"To the Dells we will go..."

Disclaimer:  The following post has an occasional wise crack about Wisconsin.  These comments are made in jest only.  Please don't be offended if you're a Wisconsin native.  :)

The farmer in the dell

The farmer in the dell

High-ho, the derry-oh

The farmer in the dell

Good Monday Halloween morning y'all!  I hope everyone had a splendiferous weekend, as did we.  We were able to make it into the  State of Wisconsin and get back home in one piece - and without killing each other.  Thank the Lord for small favors, right?  ;)

We didn't get on the road until 4 p.m. on Friday, which was a full two hours passed what we had planned.  Ugh.  I spent Friday running around like a chicken with my head cut off...  The diva went to my sister-in-law's since taking along Ian's friend Luke made us short a seat in our Yukon XL.  She was excited to go since Aunt Nancy always spoils her rotten.  Then I had the packing to do that I procrastinated on (Will I ever learn?  Probably not.), the car to shovel out, and the little man kept hiding from me (a new game that is NOT fun)...  Yeah.  By the time we got in the car to go, I felt like I had been rode hard and put up wet...  And we hadn't even begun the "fun" part:  Four hours and two minutes in a car with 4 of the 5 boys hyped up on adrenaline.  We tried to drown the noise out with music, but they just got LOUDER.

I'd like to say I told them to act obnoxious in this video just for ratings, but no...  It was pretty much like this the entire time we were in the car...  Unless God smiled down upon us and they fell asleep.  WARNING:  You might want to turn your volume down.

Here's a taste of the chaos:

Yes, they have seat belts on.
They just have the bad habit of pushing the chest belts behind them which
led to A LOT of what I like to call threats of death
"forceful encouragement" to put them on correctly.

Yep.  Fun times.  For four hours.  

(Where's the liquor Excedrin Migraine when you need it?)

As we made our way northeast through Iowa, we crossed the Mississippi...

And made our way into Wisconsin:

And were treated to breathtaking views like this:

Aren't the fall colors amazing???

If you haven't had the "opportunity" to visit Wisconsin, let me tell ya...  There's LOTS of cows.  TONS of cows.  Dairies.  Everywhere.  Guess it takes a lot of cows to make all that cheese.  ;)  And not much else.  And I guess they've never heard of straight roads either because pretty much every one was winding and twisting.  We kept joking that there are a million different ways to get to the Dells, but once you get there you'll never find your way back out.  LOL!  We figured we'd stop and eat on the way, but there was NOTHING.  For HOURS. (And I can make fun of this because I'm from Iowa - Iowa doesn't have anything either.  LOL)

Okay, maybe it wasn't hours, but when its dark and you've got 5 hungry kids in the car, even a minute feels like eternity.  Poor little Landon was crying.  And since they had devoured all the snacks I had brought, I was beginning to wonder if they would resort to cannibalism.  The cheese curds we picked up at a little gas station outside of Prairie Du Chien didn't do much to tide them over.  And here's a question...  When you chew cheese curds, is it supposed to squeak?  That entertained them for about 15 minutes.  LOL

I made the mistake once of pointing out a McDonald's sign and saying we were close, only to realize that we had to turn before we ever reached the town.  I even felt like crying at the point - along with Landon who was screaming, "McDonald's! McDonald's!"  LOL!  Note to self:  There is NOTHING after Prairie Du Chien.  Except a lot of unincorporated villages - which means no McDonald's there either.  :P  When we finally saw the lights of a good size town to our left, which turned out to be the town of Reedsville, the entire car erupted into spontaneous cheers of, "CIVILIZATION!  WE'VE BEEN SAVED!"  LOL!

So, we stopped and devoured two trays worth of artery-clogging goodness and realized we were only 15 minutes from our destination.  Thank you, God!  Once we corralled everyone back into the car, we were on our way to Wilderness Resorts.

WOW!  What a place!  Massive!  Unfortunately, it was dark when we got there and raining when we left, so I have no pictures of the outside. I did however take lots of pictures of our accommodations inside Wyndham Resort, which is a timeshare community inside Glacier Canyon Lodge.

This sight welcomed us when we opened the door:

With a neat little dining area to the left of the kitchen:

A master suite with jacuzzi and walk-in shower:

You know I was checking this out to see how they made it. LOL!

And then an additional bedroom with 2 double beds:

Didn't quite get in there before the boys used the beds for trampolines.  :P

And a guest bath:

Of course, the hubs made himself at home and got acquainted with the TV remote:

While I was checking out the furniture:

LOVE these drawer pulls!

I had Scott checking out the mantle to figure out how to make me one.  LOL!

Although the decor was a little "rustic" for my taste, it definitely added to the  "woodsy" atmosphere.

Here was our view:

We lucked out and weren't overlooking a parking lot.  ;)

I don't have a lot of pictures of the different water parks because it was hard keeping track of the camera, our stuff, and the boys, so it got locked up in a locker - for $6.00 (OUCH!).  Here's two I did take:

The large bucket up on the top would fill with water and dump on everyone below...  The hubs, the little man, and I figured that out the hard way.  LOL!  The green tubes up at the top were pitch dark tube rides that shot you through them at the speed of light.  The hubs talked me into going into one of them.  I felt like a fish that had been flushed down a toilet.  It was so dark you had no clue what was coming next.  There was a lot of screaming...  No, not the hubs.  Me.  But I think he wanted to.  LOL!

Of course, children being children...  The water rides held their attention for a split second and then they were all about the 3 arcades.  Four different FREE water parks and they want to do the one thing that costs money!  And they couldn't understand why we cut them off after $80.00!

We took a break from all the walking and swimming on Saturday to watch the Iowa v. Minnesota game.  Being I wasn't going to be stuck inside watching football when there was tons to do and I was completely overruled by the testosterone in the room, I snuck off to do some antiquing.  I'll tell you about that tomorrow.  ;)

I would have to say that Wyndham Resorts were fantastic.  We had a wonderful stay and the accommodations were outstanding.  I know I've been staying in the wrong places when their complimentary toiletries were all travel-sized items from Bath and Body Works!  No generic mouthwash, lotion, and soaps and shampoos for this place!

Sunday morning we headed south towards home, with a quick stop by the outlet mall which scored the hubs a $267.00 Under Armor coat for $145.00 on clearance!  Ian, Noah, and Luke weren't really impressed with anything, but Greyson did find a shirt at the Nike Outlet he liked, and then I found him an Under Armor sweatshirt on clearance for $30.00 that just happened to be in our school colors.

We swung into Cabella's in Prairie Du Chien for the hubs' "all things manly" fix and Ian used his Visa gift card from Luke to buy Buffalo and Elk Jerky.  It was surprisingly good when he let us all have a taste.  And we hit another little "junk" store that I found a few things at, as well.  In fact, I think the name of it was "Junque - One man's trash is another man's treasure."

And since we were going right by Gunder, Iowa, we had to stop in here:

What's a "Gunderburger" you ask?  Well, it's this:

A ONE POUND burger of unimaginable goodness.  The boys' eyes bulged at the sizes.  At $8.75 for a plain "Gunderburger" and $11.75 for "loaded" one, they left stuffed.

We finally made it into town around 6:30 - all exhausted.  I think we were all glad to be out of the confines of the car, as we walked stiff-legged into the house.  We all retreated to separate corners of the house, ready for a little alone time - well, except for Momma.  I had laundry to do and a school day to prepare for.  Ahhhh...  Back to real life.  Fun, ain't it?  :)