Harris Family Reunion - Wisconsin Dells

In the morning we decided to explore downtown Madison. The Wisconsin State Capital is in a cool area of Madison with a lot of shops and restaurants. There is a toy store right across the street from the capital that I saw last time but wasn’t able to go into. That was our first stop. The kids had a fun time looking at everything and everyone got a free balloon. The older kids probably weren’t very impressed with the balloons but my little kids were.

We walked down Main Street, had lunch at a sandwich place and visited a small fountain kids could play in. Since no one brought extra clothes we didn’t stay long at the fountain. On the way back to the cars Lilly lost her balloon. She was so sad. The older kids were so nice about it. They all let go over the balloons to make it fun for Lilly. Aren’t cousins great!

 

Our next stop was the Wisconsin Dells. Wisconsin Dells is known as the waterpark capital of the world and is home to more waterparks per capita than anywhere. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge which had a ton of things you could do. You almost didn’t have to leave the hotel. The indoor pools were perfect for Lilly, just her size. They also had a lot of rides that were fun for Tyson and I. Having family there was so wonderful because they would watch Lilly and Bennett for us so we could do a couple of slides together. It was a blast!

There were so many little pools and areas for both the kids to explore and Lilly was big enough to go on a lot of the slides by herself. She did make us catch her at the bottom though. I even talked them into letting me go on the lazy river with Bennett. I figured out why they discourage that when I tried to get off the tube without dropping him.

Tyson and I had the funniest time on the Howling Tornado. Here is the description from the website for the Tornado:  Our most thrilling adventure. Grab up to 3 other members of your pack willing to drop into the 6-story funnel. You'll quickly learn how this ride earned its name. Repeatedly swish and swirl 30 feet up the sides of the funnel, before making a safe splash landing. We older girls thought it was funny that I would squeal as we went down. The best was to go with Tyson because the added weight of two adults would make it so you went higher in the funnel.

Since the hotel uses a lodge theme everything revolves around wolfs and outdoor animals. We received wolf ears for the kids as soon as we checked in and the free stuff continued to roll in. They had face painting, animal balloons, story time, etc.  The story time was a lot of fun and very popular. Lilly and Bennett got to meet all the animals. We also enjoyed the ice cream shop.

 

 

The only time we left the hotel was for dinner, breakfast, and a stop in at Walmart. Brandon and Kathy enjoyed a boat tour while there that they said was a lot of fun. This was my personal favorite part of the trip and I plan to go back as much as possible! I only wish that I took more pictures. I am having to borrow a lot from others.