Weekend in Wisconsin

We just got back from a quick weekend in Wisconsin!  

These trips always take a lot of work to pull off, but we're always glad we made the effort to make new family memories.  Kevin surprised me with this early birthday trip.  And he surprised me by emailing me our reservation a few weeks ago so that I would have plenty of time to prep for the trip.  That's my kind of surprise :)  We kept it a surprise from the kids and told them just hours before we left.  They were all really excited and Fletcher shed a few tears of joy.  Our whole family really loves Wisconsin.  It's our 5th trip there and we always have a blast.  We stayed at Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells like usual.

The drive takes us about 7.5 hours or closer to 8 if we've got more than one stop.  I tried something new and just did 2 bigger car surprises for the kids instead of lots of little things.  It worked much better!  They each got a new Squishmallow and a fuzzy Fall blanket.  The temps dropped a ton from our house to Wisconsin so this was the perfect surprise.

Look at these cuties in their matching fleeces!  Lodge life agrees with them.

Cozy car riders!  I ordered their Squishmallows on Amazon and found their cute pumpkin spice blankets at our local grocery store Schnucks.

We got in late Thursday night so it was really exciting to wake up to pretty views!  And Door Dash Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.

We made sure to give ourselves down time to read in the room, enjoy the patio, turn on a fire and watch football in between all the activities.

Our first snow flurries of the season!

The big kids picked out cute sweatshirts for their souvenir.  They were so excited about them!

A cool thing about Wilderness Resort is that no matter the weather, there is always a ton of stuff to do!  You can walk the entire resort without going outside if it's cold or rainy or snowy.

The newly remodeled Wild West Water park is partially open now.  We enjoyed exploring that.  Leo loved it and the big kids enjoyed the slides and outdoor hot tubs.  This is a great water park for the under 10 crowd.  Kevin said it has mild water slides :)

Thank heavens for big sisters who save little brothers :)  He loved the lower slides on the left side and I wasn't quite comfortable with him climbing the high side.  Hence the protesting picture.

The after dinner water park crew!  We eat together and then they headed out to have a little more fun!

I stayed back in the room with Leo and he didn't mind.  He was sad initially to be left behind, but then when he realized he'd have his own private Jacuzzi filled with rubber ducks he was fine.

We played BINGO for the first time.  It was free and fun!  Leo even enjoyed filling his own card.

The kids love the arcades.

Kevin picked up pizza from a new place - Rosati's Pizza.  It was good.  Delicious toppings and pretty good crust.  The cheesey bread was huge.

We stopped in the outlet malls for new Crocs.  Olive spotted this mural and had to get a picture with it.

We visited this local cheese market. Tons of cheese and tons of souvenirs.

We ordered Door Dash Qdoba for dinner.  The Door Dashers offered to deliver to our door instead of meeting us out in the parking lot this time.  It was super nice!

We snuggled up and watched some movies together.

The Wild Kids club was open for the holiday weekend.  The kids got glitter tattoos, did some free art kits and Fletcher won the daily coloring contest.  He thinks that him writing "I LOVE WILDERNESS RESORT" on his art might have landed him some bonus points for the contest.  He earned a free glitter tattoo the following day.

The Camp Social breakfast buffet stands strong as our very favorite food option on the property.  It's all you can eat, Leo is free and it's delicious.  There is a coupon in the booklet you can use each time and we highly recommend it.  The buffet is only open on holiday weekends now that it's their off season so call ahead to double check if you want to enjoy this during your stay.

We spotted Monty Moose for the first time!  The kids were really excited to see him!

That's a wrap on another fun trip to Wisconsin Dells.  We had hopes of doing some outdoor things and exploring a bit, but the weather mostly kept us cozy indoors this time.  Let me know if you have any questions!