Michigan and Wisconsin Trip

We just got home from a really fun trip up north. As I have said previously, we are trying to visit all the states with our kids and we decided to check to more off our list over our Christmas break. 

So after spending New Years Eve in South Haven and St. Joseph Michigan, we slept in and then checked out of our hotel to go explore some more. 

I had read about this cute little town called "Holland" and I thought it would be fun to go check it out. 

Turns out, it was adorable. Their main street was beautiful and the sidewalks were heated. We did some window shopping and found a cute Christmas ornament. 

We also enjoyed these little fireplaces that were on the corners, where we could warm up. 

 After doing some window shopping we drove over to the little Dutch Village in Holland. 
It was so cute. We walked around and explored. 

This little village is themed around the Dutch because the city Holland was founded by Dutch separatists. Dire economic conditions in the Netherlands compelled them to emigrate, while their desire for religious freedom led them to unite and settle together as  a group in Michigan.

We played at the playground for a bit and then walked around some more. 

I know the village is gorgeous in the spring and summer, but we still enjoyed the architecture and beautiful details. 

In the spring the view of the windmill would have been covered in tulips. 
I do love tulips and maybe at some point we will go back to Michigan, but it was still fun and pretty. 

These tulip chairs were a big hit. 

This windmill was called  De Zwaan and it is the only authentic Dutch windmill operating in the US. It still works to grind wheat into flour. 

We also got to see one of the original mill stones. 

We saw one of the original windmill blades that was riddled with bullet holes from the Germans during World War II. It was crazy to think about. 

After exploring the little village, we drove over to see the "Big Red Lighthouse" near Holland. 

We grabbed some lunch on the way and then drove to the shore of Lake Michigan. 

The Lighthouse wasn't open for tours but it was still so pretty to see.

Lake Michigan is gorgeous, even in the winter. 

It's crazy to see how big it is. It feels like the ocean and the beach is just as pretty. 

After seeing the Big Red Lighthouse, we left to drive to Wisconsin. 
On our way we stopped outside of Chicago to see the "Home Alone" house. 

It seemed like a shame to be so close to the house and not see it. 

People still live there so you cant get closer than the gate outside the house, but it was still fun to see it. 
There was literally a line to see the house, it's quite the tourist attraction. 

From there we drove on to our hotel in Wisconsin for the night. 

We ate a delicious dinner of fettuccini alfredo dinner and the kids were thrilled. 

The next morning we drove the rest of the way into Wisconsin Dells. 

We drove straight to our hotel which had an awesome indoor waterpark and indoor theme park. 

The hotel also had amazing outside features, but those were closed for the winter. 

We checked in and immediately went to start playing.  

The whole water park was themed around Greek mythology and the kids loved it. 

Everyone enjoyed the lazy river. It was called "The River Styx" and the kids spent a lot of time in it, floating around and relaxing. 

We also all rode "Medusa Slide wheel". This was the most unique waterslide and we had a blast going on it over and over.  

There were also some also smaller waterslides that we enjoyed. 

Tucker and Benson played together in the kiddie area. They had so much fun racing down the twin slides. 

That night we grabbed dinner and then passed out after a very full day of playing at the water park. 

The next morning we pack up to check out and went to the BlueGreen resort at Christmas Mountain Village. Wisconsin Dells was having an unusually dry winter. Normally they would have a ton of snow at this point but there was no snow on the ground during our trip. 
We had hoped to try skiing for the first time but the lack of snow made it impossible. 

So instead of skiing at Christmas Mountain Village, we did a little BlueGreen presentation, got our gift certificates and then left to explore the Dells. 

We went to eat at "Mac's" and it was completely delicious. Basically the dishes were all mac-n-cheese and then you could get different varieties. I had the loaded baked potato soup one and Chris had the "Three Little Pigs" - which had bacon, ham and pulled pork. 

We all enjoyed our mac-n-cheese dishes and the lunch was a huge hit. 

Then we walked around the main street in the Dells. 
We did some souvenir shopping and we found some pressed pennies and a Christmas ornament. 

Eventually we made our way to the Bluegreen Resort at Mt. Olympus. 
Basically it was the same waterpark, but Bluegreen had their own building that attached to the waterpark and the rooms were way nicer and more spacious. 

We checked in and then headed straight to the indoor waterpark. 

This pool table soccer was a huge hit. 

We all enjoyed the bumper cars. 

We had a great time playing together. 

 

After playing for a few hours, we decided to go to dinner at this place called "Buffalo Phil's"

We had been given a big gift certificate for this restaurant and we had thought there was no way we could spend that much money in one place, but we had a great time ordering whatever we wanted from the menu. 

Something that was even more fun was that there were different rooms that were all Lego themed. 

There was an entire room themed around "Star Wars" and Tanner loved it so much. We all enjoyed it but Tanner was in heaven. 

 

There was also train tracks around the whole place that brought your food to you. It was such a fun place. The kids ordered fun fishbowl drinks that had light up "ice cubes". 

We also had to get some cheese curds- because, when in Wisconsin you have to eat cheese. 

The food was delicious and we all enjoyed it. 
We had the best time looking at all the Lego rooms, watching the train deliver food to different people and eating all our delicious meals. 

That night we went back to our room and everyone got settled in. Tucker and Benson loved snuggling up with their heated blankets and watching the tv in the living room. 

The next day we went back to the water park after eating breakfast. 

The kids couldn't get enough of the water slides and the lazy river. 

We played and played. We came back to the room for a bit to eat lunch and rest and then went back to play some more. 

It was so nice that our BlueGreen resort was attached to the water park so we could just walk indoors to the waterpark each time we wanted to play. We had the best time and slept hard every night. 

We woke up early on Friday morning to drive back to Arkansas. We were trying to beat a snowstorm that was moving in and we made it back around 6 pm, just out running the snowstorm in Missouri. 

I do hope to go back to Wisconsin Dells at some point so that we can try snow skiing again. 
The BlueGreen resort at Christmas Mountain Village has the cutest little cabins and great ski rates. 

We will try again some day but we still had a fantastic trip. Now we have checked off two more states off our list!