Splash Down

Jeff and the kids absolutely loved the Wisconsin Dells.  As I am pregnant, I did a lot of reading and watching others have fun, but I did get a few rounds on the Lazy River!  And just being away from home and not cooking for a weekend more than sufficed for my enjoyment!

For those of you unfamiliar with this particular resort town, the Dells boast water parks, and lots of 'em.  They are completely self-contained, with hotels and restaurants on-site.  With covered walkways connecting all of the different hotels with all of the different water parks, you don't even have to go outside for the duration if you don't want to.

We stayed at a resort called the Wilderness.  It boasted three hotels, three indoor water parks, nine restaurants, at least two arcades, laser tag, and black-light, 3D, indoor mini golf.  I can honestly say there was more to do here that could be comfortably done in a weekend, but we gave it a good try.

My friend Robin, with whose family our family went to the Dells, made the reservation and found an AMAZING deal on eBay for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite with a full kitchen, dining room, living room, and terrace.  Admission to the water parks was included in the cost of the accommodations.  This ended up being an affordable, relaxing weekend away.

Robin, I, and our four kids left Friday morning and arrived mid-afternoon.  After dropping our stuff in rooms, we headed straight for the water parks, where we played until the dads arrived around 7:00.

 

 

As Mike and Jeff were both weary when they arrived (after all, they had to work all day!), and none of us really felt like going out, we ordered in Italian from a nearby restaurant called Sarento's.  We had coupons from when we checked in and ended up getting over $20 off our order!  Not too bad, and the food was delicious.  Afterwards, we played a game called Apples to Apples...pretty fun, especially with four kids who are probably too young to understand sarcasm and over-cleverness!  Charlotte, our most literal child, somehow managed to win.  Huh.

Saturday was completely devoted to the water parks.  Each one had at least one big slide; one had a wave pool; and one had a Lazy River.  I think that we visited all three before we were done that day.  We took a break midday to eat some sandwiches and leftovers in the room, and the men and kids even headed out AFTER supper to close the parks down.

We ate supper that evening at a great nearby restaurant called Monk's.  Wisconsin cheese curds, nachos, soup, sandwiches...we all ate way too much food, but you couldn't beat the atmosphere!

On Sunday, the Wilkes family had about half a day left to enjoy the resort, as Jeff and I had to be back for a church marriage mentoring training program that evening in Peoria.  So that day was dedicated to the dry parks, as the Wilderness called them.

We started our day at a fantastic breakfast buffet in one of the other on-site hotels.  For every adult buffet purchased, a child got to eat for free, so this was not a bad deal.  This buffet had everything you could possibly want for breakfast; in fact, I don't think I've ever before seen one quite this comprehensive.  Fruit, cereal, pastries, a scrambled egg bar, French toast, waffles, pancakes, bagels, oatmeal, even pancakes on a stick and sausage egg biscuits.  We all rolled out of there nearly sick, but with our mission accomplished...we wouldn't need to stop for lunch that afternoon!

The Wilderness offered a pass for $12 that included two miniature golf games, bumper boats, laser tag, $2 dollars in arcade credits, and $1 off ice cream at a Cold Stone Creamery-style place.  We spent Sunday, until nearly 1:30, getting everything checked off on our passes.  (We actually bought three; Jeff and I split the mini-golf games and the ice cream!)

 

Whew!  Lots of fun!  The drive back home was just over four hours, so we had to hustle to grab the kids supper (the ice cream ended up being lunch), drop them at the babysitter's, and then get to our 6:30 training class.  But we made it, and it was a great weekend.

As a freaky side note to this trip...I saw 12 dead deer on the trip up and back, 10 of them on the side of the interstate, obviously hit by cars.  Another had been shot and was the back of someone's trailer.  The other was one that Mike Fiedler, with whom I run most Saturdays, and I saw during an early morning jog around the resort.  She had been hit and severely injured by a car, too, and a police officer was called out to euthanize her.  So that was lovely...hurt deer on our first lap, comatose deer on our second lap, shot dead deer on our third.  Ick.

I kept waiting for one to jump out in front of us.  The problem is that bad up here.  The local paper ran a front-page article about it after a deer was hit in town!  (We have driven by the corpse on our trips in and out of town all weekend.  Road kill is not being cleaned up here because the money has run out for such things.  Where's that stimulus money when you need it?!)  According to the paper, because of all the rain, the farmers haven't gotten the crops in as early as usual, and, as there is plenty of food for the deer, the population is not decreasing.  Bow season for deer started October 1, but gun season doesn't open until November 20.  Maybe we and our cars will make through then!

Anyway...our weekend in the Dells was good.  Next time, I'll tell you about this past weekend:  a tae kwon do belt test, a very sad funeral visitation, and a departure.

Hope your weekend has been good!