomorrow we are going to Tommy Bartlet's Robot World and Exploritory.....lots of good stories I am sure!Nothing to earth shattering today. While I was in the wave pool with Rachel ( who will not go on body slides, but will throw herself into the waves and ride them back to shore) I was thinking about the frist time we came to the water park. We had no kids, we came in the summer, we drank A LOT. Hmmmm, how times change. Its good to have kids during these kinds of vacations, and during the Holidays....they bring the magic back. I was thinking about who my girls will be in 5 years....Rachel will be 9 and Hannah will be 6!! It makes me so proud to see the little women that they are becoming. My timid one, who loves to make others feel loved, and my daring one, who loves to make others laugh...I have to mention that bringing breakfast stuff, lunch sandwhichy stuff, and Healthy Choice Dinners has been a relief....no drying the kids off and making them presentable for eating out. No paying out the wahzoo for eating out. More time in the pool, less time making kids behave in a public....We are going to go to the Las Vegas Style place here tomorrow night, its a lot of fun. But its been a relief not to be tied down to eating out constantly.

Kalahari Day 4
our last full day at the Kalahari was a whirl wind. We went to Tommy Bartlet's Robot World in the morning. I had forgotten how totally cool that place is. There are so many fun things to do and see there. Hannah loved the Mirror Room the best, a gazillion Hannah's and better yet, a gazillion mama's!!! Rachel was TERRIFIED of the robots who seemed to lurk behind every corner and wall. Some of them even followed you ( from behind a barrior) and talked to you while you walked. We did get to a more artsy level, and she had fun with some colors and things. She even said " that was fun" when it was all over. For dinner we hit a fun resteraunt at the Kalahari. Its Las Vegas style. We ordered a sample platter of the appetizers, complete with dry ice volcano....the girls LOVED that. Then, before hitting the hay we swam a bit.

Kalahari Day 5
As i write this I am now home, even have the clothes set to wash, all sprayed with Shout no less. At the Kalahari today was there grand opening of their indoor Theme Park. So, in the morning we hit the Water Park, caught some lunch and then walked down to the Theme Park. It was great. There is a Ferris Wheel and Go Carts and a Roller Coaster and a Carousel! Lazer Tag even! The best was the play area they have for kids. Lots of climbing and slides and jumping and then a room for games and crafts off to the side. This is why I was never fully satisfied with the Kalahari, it was just swimming, which little kids get tired of after a while, but now you can have dry land fun to. Hooray! I am sure as I put pics on my blog i'll remeber funny stories, but right now my brain is mush