We spent the past three nights in Wisconsin Dells. It was about a four hour drive without stops, so we arrived there at about 3:00 on Sunday, June 2nd. We were excited to check into our room and get ready to hit the waterparks! We stayed at the Wilderness Resort, which is a huge complex. We were surprised at how big it was. There were four indoor and four outdoor waterparks and several areas of lodging. Our room was very nice! We had a two bedroom condo with a full kitchen; the girls were pretty excited that their room had a bunk bed in it. Our lodging area had an outdoor waterpark right outside of our building, so we headed there first. The weather wasn't super hot, but it was warm enough to be at the outside waterpark anyway! The girls were so eager to get going. They ran around like crazy going down waterslides, climbing across the rope course, riding on tubes, splashing in the water, and of course, swimming. We also floated around the lazy river and went down a tube slide together. They thought it was awesome that our tubes went up an "elevator" (an inclined moving belt) to get back to the start of the tube slide. They were having a blast.
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| The outdoor waterpark from our first night |
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| Olivia & Violet going down water slides |
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| Olivia |
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| Olivia crossing the rope course |
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| Our living room |
On Monday morning, Jamie went golfing. Our resort has its own golf course, which Jamie said is one of the top three courses he's ever played. He saw deer and other wildlife close-up during his round. He really enjoyed it! While he was golfing, the girls and I went to a different indoor waterpark. This one had a wave pool, which the girls thought was pretty cool. It was called the Wild Waterdome, because it had a glass dome around it that allowed the sun to still shine in. It was neat! I convinced the girls to go down a bigger family waterslide with me. We had to climb up a bunch of steps, then we all sat in one big tube and went down. I yelled "Wheeee!" the whole way, but the girls didn't say anything. It was pretty dark so I couldn't see their faces. When we got to the bottom, they both had huge eyes and dazed looks. Violet eventually said she liked it, but we couldn't get them to go down it with us again for the rest of the trip, no matter how hard we tried!
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| The wave pool |
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| Olivia in the wave pool |
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| Taking a break! |
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| Violet in the wave pool |
A little later in the morning, when the weather warmed up a bit, we went to an outside waterpark that was right next to the Waterdome. This is where the girls discovered their favorite waterslide. I went down it with Olivia first on a double tube, and she loved it! Then I went down it with Violet on a double tube and Olivia went down it by herself. They thought it was awesome and kept calling it the "teensy weensy" slide even though it was about the same size as many of the other slides.
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| The girls favorite waterslide: the front green one on the right |
Then we went back to our room for lunch. Daddy was back from golfing, so after lunch we went into town. It was the only nice day we were forecasted to have, so we wanted to do a few things in town while the weather was nice. We went on an Original Wisconsin Ducks tour, which was really neat. This half-land, half-water tour took us through the most scenic parts of the Wisconsin Dells region. We traveled down the Wisconsin River, across a huge sand bar, up Dell Creek, into Lake Delton and through wilderness trails. The Duck boats were originally used by the military. In the midst of World War II, allied commanders preparing to invade occupied Europe needed to deliver troops and supplies from ship to shore. A smaller craft was needed - one that could transport quickly and efficiently while navigating ocean waves and maneuvering around obstacles on the beach. The new craft was equipped with six wheels for maximum traction on land and a propeller for water operation. Soldiers nicknamed the new craft "the duck." The girls were a little bit nervous at first about riding on the duck, but once we got going, they enjoyed it. Our driver was pretty funny, so that helped put us at ease. It was a little crazy to drive from land straight into the water, without missing a beat. It was a neat tour; we even got up close and personal to a deer that was right next to us as we passed through the woods.
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| In front of a Wisconsin Duck Boat |
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| Enjoying the Duck Boat ride |
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| Olivia enjoying the duck boat ride |
After the Duck Boat ride, we played mini golf. The girls had never done this before, so it was quite a fun experience! They kept looking to the next hole to see what crazy hole adventure awaited them next. Their favorite hole as one where you had to hit it into a tube, then the ball would travel through the tube and shoot out on a green below. I am proud to say that I won by 1 stroke! :)
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| Olivia and her best mini golf shot of the day! Almost a hole in one! |
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| Violet and her best mini golf shot of the day! Almost a hole in one! |
After golf, we went to the Tommy Bartlett ski, sky and stage show. The first half of the show featured some really neat water acts. There were skiers creating pyramids, jumping through fire, riding barefoot, flying on water jet packs, and doing some crazy stunts. The second half of the show featured stage acts. There was a hilarious juggler, a group from the Philippines who could foot juggle, and a set of motorcyclists zooming around a round metal cage without crashing into each other. The girls were able to meet some of the stars of the show, including Aqua the Clown, who they thought was pretty funny.
Tuesday was rainy all day, so unfortunately we weren't able to do much outside. Plus, we had done so much by this point that the girls were pretty tired! So, we went to an indoor waterpark that we hadn't been to yet. It was pretty neat, and was probably my favorite! The theme was "Wild West" so there was a lot of holes shooting water throughout the whole play area. It also had several slides, which the girls loved. We also floated down the lazy river as a family, which was pretty relaxing. Then, we ventured back outside to their favorite tube slide. The weather was cloudy and cool, but the water in this area was heated so it wasn't too bad. We went down their favorite tube slide about a hundred times, and then went back to our room for a late lunch. We relaxed for a few hours after lunch, then went into town for supper. We ate at Sprecher, a German restaurant. Jamie was thrilled that they had schnitzel on the menu, and I had a plate of mashed potatoes covered with brats covered with red cabbage covered with cooked apples. It was delicious! We were pretty tired when we got home, so we all went to bed pretty early. The girls slept on the Murphy bed in the living room for their last night. They thought it was pretty cool that a bed could pull of out of the wall!
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| Wild West indoor waterpark |
The next morning, we let the girls have ice cream for breakfast. What a vacation treat! We asked if they wanted to go to the waterpark before we checked out, and surprisingly they said no because they were too tired. So we checked out and headed home in the rain! We had a great time and made a lot of fun memories.
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| Violet: ice cream for breakfast! |
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| Olivia: ice cream for breakfast! |
