Monday, August 6, 2018

Summer Bucket List: The Dells

We are kind of sucking on our Summer Bucket List, and I'm no longer certain we'll get to all of the things since it's already August, but we did get one done- the Wisconsin Dells! 

I had booked two nights at the Great Wolf Lodge, which we've done before. They have a much better pool area for kids that can't go down huge slides than Kalahari did so I decided we'd go back here. Maybe the next time we go we'll try a new place but I figure I'd stick with tried and true for this trip. Sadly, I didn't end up taking very many photos and that's mostly because I forgot. I know people are very much into the anti-photo and living in the moment but with my memory loss I can't really do that. I already don't remember much of this trip and it's only been two weeks. Give me a year and I won't remember any of it, so the photos really are all I have. 

I have to get better about taking photos. 

So we left on a Monday because you get cheaper room rates than on a weekend though it's still outrageously expensive. 
This time the kids knew where we were going, unlike the last two times when we told them we were running an errand and ended up driving 4 hours to the Dells and they had no clue until we were in the parking lot. They were all pretty excited about it, despite the long drive.  
Of course as soon as we got there the kids wanted to swim right away, so that's just what we did. They swam for a few hours and then it was bed time. We tried to do their night time pajama dance party, but Lucy was over tired so Matt took her back to the room and I hung out with the three other kids. Penelope did alright but it turned out to be kind of lame so we left half way through it. I promised Penelope we would swim all day the next day and she crashed hard. I didn't sleep a wink but that was pretty much expected. 

The next day we got up early, I had brought breakfast stuff since I knew we couldn't afford to buy breakfast there, and that actually worked out really well. After breakfast we got dressed and headed down to the pool area. 
Penelope was so fascinated with the large bucket that drops a lot of water onto the ground but she was terrified to be near it. I stood under there a couple of times with her but that still didn't help. Lucy was all about the water, she was all over the place. She mostly floated in all of the pools and a couple of times actually fell asleep while floating. Penelope is not a good floater and was terrified for awhile and by the end of the day she was kind of OK with it. She was trying to swim on her own, which she actually did pretty well so I think this fall I  might try to get her into a swim class. Jackson and Olivia were all over the place and we only saw them a few times. I was pretty exhausted after the day because I legitimately swam the entire day. I didn't even really hurt the next day which was surprising.  
This was a picture of the kids before the pajama dance party we tried to go to. It's hard to get all four kids to look at you at the same time. I figure I'll just take what I can get.  
I took this on our last night there because the line was almost done and we were just walking through and they were all kind of looking at me! 
Penelope and Lucy, playing like they do. 

On the day we were leaving we decided to go to the outlet mall which was across the street and I ended up getting a couple of shirts for the kids for school, so that was nice. We stopped in the Disney Store and the little girls got some figurines and we looked at the dress up dresses- which Penelope is obsessed with. I found a couple I thought were really nice and I'm thinking I might get one and use it as a Halloween costume and then a play dress afterwards? 

But then we went to Buffalo Phil's for lunch, where your food is delivered by a train.  
Penelope was pretty excited when toys were delivered by train for her to play with.  
When we were leaving they wanted to pet the buffalo by the door and Penelope asked if she could ride it. 

Of course she would. 

Overall it was a nice couple of days. The kids had a really good time but it was nice to come home. We didn't get to do any touristy stuff around the dells just because we were trying to save some money but it was a fun mini vacation anyways!

5 comments:

Julie H said...

They are saying they are going to build one of these close to us but all my kids are grown up lol. Maybe they can get jobs there :)

Kristin said...

We've never tried Great Wolf Lodge, and I worry that my kids have already outgrown it! :( It sounds like a perfect mini-vacation!

Shooting Stars Mag said...

How fun! I have a Great Wolf Lodge near me but I've never been - though my brother and sis in law have been with their kids. I'm glad everyone had a good time. I love that Lucy fell asleep floating!!

-Lauren
www.shootingstarsmag.net

Penny @ Penny's Passion said...

Looks so fun! I'm right there with you on taking pictures. Sometimes I'm just to into the moment to remember to grab the camera. Good luck with the rest of your bucket list.

Anonymous said...

Great Wolf Lodge is such a fun place. We have one a couple of hours from here and I want to take my nieces and nephews down to stay. Great job on checking off an item on your summer bucket list!