Wilderness

It's anniversary trip time and this year's destination is Wisconsin.  Nyla loves trips so she excitedly packed days in advance and nagged us to pack early as well.  Nyla was super helpful the day we left in getting everything ready.  She kept asking for more jobs and did almost everything willingly.  There were a few chores she wasn't interested in so she asked for something different.  Bohdin helped a bit but it was mostly unwillingly.  Despite all of the help we didn't leave until 8pm which was later than I hoped.  Buddy didn't get home from work until well after 6 and I wasn't as ready as I hoped.  

The amount of road construction was unbelievable.  Our original goal was to make it to the north side of Chicago but that was impossible.  We were slowed down a lot by construction including one instance of not moving for 30 minutes while a portion of bridge was being moved into position.  We made it to just south of Gary, Indiana.

The next day we had drove pretty much straight through to our destination in Wisconsin Dells, the waterpark capital of the world.  Prior to researching Wisconsin I had never heard of this place.  There really are a lot of waterparks here and I wonder why it's not more well known.  Our first night was spent in one of the waterpark resorts.  They allow access to the waterpark from 11am the day of check in to closing the night of checkout.  Only guests are allowed in the waterpark so it's not supposed to be overly crowded.  This complex is supposed to have the largest combination of indoor 
and outdoor waterpark in the country I think.  The waterparks are divided into areas and spread out over the complex so anybody staying here is close to a waterpark.  We started with one at random and liked it fine.  Each area has a kiddie section and almost all of them have a lazy river.  Buddy convinced me to do the mat slide.  I was worried about it being too scary since one goes head first but he was right and it was fine.  Bohdin and I went together and he liked it better than me the first time.  I was sprayed with a lot of water in the face but learned my lesson and subsequent trips were much better.  They also had a nearly vertical slide there which and a looping body slide.  The looping slide was closed
and Buddy couldn't try the other one because he has sunglasses with him.

We moved on to a second waterpark but we moved on quickly to the third one.  The first two were outdoor and the next one was indoor.  We spent a lot of time at this one.  Nyla was becoming scared of doing anything but Buddy and Bohdin were riding the tube rides.  There were three tube rides and two body slides in addition to the baby and kid area.  The gigantic kid area had a lot of spraying water with tipping buckets and just all manner of squirting water.  Nyla suffered from intermittent fear of getting wet so had difficulty playing on the structure.  For much of our time at the waterparks 
she enjoyed the baby area the most.  Cora also had a fear of being splashed with water.   She liked the lazy river pretty well and did a few baby slides in the wave pool area but the rest of the time she looked 
cold and miserable.  We convinced Nyla to do the family tube ride here but she didn't like it.  I think that was mostly due to her being determined not to like it.  Bohdin loved it and did it several times.  

We checked in to our first floor room and had dinner before heading back to the waterparks. All rooms have a small patio but since our room was on the first floor our patio spilled out onto the grass in front of the parking lot.  It was nice having the extra outdoor room.  It also made loading and unloading easy.

The waterparks have staggered close times so once the one we were at closed at 7 we went to a different indoor park for about another hour.  This one was Nyla's favorite.  It had a baby slide which was for kids 42" and under.  I think she may be too tall for that slide but she loved that thing and went on it numerous times.  It was set away from the big kid structure which again had lots of 
squriting water and a 1000 gallon tipping bucket. While the bigger kids were running toward the tipping bucket's dump area, Nyla was getting as far as possible.  

The next morning we did another outdoor area and the indoor wave pool.  Bohdin found a tube slide that he loved and he did it a few times by himself.  He was sad that we didn't let him go off and do his own thing as much as he wanted.  If he was more responsible I may have but he has shown a poor ability to think and make decisions lately.  Anyway our last area was the wave pool. Buddy and Bohdin had fun in the wave pool while Nyla and Cora enjoyed the baby section.  I think it was one of the largest baby sections in the park.  Cora found a slide she liked and Nyla found one for herself.  There 
is a family tube ride in this section that Bohdin raved about so I took Nyla to try it with Bohdin.  Nyla was scared but on the long walk up the steps I convinced her to have an open mind.  She agreed and she ended up loving it.  Her description of a slide is the description of this slide. 

We checked into the next hotel to give Cora time for a nap and get away from the crowds.  We had become spoiled the previous evening when there was no wait or hardly any wait for a ride.  Now waiting ten minutes was unthinkably long.  We went back to the waterparks about 5 and stayed until 8.  By the end we were getting a bit tired of being at a waterpark.  

Nyla and Cora are not at a good waterpark age or height.  While coming with them was better than nothing it wasn't ideal.  Buddy and I did a lot of trading.  

Here is what the kids said.

NYLA : We went to a waterpark.  There was a waterslide that was first dark and then light and then we splished out!  And our first one (hotel) had a couch that had a pullout bed and we slept on it last night.  Now we go to our other hotel and do some waterparks.  

Bohdin - Each waterpark had a lazy river.  I liked it because all of the balls and cannons and the cannons to shoot the balls.  I liked the big one with the family rafts.  I liked both of them.  (Bohdin wants to read and not do this.) 















Nyla and I went to Devils Lake State Park.  Cora was going to go with us but she crushed her fingers for the second time that day on a door and wanted daddy.  I wanted to go for a hike but Nyla was too scared and just wanted to do the beach.  Buddy was reading when we left and Bohdin was watching a video and neither of them wanted to go out.