Water Park Capital of the World

I started this post forever ago, and I am determined to finally get it up!

This summer Nick's cousin got married, so instead of having a summer vacation we headed to Chicago.  I love going to to Chicago, and it is so different than Texas.  We decided that since we were headed up that way we would go ahead and make it a vacation by going to Wisconsin too!

We got Mason his own suitcase, and he absolutely loved it!

He was a complete rockstar on both of our flights and stayed in his seat like a champ.

We were able to have a date night in the city!  We went to RPM Italian, Giuliana and Bill Rancic's restaurant, and it was the best Italian food I have ever had!

We were there for the fourth of July, and got to see amazing firework shows!

This was right outside our hotel window!  It was gorgeous to watch, and Mason loved it!

At the wedding, Mason was a dancing machine.  He didn't want to leave the dance floor, and at one point he had a circle of people around him cheering him on!

How cute is he?!

Of course, afterwards he was one tired boy!

After the wedding, we drove to Wisconsin.  We came across this antique electric trolley that is still running.  With Mason's love for trains, we knew we had to ride!

We stayed in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.  Our first stop was a deer park.  They had lots of animals, but the highlight is several different types of deer just wandering around, coming up to you, and eating from you.

It was so much more fun than we expected, and we all had a blast!

Of course, we had to ride the duck boats!  Mason was obsessed with them by the time we left!

We also did a boat tour of the Wisconsin River, which made some awesome stops for us to check out caverns.

Mason fell asleep on almost everything we did since we were go, go, go and didn't always stop for nap time.

I got off the boat and walked with the guide, but if you look close you can see Nick and Mason on the top of the boat.

One tired baby!

He fell asleep on our horse drawn carriage ride through caverns too!

So, we went to play putt-putt.  It was in the hills along the Wisconsin River and was beautiful.  The place also had tons of other things to do as well.  They told us there was a little roller coaster that Mason was tall enough for, so we got tickets and were excited to give it a go.

Come to find out it was this huge drop into water and there were multiple drops that got steeper and steeper.  Um, who says it's ok for toddlers to go on this?!  Needless to say, as we were going up and up I was freaking out telling Nick to squeeze Mason as tight as he could!  In the end, Mason was smiling ear to ear, and we were all soaking wet.  However, I was completely shocked that we had just taken our two year old on this crazy ride!

Bumper boats were a huge hit!  The boys ganged up on me with daddy driving and mason shooting the water gun at me.

Putt-Putt pro

We had a great few days in Wisconsin, and I'm glad we got to do something that Nick did as a kid!

Mason and his Super Grandma!  Instead of great grandma,  Mason calls Nick's grandma Super Grandma.  She loves it, and Mason is just crazy about her!

Mason turns 2!

You hear it all the time, people say it constantly, and it couldn't be any more true!  The last two years have flown by, and I can't believe that my tiny 6 lb. baby turned into a two year old!  He is without a doubt the love of our lives, our light, our joy, and more than we ever expected.  I truly can't imagine a world without him in it nor would I ever want to.  Mason Rhys, we absolutely love you!

Here is a how we spent his actual birthday, just the three of us.  There are lots of pictures so prepare yourself.

 The night of his party, once everyone had left, we pulled out our gift to him.  A train table!  He was beyond excited and started playing right away.  Putting him to bed was near impossible.

Mason's actual birthday was on Sunday which was also Father's Day.  We started with balloons per tradition.

We got all his balloons ready the night before...

The helium didn't make it over night, so we quickly taped them upside down, and Mason loved it and didn't know the difference!

He loved running through them, and did it over and over again all morning!

Nick then took him to get donuts and let him pick out whatever he wanted!

I wanted to take my boys somewhere that they could both enjoy since it was birthday and Father's Day.  I didn't want Nick to be left out, so I made reservations at the Downtown Aquarium.

Mason and Nick both loved watching the fish, and our table was right in front of the largest aquarium. Mason would say ohhh, wow really loud when a big fish would swim by!

The waiter was fantastic and surprised Mason with a birthday treat!

There was tons for Mason to do, and we all enjoyed getting to do so much together!

Ferris wheel 

Mason has recently developed a fascination with alligators so this was the perfect carousel ride! Afterwards, he went on and on about riding an alligator.

Of course the best part was getting to ride the choo-choo!

What does a puffer fish do? Love my boys!

White tigers

We had a spectacular day, and it is unbelievable what a difference a year can make.  Happy birthday Mason Rhys, you make momma and daddy's world complete!