Wisconsin Dells

We took our family vacation to Wisconsin Dells.  This was our first vacation taken with JUST our family.  We all had a great time!

Day 1:  Breakfast at Home... Driving... Lunch at the Machine Shed... Arrive at Hotel... SWIMMING!... Pizza in our Room... Planning our Trip

 Day 2:  Lazy Morning/Breakfast in our Room... SWIMMING... Picnic Lunch... Visit a Cheese Store (Candy for the Kids!)... MORE SWIMMING... Bowling... Dinner at Buffalo Phil's (Food Delivered by Train)

 Day 3:  Breakfast in our Room... Lost Canyon Tour (Horse-Pulled Wagon Ride)... Paint it Pottery (We designed a "Gorsch Family Star" Plate)... Dinner at Paul Bunyon's (We bought the kids a book with Paul Bunyon Tall Tales)... SWIMMING!... Popcorn & Movie Night in our Room

 Day 4:  Breakfast outside & Playing on the Playground... Riverside & Great Northern mini-Train Ride... Picnic Lunch... Driving Home

 I had REALLY been wanting to try the new chocolate chip frappe from McDonalds--it was a perfect "driving home" treat (and SO yummy!!!)

 We used a ticket system for our car ride (thanks to my sis-in-law Cori for the idea!) and it was a complete success!  Our ride wasn't too long (about 3.5 hours) but I wanted to make it special for vacation.  Each kid was able to earn a ticket for each 10 minutes of riding if they were well behaved.  Any whining, arguing with mom & dad, complaining, or fighting with siblings resulted in loss of ticket for that time period.  Once they earned their tickets, I did not take them away.  They could trade tickets in for rewards:  4 tickets--choose a movie, 5 tickets--20 minutes of iPad or Leapster time, 6 tickets--choose a treat ($2 or less) at the next gas station stop OR choose a treat from mom's bag of surprises.  This worked AMAZINGLY for Sadie.  She was the most well behaved she's ever been for a car ride.  No fighting over what movie to watch, or kids saying they were bored.  In the future I will probably up the amount of time to earn tickets (10 minutes was a bit tedious) but it was nice because Sadie could watch the clock and tell me when it was ticket time.  I decided to keep the tickets in the car for future car rides (trips to our parents...)