Flake-Out Fest

This last weekend we went up to Wisconsin Dells for their annual Flake-Out Festival. We love going to this but not because of the festivities. Matt’s family comes down from St. Paul, MN and meets us. We get to spend the whole weekend together.

This year we rented a cabin that had 4 bedrooms, and we all stayed together. The people who came were my sister-in-law Onie, my niece Amy, her husband Rand, their daughter Frannie and us. We had such a wonderful time together.

We got up there on Friday afternoon and it was –4 degrees. On Saturday it was more like –10 so we kind of decided to forget the festival for the day and just hung out at the cabin. The girls were playing and no one really wanted to go out when it was so cold. We sat around and ate chili cheese dip, played board games, and took turns taking naps. We had decided that we were going to go to the restaurant on the property because they had a prime rib special on Saturday nights. So we bundled up and took the 2-minute walk to the restaurant. On the way, we played a little and took pictures in the snow. After we got back the girls got into the jacuzzi tub.

Sunday was our last day so after breakfast and packing up; we bundled up again and hit the fest. It was really nice, outside they had snow sculptures, blacksmith demos, and pony rides. Inside a heated tent, they had entertainment and concessions. And inside a large building (once again heated) there was a craft fair and arts and crafts for the kids. Emerson even participated in a snowball-eating contest. They timed her to see how much of a hostess snowball she could eat in 15 seconds and then they gave her a ribbon. All the girls decorated paper mittens with glitter and cutouts. After the festival we all went over to the mall and the girls each got a bear at Build-A-Bear. Emerson got a monkey named Michael, Frannie got a dog named Biscuit, and Vivi got a rabbit named Happy. When they were picking out sounds for their animals, Vivi insisted that she have the monkey sound in her rabbit, so it’s now a monkeyrabbit.

Then it was time to say goodbye with a promise that we will see each other soon.

I wish the ride home were as wonderful as the rest of the weekend!!! We got on the road and after about an hour and a half, Matt realized that we forgot his other coat back at the cabin. He remembered that he had a bunch of stuff in his pocket that he was really going to need, so we had to go back and get it. We got off of the expressway and back on going the other direction when…BAM!!!!! We had a blowout!! Poor Matt started to walk back to the exit to a service station and a policeman showed up and told him that the service station was closed for remodeling. The policeman gave us a number to a tow truck and we sat on the side of the road until he showed up. The tow truck came with 2 trucks, 1 to tow the car, and the other towed the girls and I. We went around to the Farm and Fleet and they put on a new tire. After that was all said and done, we still had to get back to the Dells to pick up Matt’s coat. By the time we got home it was really late and we were all exhausted. (At least Matt and I were, the girls slept through most of our little adventure)

I can’t say that the end of our trip ruined the rest of the trip for us, it’s just we can’t do anything the uneventful way.

I didn’t forget about pink hair pictures, I’ll get them up there soon.