Our day in Wisconsin Dells

Our horses for the tour...Dan and Dick.

Early in the summer we grow extra strawberries and use that as our summer fun money.As our summer comes to a close, we knew we had one more chance to get in a day trip.    At first we thought about going to Devil's Lake but today ended up being a last minute decision.  5 minutes before we left we found this place on the internet Lost Canyon.  So we printed off directions...we're only an hour away!  This was a very enjoyable tour and very relaxing.  Our tour guide was trying to tell Ethan and Karlie that they had to return at 6 pm to do barn duty...that's why their tickets were half off...LOL   

The horses had to get the buggy through very narrow passages.

After our horse and buggy ride we took the upper dells tour via boat...over 2 hours long!  Did we have fun!!!  Weird Al came out with a song recently that fits our tours.  We put all of these pictures on a DVD to the song Skipper Dan.  Enjoy!

Karlie and Ethan

Mark will talk anyone's ear off...this man was from Connecticut   

Preston fell asleep so Mark stayed back to let him rest.    We were hoping Mark wouldn't fall asleep too.

Preston sleeping.  Funny thing is when talking to Preston the next day...this was his favorite part.  But next time he wants to go on the "fast" boats.  We saw some of them and he was impressed.

This was cool watching this man being pulled by a boat.  

I hope you enjoyed these 17 pictures...they are the best of 267 that we took this day.

You Call this R&R?

This morning I got thinking of things coming up and decided to ask the family if they'd like to go hiking over at Devil's Lake, Baraboo WI?  We figured that it had been about 10 years since we've ventured over there.  During our drive over we picked up munchies and drinks, at this time the mood was upbeat and full of laughter.  Little did any of us know what was in store for us.

 

The day was beautiful, a little humid but under the coolness of the trees it felt perfect.  So on our hike we went.  Climbing up and up and up.  Mom, Dad and 8 kids in tow.  

We kept climbing up until we saw this...

To the right you can see the brown building where we started out.  After sitting there a while we noticed a pair of bald eagles flying around...how cool was that?  That was something none of us have ever seen before.  Then it was onto the rest of the trail.  We wanted to circle around the whole lake.  So we moved on...right on off the path and into a patch of poison ivy.  Luckily no one was affected.  We were standing right out in the middle of no where.  Mark walked away and found that we were 300' off the path.  That's what happens when everyone just follows the front person.  As the old saying goes "what goes up must come down"...down happen to be a path straight down some tumbled rocks and a waterfall. 

We gingerly made our way down this...every step was thought out.  Then we hear the lead person yell, "I see the bottom"...that was music to our ears.  We never felt so good about walking on flat land.  We climbed up 334' and had to come down 334'...all in this one path. 

This is what we see at the bottom. Beautiful, flat marked out paths!!! At this point we aren't half way yet...but the rest of the hike is FLAT!!!

So we continued on our way. 

This was the rest of the hike, in and around boulders.  All in all...great day.  Hiked over 3 miles and it took 3 hours and 15 minutes.  By the end it was more like 8 kids with mom and dad in tow.  LOL  Now we are talking about taking grandma and grandpa along and spend 2 days.