Our Babymoon in the Wisconsin Dells

Well hello again, friends!! I’ll admit, it feels like I haven’t gotten a blog post up in forever – yikes! Baby prepping tasks, a vacation, and hosting and spending time with family have been wonderful and important, but since I hadn’t scheduled posts in advance, they fell by the wayside a bit. At least I managed to get a pregnancy update up yesterday! 🙂

I’m back with more posts, though, and ready to get back into the swing of things!

Today I’m excited to share about the little vacation Bjorn and I just took together! Since it was our last trip together as just the two of us before baby is born, we’re calling it our “babymoon.” 🙂 It’s going to be a long post with a lot of pictures, because I want to recap every part of our trip to capture these memories. 🙂

We spent 4 days (3 nights) in the Wisconsin Dells, which was such a nice getaway and not too far from home! I appreciated being only a 4-hour drive from home at this point in the pregnancy. While we didn’t stay at one of the super fancy waterpark resorts, the hotel we were at was right along the main stretch where all of the attractions are, so it was great to have easy access to everything we wanted to do.

** I only brought my phone along on this trip, instead of my “good camera,” because I didn’t want to lug it around, and I wanted to feel even more present with Bjorn. As much as I LOVE photographing life with my DSLR, this was a great decision!

Our Wisconsin Dells Trip:

Lost Canyon Tours: When Bjorn and I first pulled into the Dells, we started off with the Lost Canyon Tours. This is where a horse-drawn wagon takes you through a narrow, gorgeous canyon – a canyon so narrow, it is exactly the width of the wagon at times!

It’s amazing how dark and especially cool it is inside those rock formations! I think they said it can be 10-15 degrees cooler when you’re inside the canyon.

Fun Restaurants: We really enjoyed the opportunity to try some unique places and dishes while we were in the Dells. On our first night there, we went to a restaurant called Crabby’s. I got a bucket of crab legs (I love crab, but I realized that it is a ton of work to get to your food, haha).

Bjorn had the coolest dish — he got one of the “Entrees Served on the Rock,” which means that they bring out your uncooked meat AND a 700-degree lava rock that you get to cook it on!! He got salmon, scallops, and shrimp, and he loved it. What a cool experience!

We ALSO discovered the magical place that is Dunkin’ Donuts!! 🙂

I didn’t grow up with a Dunkin’ Donuts nearby, so I didn’t really know what to expect my first time there. But we had some pretty awesome coupons from our hotel so we wanted to give it a try for breakfast. Let me say, I’ve always been a hardcore Starbucks fan (you know I love my iced vanilla chai!) but the iced vanilla chai at Dunkin’ comes super close flavor-wise!! (And it is less than half the price.) We were so impressed!

So, for breakfast while we were in the Dells, we enjoyed getting bagels and our favorite drinks each morning for a total of $5! (I also just learned there is a Dunkin’ in the city we like to run bigger errands in, about an hour away from our home. I will definitely be stopping there next time!!)

We also enjoyed a fancy Italian supper one night — complete with cannoli! It was delicious!

The Timbavati Wildlife Park: This was such a cool zoo-type experience! (And Bjorn and I are kids at heart, so we soaked up every minute of it!) We went early one morning before other places were open.

We bought a cup of carrot sticks for $4 and they remarkably lasted us really well throughout the entire park! Each of the animals’ cages had a sign that said if you could feed them carrots or not. It was a much more close-up zoo experience than usual, which was a blast!

^^ I was fascinated by the tigers! They were so huge and majestic…and close-up, too! ^^

^^ The giraffe was such a fun part of the day! ^^

I was super excited for Bjorn because he had never “met” a giraffe before!! And here, the giraffe was so up-close, we could just feed it our carrots! It was so much fun! (But I think his favorite creature was the tiny monkey-like animal called a marmoset.)

Mt. Olympus Waterpark: We definitely wanted to spend some time at a waterpark while in the Dells. I mean, it’s the waterpark capital of the U.S.! Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed on the waterslides, but I was allowed on lazy rivers, so that was a blast! (I love lazy rivers so much anyway!) We enjoyed a good portion of a day at Mt. Olympus.

There was one lazy river in particular called The River Troy, which had chilly water outdoors and was classified as a “fast” lazy river! We had so much fun on that one! It had a stronger current and definitely went faster than the other lazy rivers, so that was as close to a waterslide as I was going to get. 😉

^^ 31 week baby bump at the wave pool! ^^

Wisconsin Ducks: I had purchased us a combo ticket in advance, for an Original Wisconsin Ducks tour and an Upper Dells boat tour. The Ducks tour was action-packed! We really zoomed fast up and down the paths on land during our tour, and we went into the water of the Wisconsin River with a big splash! 🙂 We had a really funny tour guide, which made the tour even better!

^^ About to go in the water!! ^^

Tommy Bartlett Show: You can’t really do the Dells without going to their famous waterski show! 🙂 I had gone to the show as a kid, so I was excited to go with Bjorn this time!

^^ I’m not a videographer, haha, but it was really neat to see many tricks like this one! ^^

^^ It’s hard to get a photo of waterski pyramids in the dark, but it sure was spectacular! These people are very talented! ^^

 Upper Dells Boat Tour: We really enjoyed this boat tour as well! It was more low-key than the fast-paced Wisconsin Ducks tour – and still so fun! This tour took 2 hours (actually even longer than that) and included 2 stops along the way – one at Witches Gulch and one at Stand Rock.

Cave of the Mounds: Bjorn loves caves! So do I – but he loves them even more. 🙂 This cavern was a fun one. We did the 1-hour tour and really enjoyed it.

Visiting friends & family on the way home: We even had a full, fun trip home! We met up with our friends Josh and Kayty and their precious baby girl for breakfast – it was so great chatting with them and getting to see their town! We also spent time with Bjorn’s aunt that afternoon, and with his sister that evening!

We got home at 2 am that night – Bjorn did a great job driving us home while I napped. 🙂

I am so grateful that Bjorn and I got to spend time together this way! It was wonderful to enjoy a babymoon as just the two of us. Soon we’ll have a sweet little girl join our family, which will be amazing, but it was important and special for the two of us to enjoy a trip like this before she comes. 🙂