Our First Family Vacation

Growing up, there was never really a question of where we would go on vacation. Most summers we would make the drive up to Wisconsin Dells for a few days of fun and some great memories. So, we decided to continue the tradition and take our first family vacation to the Dells. It's only a few hours in the car, so we figured it would be a perfect place to go. Evan did great in the car ride, thanks to the new portable DVD player we bought (of course to watch The Wiggles) and also planning the ride around Evan's nap time.

After checking into the hotel, we walked in the downtown area where all of the touristy shops are and to buy delicious fudge! We then went on the riverwalk path and had dinner at a pub that overlooks the Wisconsin River. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and Evan went in a real pool for the first time. He was a little hesitant but had fun playing with the tiny fountains in the kiddie area. Eventually he made his way to the top of the play set (with some help) and went down the water slide with Rick. He loved it!!

The next day we went to Storybook Gardens/Timbavati Wildlife Park. Now, Storybook Gardens has been around for a very long time. There are displays and activities all tied to different nursery rhymes and characters. It's a very cute concept, but not quite exciting enough for kids today. They added the wildlife areas to jazz things up in the past few years. It was great and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with children. There were all different kinds of animals in cages, but unlike at the zoo, you are able to get fairly close to the animals and you're not dealing with huge crowds of people. There were kanagroos (with joeys in their pockets!), monkeys, birds, zebras, tigers, etc. The really nice part was that you were able to feed many of the animals - ducks, llamas, goats, and.... a giraffe! They also had a little train that went around the park that Evan went on twice, along with a carousel (which was quite old, but Evan doesn't know the difference).

Eating with The 3 Bears

An Evan sized house!

Riding the train with daddy...

and with mommy.

On our last full day the weather was not as beautiful as our first 2 days. We drove out to Wollersheim Winery and took a tour, then did a wine tasting. Not easy to do with a toddler, but it worked out OK. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures while we were there, but the area is beautiful! You would never guess it was in Wisconsin. The rest of the day was cloudy and rainy, so there wasn't much else to do for someone Evan's age. We tried going to an indoor amusement park, but all Evan could go on were the little rides that you would find in front of KMart. He did go on the little firetruck and thought it was fun.


At some point in our trip, we also tried to take a peek at Lake Delton. For those of you who haven't heard (it made National news), with the horrible rain storms the midwest had in late June, a levy that joins Lake Delton (the major lake in the Dells) with the Wisconsin River broke, and all the water from the lake emptied into the river, leaving a dry lake bed. This isn't the greatest picture of it, but just imagine all of the brown sandy areas covered in water, and that was Lake Delton. The area is really suffering from the lack of tourists there this summer - very sad - but they're hoping to get it refilled by next summer.



Anyways, Evan did great the whole vacation. Luckily he behaved in all the restaurants, and we avoided any huge meltdowns. It was a great first vacation for the Repking family!