We decided to take an early summer vacation and head east to Wisconsin Dells. After much research and debate, we booked a 2 bedroom condo at Chula Vista (because let's face it, a typical hotel room isn't much fun when traveling with 3 young children who need their beauty sleep). Having been to this resort roughly 6 years ago, we had a good idea of what to expect. And they didn't disappoint!
So with the resort booked, all we needed to do was travel there. (Rewind to...and stay healthy! Sidney landed with strep throat just 5 days before we were to leave and I prayed my heart out that no one else would come down with it). We packed and packed and packed a little more even though I promised to use everything we brought, with the exception of an extra outfit for each kid that I was hoping we didn't need.
We hopped in the car Saturday morning, with a 3.5 hour trek ahead of us. We all figured Lincoln would be the trouble maker....but that darn Sidney, well traveling with her deserves a post all of its own! Keep in mind the girl screamed all the way home from the hospital nearly 7 years ago, and the only thing that's changed, is that she has words to use for whinning instead of screaming. At least every 15 minutes she needed an update: how much longer?, I'm hungry, can I have gum?...you get the idea. Oh but we love her!
Eventually, we entered The Dells and since we were ahead of schedule, we opted to spend a little time at Deer Park. It was on our list "to-do" anyway and this was perfect timing. As predicted, the kids just loved it! The girls had been there on our last trip to the Dells, but only Regan could somewhat recall the experience (with the help of some pictures). After paying an outrageous fee, we grabbed 3 packs of crackers and set out to play. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
Side note: go to this place, it does not disappoint!
He was only mildly nervous, but even then, not nervous enough to keep a distance. Nope, he wanted to be right there in the middle of the action.
Sidney was out of crackers after just a few minutes, her thought was "just feed them and they'll leave me alone!"....wrong! They thought she was THE BEST thing around because she handed out crackers left and right!
Lincoln just slays me, he really does. The way he would put his hands together against his chest and squeal with delight, we knew he was in toddler heaven!
After checking in and grabbing dinner, we headed to the resort's waterpark. And the kids were in love!....wait, let me remind you all that I realized I had brought FOUR kids to the Dells. Ryan turns into a kid when we visit waterparks. The guy just can't get enough! It took until our 5th trip to the waterpark (and 2 days later), before I got to go down my first slide :) In his defense, I never asked and Lincoln preferred to hang with me so we just went with it. We spent a lot of time getting wet during this trip but it was so much fun. I didn't bring my camera to the parks with the exception of one time because I have been burned in the past and it was stolen. I did manage to get a few pictures/videos during a trip to the outdoor park. As for Lincoln, he managed to get himself down several of the kiddie slides after a little prompting. After he went down once, that is all he wanted to do! Over and over and over again. We climbed a lot of stairs and took a lot of naps :)
Lightweight Sidney has a tendency to land like this when she comes shooting out of a slide...
To say we were all impressed with Sidney's bravery is an understatement. The yellow slide pictured below (Regan is on it) is an 80 foot drop. EIGHTY FEET! Straight down! That's as tall as an 8 story building! And both girls marched right to the top, sat down and down they came. Unbelievable! They later commented "it doesn't even feel like your body is on the slide"....yea that made me feel good about their safety! Especially as I watched their bodies ping-ponging side to side!
The one major outing we took outside from the resort was to hop aboard an Original Wisconsin Duck. It has been decades since I had been on one, and we thought it would be a good family adventure. Boy were we right! Ryan was rethinking this idea as we boarded, feeling woosey from the morning water slides, but he found his bearings and we had a great time. Snuggled in tight, we saw deer, loads of trees and some pretty amazing sandstone cut outs along the river. We learned some remarkable history, not only about the Ducks themselves (those suckers were used in WWII!) but also about floodings and famous houses along the river. The girls listened carefully, asked questions and best of all, retained the info and are so excited to share their knowledge with their friends. Lincoln sat on my lap for the full 60 minutes, just taking it all in. He loved that "ride" and I'm sure he would've sat for another 60 minutes had it lasted that long.
On an unrelated note, during the car ride back to the hotel there was a little catastrophe in the back seat as Sid screamed:
"Mom I have a bloody nose!"
"Sid what happened?"
"Lincoln had his finger up my nose"
Wait, he what?!
Cue some quiet giggles from the front seat. What the heck?!
The things these two do...
While we are sad that our summer trip is over, we are so happy to have gone. When we tucked the girls into their own beds tonight, I commented at how much fun it was to be on vacation and Sidney says "it's not vacation! It's not vacation unless we go on an airplane".
Oh that girl, she has some high expectations in life! Guess we better plan a "real" vacation next time!
1 comment:
GJ: a vacation like in February ? South ?
Post a Comment