We started out the day like gangbusters. Up early (an hour earlier than normal because we’re on Central time here) and killed some of it by sending Daddy out for breakfast. Once we hit 9 bells, we were already dressed and ready to open up the Wild Waterdome and went straight for The Great Wave wavepool. We commenced to jumping and splashing with the big waves. I traveled a little further out in to the deep end with Momma and Parks stayed up close (but not too close) to Daddy. Parks also got adventurous in the kiddie area and did some unmentionable things with the water jets.
A little more than an hour in, we decided to move over to the now-open Klondike Kavern and check out the playground and lazy river. We did some damage, but I have to admit, it wasn’t up to our typical standards of total domination. Everyone is feeling a little slow and ookey, so we couldn’t keep our pace for long. We decided to come back up to the room, clean up, and regroup. We ended up deciding on some drier entertainment…the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory. It was a big, space-themed children’s museum type place with all sorts of experiments and exhibits. My favorite things were the optical illusions. Parker’s favorite was playing the soccer video game.
Next, we wound around to make our way to downtown Dells for more cheese than you would think possible in America’s Dairyland. What vacation would be complete without a stop at the local gem mining outpost? Well, plenty, I’m sure…but not ours! We sprung for the yellow bucket and started dumping our sand and sifting with the ice cold water. I was the big winner with several big stones, but Parks found a lot of cool little purple ones. We strolled around a little more down there and made sure to stop by the candy store to pick up a little snack for later. Not candy before dinner, though! We at at Pizza Pub because they’re known for their super salad bar (guess who picked?). Parks was underwhelmed and showed it by falling asleep right on the table! Ha!
Back at the ranch (lodge?), we decided to have another go-round of chillaxing. Everyone just needed some recharge time, but I became restless after about an hour and talked Daddy in to taking me down to the waterpark for a night time swim. We traveled to a few, but ended up settling back at the Klondike again and I found 3 girls wearing the same swimsuit as me! I’m popular!
Wisconsin Dells – Day 2
On Saturday, we hooked up with Gigi and Poppa and the Lafayette Lawsons at Exploration Acres for an a-maze-ing time in the big corn maze. With Poppa’s guidance, we successfully navigated the spider, grave stone, and cat mazes. We punched our cards and shucked a few ears along the way before moving on to the pumpkin patch. All of the kids found an orange treasure to take home and sent the Daddies to go pay for them while we sprinted to the playground. Hay piles, duck races, teeter totters, oh my! The highlight was the gemstone mining, though, where we all made out with, what I’m sure is, thousands of dollars worth of uncut stones!
Next on tap was a cookout at Mema and Pepa’s house, where we added Mada, Uncle TC, Renee, and Short Stack (a.k.a., Baby Mitchell) to the party. In about 15 minutes, we were able to mangle hours worth of Pepa’s work blowing a 5 foot tall leaf pile! We cooked hot dogs at the fire and chomped on all sorts of goodies as the Harvest Moon rose up above us and signaled that it was time for a hay ride! Mommy drove and held Mitchell in shotgun while we all followed behind in the trailer. TC took a turn at the wheel and we loved going down the big hill, screaming all the way. We wrapped up the night with Scared Shrekless on the big screen in the basement and a sugar crash that had us snoozing 5 minutes after we hit the road back to spooky Lebanaon. Thanks very much to everyone for the super-fun fall day!
Fall Fun
Today was our big day…Our field trip to Conner Prarie. Momma took the day off from 28 thried graders to chaperone 22 third graders. Wait. That doesn’t sound like a “day off.” Oh well, at least she got to spend the day with me and Keely. It started out with a 45 minutes bus ride from Lebanon to Conner Prarie. When we arrived at 10:30, we ate lunch with swarming bees everywhere. There was a decent amount of squealing and swatting to mention, but everyone came out sting-free. After lunch we headed up the path to the Lanape Indian Village. We rode in a wooden canoe (staked in the ground), visited a straw home and then off to the wooded home…no brick homes for all you picking up on the Three Little Pigs enuendos. We checked the out the trading post where I felt deer skin, beaver skin, and bunny skin. I learned that deer fur is hollow and helps to insulate it for warmth in the winter, while the beaver skin is thick to keep it warm in the winter.
Next, we went to Conner Homestead. Keely loved the calf, while I measured how many hands high I am. 14, if you’re wondering. We toured the house, the garden and helped to dip candles.
Prarietown was next on our agenda. There, we attended school where I learned how to use a number pyramid to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It a student wanted to attend school there, it costs 3 cents a day, Monday through Saturday. Yikes!
We stopped in at the blacksmith shop where Keely got to bend an iron bar with just two fingers! We skipped down to the pottery barn where I got to make some pretend wares.
We made our way out to the Civil War field where I helped make bandages for wounded soldiers and watched a movie depicting the raid on a southern Indiana town by John Hunt Morgan.
We rounded out our day with a quick trip through the welcome center and quickly hopped back on the bus for the ride home. It was a great day and I lots of fun with my friend Keely.
This being our second day sans The Daddy, Momma had a plan for some serious fun! It started off a little slow with some shopping…boooo! But, she quickly redeemed herself with some Pirate’s Cove mini golf! Whoo hoo! Parker hit the first hole in one and I quicky got the next one. THEN Parker got a second hole in one…Momma ended the day with zero! Right as the raindrops started to fall, we hit Scotty’s for lunch and some football on the TVs. After filling our bellies it was time to head off to our next adventure…Snapperz in Clay Terrance! Momma and I both worried that Parks would not go near the bouncehouses, but he quickly proved us wrong. It did take a little coaxing, but before we knew it he was slidding down the big inflatable slide with his hands up and the wind in his hair! We played lots of games and spent about 3 hours there! It was great, Momma watched the Colts loose, and we got to run around and play the whole afternoon!
This day couldn’t end without a frozen yogurt treat from Orange Leaf! Perfect way to end a great day of fun! Whatcha’ got on tap for tomorrow, Momma?
PS-Aunt Carrie would be proud: Two for one admission at mini golf AND Snapperz AND kids eat free on Sunday at Scotty’s! I know it’s not 30 jars of peanutbutter for free, but maybe now I can buy some peanutbetter even at full price! 
