March 29, 2024

Column: We’re going on vacation

Following the Fourth of July holiday, my family headed out for our second family vacation. This year our destination was the Wisconsin Dells and the Kalahari Waterpark Resort.

Our first vacation, last summer, was to Omaha to visit the Henry Doorly Zoo. We stayed one night at a hotel with an indoor Waterpark and saw all we could handle of the zoo on the hot summer day.

With my girls being “little fish” when it comes to pool time, I decided the Dells would be a great place with its plethora of waterparks and its close proximity.

Because we couldn’t check into the hotel until 4 p.m., we took our time traveling, taking the scenic route and saw some beautiful Wisconsin country. Once we were at the hotel, it took little time for the girls to request their swimsuits and want to head to the pool.

The hotel was amazing. It had both indoor and outdoor waterparks along with a private pool in our courtyard near our room.

The girls had a blast discovering all of the attractions including the wave pool, water slides, activity area and lazy river. In a change up from years past, my oldest daughter has become the daring one, wanting to try all of the water slides, while my youngest daughter was more hesitant and preferred to stick to the pools where she could swim.

The indoor park, where we spent our first night, had areas for every age and slides for the little ones, up to teens and adults. There were multiple family slides, which was great for us, where we could ride with the kiddos instead of them taking the plunge themselves.

After hours of swimming and playing we called it a night and went to get some rest before our next big day. Our first full day on vacation, we picked up a few supplies and then got ready to take on the outdoor waterpark.

With the sun shining and weather in the high 80s, we headed out covered in sunscreen to see what all was outside. We first explored the treehouse which had water falling on us, multiple water slides and climbing nets throughout.

Next up was the lazy river. The resort rules were to have the girls in tubes the whole time, but since they are still little, they couldn’t comfortably sit in the tube, so we moved on to the large water slides.

My youngest decided she would rather swim than head down the slides so she went with her dad to one of the many wading pools. My oldest and I headed up to one of the biggest slides I have ever seen at a waterpark. Riding on a circular raft, we flew down the slide, my girl screaming and giggling the whole way.

We tried out one more slide, an enclosed double tube slide with LED lights on our way down. I think it was a little scary being in the dark and going so fast for my oldest and when we were done she wanted to go swimming instead of checking out any more slides.

A few other memorable things that happened while on vacation were the girls’ first trip to the Disney store, my oldest losing her second tooth and having the tooth fairy visit at the hotel and our first vacation town water show, complete with a scary clown, juggler and acrobats.

Getting away for four days with my family was great, and I can’t wait to start planning next year’s trip.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at
jpierson@newtondailynews.com