Family Vacation to Wisconsin Dells

Remember how Doug and I went to Mexico and felt bad for having fun in the sun without our baby? We decided to make it up to her with a classic Midwest vacation to Wisconsin Dells. We left at 5am so Mia could sleep most of the way. Phew! My plan worked and she slept for two of the three hours. {Travel Tip #1 - Time your travel time with your kid's sleep schedule. Less time awake = less time to entertain = less opportunity for meltdowns = happier parents. }

After my babies enjoyed their breakfast at Mr. Pancake, we were off to do the hour long Original Duck Tour. Honestly, this entire trip is exactly what I did with my nephew four years ago. Minus Storybook Gardens and a carnival type area because they both closed L

Ryu @ 2.5 years old

Mia @ 1.5 years old

We got suckered into this $20 picture package because I knew that it’d be the ONLY picture with the three of us ever the entire weekend.

Mia loves playing in the water, so at 11am we pre-registered and spent two days at the Wilderness Resort. They have three outdoor pools and three indoor pools, but we had warm in the sun/cool in the shade weather which was perfect.  {Travel Tip #2 - Bring your own towels. The hotels "pool" towels were tiny like the ones at the gym!} Mia happily bobbed in these swings for 15 minutes at a time. Which is a pretty long attention span for a toddler if you ask me!

On day two, after the hotel’s breakfast buffet (meh), we had lots of fun crawling through the hotel's climbing/jungle gym type area.  After breaking a sweat, it was naptime, then back to the pool.

For dinners, Mia enjoyed the hibachi at Ginza of Tokyo, but was in meltdown mode the second night at Famous Dave’s in downtown. {Travel Tip #3 - Pack lots of snacks. The gladware snack cups are the perfect size.} Downtown was kind of depressing. Other than the Duck Tour and hotel pools, I felt like there wasn’t much else for my 18 month old baby to do. The Dells just isn’t how I remembered L I loved our yearly motorhome camping trips out there as a kid. And Mia loves maps just like mommy and daddy hehe. {Travel Tip #4 - Pack a small bag full of various activities.}

On our way home we hit up the outlet mall and endured another meltdown. Luckily after that, she passed out in the car for awhile. Overall, to my delight, Mia pooped at the right times (phew!), slept most of the time in the car, wasn’t too terrible at meals, and enjoyed her time in the pool. Looks like my babies had a fun first family vacation, no?