It's a pretty big deal

The kids and I recently took a little trip to the

WISCONSIN DELLS.

Which I'm sure you've never heard of but we've been hearing about for the past 3 years, since we moved to Minnesota.

It's kind of a strange little place. My sister described it as

"a disneyland/carnival/theme park/waterworld/las vegas in the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin"

I'd say that about sums it up.

Anyways, my mom and little bro Landon were visiting my sister Tiff in Chicago so we decided to meet up.

The Dells made perfect sense, being about halfway between here and Chicago.

The kids were sooo excited to see cousin Madden!

And Aunt Tiff, Grandma, and Uncle Landon.

First thing we did was take a DUCKS tour. A vehicle made for land and water.

Everybody loved it (the tour guide most of all)

Then we checked into our room at the indoor/outdoor waterpark resort we would spend the next couple of days at.

The room was AWESOME!

Plenty of space for the kids to run around, enough rooms so we could put kids to bed then stay up way too late talking and watching movies, a huge kitchen to prepare meals in, and of course a jetted tub in the middle of the living room.

Half of Monday, all day Tuesday, and half of Wednesday we were here.

And yes, mostly inside since it was freezing outside! The indoor waterpark was bigger and better anyways. Noah loved every minute of it and Alex shocked me with how brave she was. She'd go on anything I told her to, there was nothing we did that she didn't do too.

There was a great play area for the toddlers too, everyone had a blast.

So much so that we didn't take any pictures.

Wednesday afternoon we headed over to the Deer Park, a main attraction in The Dells (like I said, a strange little place).

The deer roam free and the kids get to feed them and pet them.

The toddlers...hated it. Totally freaked. I couldn't put Avery down even once.

The big kids liked it, although some of those deer were a little agressive.

My favorite was when Alex, laughing nervously as the deer swarmed around her said, "I rather wish they were in a cage!"

We got one last picture of the cousins and then it was time to say goodbye and head our separate ways.

It was a quick little trip but so much fun!

Thanks mom for organizing it!

p.s. I love having my sister a mere 6 hours away. I'm going to be so sad when that comes to an end. Tiff are you sure you guys want to move back to AZ?? A better idea would be to wait and see where we are moving and then base your plans around that : )