Wisconsin Dells

Well, after countless ideas, many plans and changing our minds dozens of times, we are currently in Wisconsin Dells. I made no reservations because I was unsure where we'd actually end up. This was a good thing and a mistake. We pulled onto "Waterpark Row" and found both Kalahari and The Wilderness completely booked. I was a little panicked as I entered Great Wolf Lodge, but we not only got a room, we were upgraded to a room with bunk beds for the kids! Great Wolf was my last choice of the big three, but it turned out to be fantastic. I've never been to The Wilderness, but compared to Kalahari, Great Wolf seems much more geared to families with school age kids. There is only one waterslide Logan is too short for and I feel comfortable allowing him to ride the slides over and over and over by himself. (After the first evening of climbing those stairs over and over I was pretty much done.) The big slides are all tube slides so he's fine going on them alone. His favorite is a mat slide where you lie on the mat head first and zip down the slide. The end part is similar to those giant slides at the fair. It is a blast! Unfortunately, you have to climb 20,000 stairs for a 10 second ride :) I'm on vacation!

Friday was our travel day and we stopped at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. They had some very cool animals and we enjoyed watching a pair of rhinos digging in the sand. We also stopped at Madison's Lands' End store. I was hoping to find good deals on school uniforms and was disappointed. Oh well... We spent the entire evening swimming.

Saturday we swam in the morning, wandered around downtown Wisconsin Dells, played mini-golf at a gigantic place with waterfalls and caves, rode the Ducks and swam some more. I hadn't been too excited about the Ducks, but that was really fun! I would totally do it again on another trip. Logan was thrilled with the Duck experience and was hoping for a Duck (Hotwheels type) car from their gift shop. The only Duck "cars" they had were wooden and for display, not play. Too bad, I think every little boy would love a toy Duck!

I suppose I have to admit that I'm So. Done. Swimming! Last night I made the mistake of getting into the family hot tub with Logan. The kids love the thrill of getting into the hot tub for a couple of minutes and then jumping into the cold pool. I am too old for that "thrill." I was to the point where I was so cold I couldn't get out of the hot tub. I was so sick of swimming that I actually fell asleep for a while on a lounger in front of the wave pool.

In a few minutes, I will head to the front desk and try to book our room for one more night. The kids are NOT sick of swimming and Kaylin really wants to play the resort's new game (Magic Quest?) It's a virtual scavenger hunt where you take a special magic wand around to many different stations, gathering clues and attempting to slay the dragon. I inquired about the game and they said "depending on the person" it takes anywhere from two to FIVE hours. EEEEEEEEKKK!!!!! This person cannot handle five hours :) Gene wants to take Logan to an indoor amusement park within walking distance of our hotel and we all have many more activites we want to do in the area. Another night will equal at least three more swimming sessions. Ugh. I think I'll just take my book and not even bother putting on my suit. At least this morning...