Happy Birthday Andrew!

Today is Isabel's little friend, Andrew's birthday. His mom invited us to go celebrate with them at Wisconsin Dells, Great Wolf Lodge. Now, for those of you who have never been to the Dells, it is a place about an hour north of Madison in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin that's sole purpose is to entice your kids to take them there and then when you get there charge you an arm and a leg, over a $100 dollars a night, to stay at a hotel. It has all of these waterparks at the different hotels, a new outlet mall and totally pointless attractions like Tommy Bartlett's Thrill show. I'm not even sure what that is! Anyway, it's kind of growing on me.

The first time we ventured up here was right after we moved here and didn't know about the water parks. Mom, Dad, Jolene and I drove up here and went right into the Dells. Now, downtown actually has a really nice expansive river running through it and some awesome cliffs, from what we could see. They actually have every inch of the river bought up as either commerical space or really expensive houses/condos or you have to pay to ride these things called ducks to go up and down the river. Of course, we didn't figure this out until we drove all over town and kept running into private property signs and businesses trying to take our money. By the time we found a spot where we could see the river, it was small and we were all more than a little disgusted by the commercialism.

And now look, here were are at the Great Wolf. I guess when you live in Wisconsin where 5 months of the year it is pretty cold out and you want to get away, this is a good idea. For rich people! The only times we have been able to come is when we were on someone else's dime. My godfather was up here doing some work and we came and stayed a couple times. It was awesome, the room we were in cost over a $100 a night and now this time we are in a pretty cool family suite that costs $189!! At least that price includes bracelets for the waterpark and there are fridges in the rooms with microwaves and the kids have a pretty cool space with bunk beds and a tv and they have cool activities for them. I'm thinking maybe we should come here over Thanksgiving when my parents come. Uh-oh, does that mean I'm turning into a Wisconsinite? AAHH!!