Wisconsin Dells

I love national parks and hiking and nature. So when it came time for our family vacation, we were trying to decide where to go. Max said, "Can't we just go to a water park?" The answer is...yes! We went to the land of water parks.

Day one

We drove to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin to visit our friends Jodie and Matt and their family. They own Wing Zones and Little Ceasar's locations, so she let the boys make their own food. We played pickleball, went to The Landing at Hoyt Park which had a great climbing tree and river, and then they had us back to their house for dinner. Wonderful hosts, great town, great time!

Day two

We left early and checked into our Airbnb, which was named Sandrift Resort on Lake Delton. It was a little house across the road from the lake, and the people who owned it (and the rest of the resort) were very friendly. We bought tickets from them to Mt Olympus Water & Theme Park, and it was only $10 per person! We arrived at the park as it opened. The best rides were Icarus, the highest water slide IN THE COUNTRY. I was very scared but it was exciting. I loved Medusa, which is the country's first rotating slide. It was like being in a washing machine, with people screaming above you and below you - very disorienting and very fun! We rode Hades, which was the most painful roller coaster we have ever ridden. It actually hurt my vertebrae. How painful was it? They had a single and needed people to go on it again and NO ONE wanted to do it. I couldn't get off fast enough. Ha! We did everything here - giant wave pool, go karts, slides, everything. So fun.

We got ice cream on the water at Wisconsin Dells Ice Cream, overlooking a foamy waterfall.

Ty joined us later, and we took out the (free) rowboat and paddleboats available at the resort. They were old and there was no check out process and they were available every time we wanted to use them - perfect! They also had a ping pong table where the table was outside all the time and presented a defense. We also had fun on that! 

We went to Grateful Shed to eat, and this place was great. Music, twinkly lights, so many people, cool setup with buses and cement cornhole and pullup bar and lots of fun. We chose different places to get food from and ate outside. Later we wandered through the fun candy shop next door - Pure Sugar. Then we did the exciting task of grocery shopping on vacation, and we went to Walmart. I don't like grocery shopping in general, and I really hate doing it on vacation, but obviously it's a necessary task. So much better when it's all five of us since everyone can help! We were checking out and the cashier said to me, "You have a beautiful family." This made me tear up and hate grocery shopping a little less.

Day three

This day was the whole reason we came - to go to the biggest waterpark in the US - Noah's Ark Water Park! It was huge, but not so big you can't go on everything, so there's not any stress. You can also go back to your car, so we packed lunch and went back to eat it at noon. We also got a locker (here and at Mt Olympus) so we could reapply sunscreen and take clothes and phones and keys. 

I loved this park. Our favorite ride was Black Anaconda, but there were tons of great ones. Some were so scary I couldn't even go on them, like Stingray, where the bottom drops out and you go upside down. The boys went on it though - you could tell who did in the park because everyone had two red marks on their backs where they had rubbed on the slide! We went all around the park together and rode everything we wanted to ride, and the best ones twice. 

They advertise that this park has 2.5 million gallons of heated water. This is also the amount of manure our manure lagoon holds. So funny to compare!

After the park we went on the boats again, then walked to Avazzi Shoppe & Sweets for ice cream and Lake House for dinner. There was an engagement party in the bottom of it, and with just a little internet searching we found out everything about them. We also saw the owner of Mt Olympus there. We had seen him in his house in the middle of Lake Denton. Impressive business owner and great mansion, complete with lions guarding the gate. 

We got to eat outside, which we love. We walked home. The house we stayed at had an old-school Nintendo and the boys played some ancient game with terrible graphics and were very happy.

Day four

We drove to Devil's Lake State Park Visitor's Center, and asked directions to a trail I wanted to go on. She gave us verbal directions and we found it - although there was no sign. We then got lost on it and went a really long way out of our way and had to turn back. A common issue when hiking!

This hike was really pretty - really rocky and steep and you are rewarded with great views over Lake Denton. We hiked to Balanced Rock and saw lots of people hiking down the rocks with ropes. Then we kept going and were surprised by Devil's Doorway! It was so cool. I don't like to look at pictures of things before I see them so this was a real surprise - on the way home we saw it's literally on the sign of Baraboo, WI, the city it's in. So other people there were likely not surprised! 

We had taken food and water on the hike and by the time we got back to the car we had hiked five miles and been gone three hours. No one ever complains or says they don't like it, but only Kris and I ACTUALLY like hiking. The boys actually talk and jump around and stand on steep things and climb up dangerous things, but when asked they all put hiking far down on the list. Hiking with my family is one of my favorite things to do ever, so it's nice they go for me! But I'm also glad this vacation was water park-heavy.

We went to Devil's Lake South Shore, which was a lovely beach. We ate there and got ice cream. (It's July, I eat it every day to celebrate July being National Ice Cream Month. Also it's delicious.)

The boys went to play mini golf and Kris and I went to River's Edge on the water. He tried fried cheese curds, because we were in Wisconsin, after all. 

Kris and Cole left because Cole had to leave for MSU Summer Business Institute Camp in the morning. Ty, Max, and I ate at Taqueria Mexico, took the boats out again, played ping pong, and sat in the porch swing in our yard until dark. Cole and Kris got home at 1:00 a.m., and the drive home the next morning only took a quick seven hours, with one stop for gas.

I really loved the Wisconsin Dells, and I can see why people go there. So many touristy things to do, really nice lakes, great water parks, great places to eat, and lots of fun. All within driving distance! It was also reasonably priced everywhere we went. Great summer vacation for a family that loves hiking (some of them) and water parks (all of them!)

Ty and Cole are moving to college next month, and I don't know how all our vacations and work will line up in the future. I'm so glad we had this trip together. Back to 2.5 million gallons of manure!