Our Favorite Eats in the Dells

     When my husband and I were first married, we always said we would never become that family who vacationed in the same spot year after year. But here we are, continually finding our way back to the Wisconsin Dells. In the past 3.5 years, we have been to the Dells 5 times. But in our defense, we have thrown in a couple trips to Iceland, Disney World, & Gatlinburg so we at least are branching out and trying other places...but if it came down to our favorite and easiest spot to go to, the Dells hits the top of the list.

     Since it has been a few years since I've last blogged about our trips, I thought I might take some time and update the blog about some of our adventures and things we like to do on our vacations. Starting with my favorite aspect of vacations.... the FOOD! Not having to cook or clean the kitchen is the best part of vacations, am I right?? Here are some of the places we have tried at the Dells:

MACS Mac & Cheese   
   
                             

       Eating at MACS each time we visit is a MUST in my family. After all, you are in the Cheese State. Their dishes are baked in mini cast iron skillets filled with gooey cheese goodness and an assortment of toppings for you to choose. My favorite is the cheeseburger skillet option which is mac&cheese topped with a hamburger & pickle. I also love the Philly Mac which sauteed green peppers, onions, and steak.

      My husband's favorite is called The Hangover Mac which toppings include; bacon, hot dog, pepper jack, mozzarella, hash browns, sauteed green peppers, onion, mushrooms, and sriracha.  It's a perfect option if you like small kick to your food. And if you're not a fan of mac&cheese, they also have grilled sandwich options.


Pizza Lab 
      
         If my family had to pick their absolute number one favorite restaurant in the Dells, it would hands down be the Dells Pizza Lab. We think about it all year long in anticipation to getting to eat there again the next time we visit. My family LOVES pizza so you can't go wrong with a create-your-own pizza place. 

     How I explain it, is it's basically like a "Subway" but for Pizza! 

    There are soooo many toppings to pick from, even different options of sauces and cheeses. You can get as wild as you like as far as meats and veggie toppings. One time I mentioned I wanted to try olives but just wanted to *try it but not waste half my pizza on it and she literally put a few olives on ONE SINGLE section/slice of my pizza to try. It was awesome!!! It's a perfect chance to try new things and spice up your pizza life. 

      Did I mention they throw it in a hot fired oven?!!! 

Making the crust cooked to perfection. 

I mean, PERFECTION!!! I'm already craving it again.

     Last, but certainly not least, they have a few drizzle sauce options to finish off your pizza or to use as dip. The butter-garlic sauce is a no-brainer. 

Buffalo Phil's 

Next up on places we like to eat,

it's Buffalo Phil's or what my kids call "The Train Place." 

My husband and I both agree, the food isn't anything to write home about. It's your average restaurant food but a bit pricey in our eyes. But it's our kid's favorite restaurant because??..

 A toy train delivers your food!! 

So fun, right? The kids get really excited when the train comes around with food or toys and it keeps them a bit entertained and happy which in turn makes me, the mother, happy too. 

As far as the food, it's fine. It's good just not stand-out amazing. We normally grab a pizza or eat the salad bar.  We learned this year, if you go at Christmas, their Special Christmas Buffet serves prime rib which was amazing. But if we didn't have kids with us, we would probably be skipping this restaurant to try something new.

Hot Dog Avenue 

On one of our recent trips, we went through the drive-thru of Hot Dog Avenue and were quite surprised how delicious our meals turned out. I have never been inside and have only tried a couple different hot dogs, but I am now a huge fan of the Chicago Dog and force my husband to take me to drive through to get one each time we are in the Dells.

 You can't get any better than that bun right there. So soft.

           

The Grateful Shed

We have such mixed reviews on the newest restaurant at the Wisconsin Dells called The Grateful Shed Truckyard. The atmosphere is unlike anything we have been to. You walk into this large building that looks like a garage and it's full of different vehicles and various food trucks to choose from. 

It's definitely one of the coolest restaurant we have ever been to. 

As you can see, even some of the vintage vans have booths inside for you to eat and the backs have the soda and condiment station. Again, it is such a neat and fun environment. 

   We were a little caught off guard by the price of food and the amount of food you get. I realize food trucks tend to cost a little more, which is fine, but I didn't expect to spend $50 and still feel like I needed to take my family to another fast food place to get more food to feel satisfied. So that was the only disappointing aspect of our lunch. It was pricey and you don't get a lot of food.

BUT, this was our first time so we are very open to trying it again and maybe trying something else off the menu. The grilled cheese & cheeseburger truck looked amazing so I think next time I will definitely be trying a cheeseburger.

We finished our meal by sharing a treat from the Sugar Stream. 

This is called a Frosty Pinata and this is the Watermelon flavor. The sour trolli worms paired so deliciously with the fruity slush and was a huge hit with the kids and myself.

MooseJaw

If you are in the mood for some pizza and want more of a slower sit-down style of restaurant other than Pizza Lab, then MooseJaw is a good option. It's a great family-friendly restaurant.

MooseJaw and Buffalo Phil's have the same owner so if you like Buffalo Phil's pizza you will like MooseJaw and vice-versa. Moosejaw is also a brewery and although I haven't tried any of their adult specialty drinks, their homemade rootbeer is quite good! 

Monks 

    It's been a couple years since we have eaten at Monks. The first year we went and we loved what we had. We actually ate there twice in one trip. But then the following year, they had changed their menu and what we loved was no longer on the menu. So in the smallest of any chances Monk's reads my review, please bring back your Philly Cheeseburger!! 

We haven't been back since, so maybe it's something we try again next time. It's your typical bar & grill burger place. I do like the kids meal options for toddlers who like Dino-nuggets. Plus, the kids meals are served on a Monks Frisbee which they can then take home and keep.

Five Guys & HuHot

Five Guys Burgers & Fries is a chain restaurant and although it isn't a unique option in the Dells, it is one of the best burgers you will ever have. So if you have a craving for a burger, Five Guys is the place to go whether you are in the Dells or just near any Five Guys restaurant in the U.S.

Same goes for HuHot Mongolian Grill. You can find HuHot in various locations probably near you, so it might not be something new you want to try in the Dells, but if you get a hankering for some stir-fry this is one of our favorite places to go.

  

Disney Quilt

I think we can all agree December was a busy month, right? As soon as we got back from our trip to Iceland-BOOM-the Christmas hustle was on. In my large family, we draw names to decide which sibling we buy for and this year I had to give a gift to my sister Courtney. When I asked her what she wanted, all she would tell me was that she wanted a Disney Quilt.

I always laughed at this answer because I didn't have a lot of time to make a quilt.

Between my 3 kids, trying to stay on top of housework, prepping for my Iceland trip, and the bitter cold just making me so darn tired, I really didn't think I would be able to get a quilt done by Christmas.

But she refused to give me any other Christmas gift ideas!  

Considering she did keep all THREE of my kids for the entire week I was in Iceland, how could I say no? I totally owed her. Actually I'll be forever indebted to her for that but hopefully this Disney quilt will help her forget how my youngest woke her up at 4am every.single.day that week!

So a Disney quilt is what the spoiled sister gets! ;) 

I'm not one who normally sews with character fabric. They tend to be quite whimsical so instead of trying to fight that, I embraced it. Courtney said she would love for the quilt to have lots of different characters in it so I just bought as much different types of disney fabric I could find and cut them down to make a scrappy quilt.

 Having so many different types and styles of characters of fabric, various colors, designs, it was darn near impossible to make it all match. I tried to pull them all together by creating a wild scrappy style quilt. As you already know, I love scrappy quilts and think this turned out pretty great.

 The quilt may appear quite busy, but it's a really fun quilt in that the closer you look, the more characters you can find. I guess it could be considered an "I-Spy" style quilt in that regard.

How many different characters can you spot in each small section of the quilt??

Since I was short on time, I made this quilt using the Quilt-as-you-go method. I really love this method because it makes the process go so much faster...or at least feel like it does. Quilting on my small standard machine can be intimidating so if i can break it down into smaller sections it helps a lot and helps me feel less overwhelmed about trying to maneuver a large quilt around my small machine.

It wrinkled up oh so nicely just as a good quilt should. 

Ready for snuggles, spring picnics, summer ball games, and more! 

 Of course I had to add in my favorite character-Stitch!! 

I hope you enjoyed the pics of my Disney quilt as much as my sister seemed to enjoy unwrapping this at Christmas!! 

Do you have someone who is a Disney fanatic like my sister?? 

Or are you one yourself? ;) 

Love of Rifle Paper Co Fabrics

Just wanted to share a quick overview of what I've been crafting over the past few months. 

Most of these items have been sold in a pop-up sale I recently hosted but I wanted to share what all I've been crafting. It's nice to have some pictures of things I've made in the past to compare to see how far my sewing has come along, as well as have a place to look back on for future inspiration. And if you're a sewer, maybe these will give you some ideas of projects you could make as well.

Probably one of my favorite projects I made were these Quilted Dresden Pillows. They were so much fun, I actually ended up making FOUR! I love all things vintage so it's no wonder I love it! So many old vintage fabrics were used to make this scrappy piece. I call it "Grandmother's Pillow" because it looks like an heirloom piece, or something you might have seen at your grandmother's house growing up. Brings good memories.

Next up, I made a handful of products using Rifle Paper Co fabric by Cotton & Steel. I've been wanting to get my hands on this print for some time but could never bring myself to spend pricetag on the one yard of canvas fabric. But I finally did and I'm SO glad I did because it was worth every penny! Don't you agree?
How pretty is this checkbook cover?!

 & Key fobs!

I especially loved pairing the natural Rosa print with some brown leather vinyl.

 ALL the heart eyes!

 And you can never go wrong with an oversized square bottom zipper pouch! I'm needing one for myself for a makeup bag!

You can never have too many zipper pouches! I love making them in various sizes for various needs. This 9" zipper made for a perfect pencil pouch! It's large enough to even hold a pair of scissors or even the checkbook along with some pens! I use it everyday and keep it with my Planner & bible journal.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope this gave you some sewing inspiration! 

You can find more of my creations on IG: @whitsrunningstitch 

Kalahari Resort-Wisconsin Dells

I shared yesterday our trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells. Today I thought I would share with you about our stay at the Kalahari Resort.. 

We have stayed at Kalahari both times we have vacationed in the Wisconsin Dells. It is our most favorite place!!

The resort has a safari-African theme to it.

HOTEL ROOM

For our first trip to Kalahari, we booked a standard room which I believe was called The Hut Room.

It had 2 full beds and a couch that pulls out into another bed. It also had a mini fridge and microwave. This was great because, once again, we just packed and ate breakfast in the hotel each morning.

The rooms were very clean and I loved the African decor.

For the second vacation, we booked the Combination Suite. It came with 2 bedrooms and a living room as well as full kitchen!!

Having a designated place to hang out was sooo nice with kids! Janessa tends to wake up early so it was nice to be able to take her into a seperate room to play and not worry about waking up everyone else. It's a great way to save on time and money to be able to cook in a kitchen too. Of course we were on vacation so I didn't want to have to cook, but we packed along a lot of snacks and easy microwavable food for quick lunches & breakfast. The kitchen was FULLY STOCKED with pots, pans, dishes, silverware, and more! It had a full size oven, refrigerator, and even a dishwasher! It was soooo convenient! 

 The grandparents came along on our vacation so it was really nice to have seperate rooms and yet, at the same time, be connected. 

As for our bedroom with our three kids, we had 2 queen beds. Our room also came with a mini fridge & microwave.

WATERPARK

As for the waterpark, we loved the waterpark at Kalahari a lot more than Great Wolf Lodge. Don't get me wrong, Great Wolf Lodge was great, but here are a few reasons why I LOVED Kalahari.

At Kalahari, the indoor waterpark was in ONE large room! This was nice because I knew the entire family was all in one place. The outdoor pool wasn't even accessible in the area so no worries about kids sneaking outside. So here are some other things I loved about the waterpark at Kalahari.

First off, BABY SWINGS!!

Kalahari has a few sections of baby swings so your little ones can dip their toes in the water and have a good time since they are too little to swim. For my girls who hated being in the water, they actually LOVED being in the swings.

 It really helped transition them into water and helped them become comfortable in the water.

By the second day they were brave enough to get all the way in the water and splash around.

But another reason I LOVED the baby swings was because it gave this momma a break! My babies tend to be on the chubby side which makes them very heavy and tiring to hold . It was nice to be able to have a break from constantly carrying or holding them and it made them happy too so it was win-win. 

They also had a great section just for toddlers and little ones. It had a small lazy river just for them-how cute, right? 

This part was full of smaller slides they can do and little statue animals to sit on or spraying water.

We didn't spend a lot of time outside (early June is still a tad cold outdoors) but on the days it got up the 80's we ventured outside. 

Again, they had a section for the small toddlers with baby swings and smaller slides to climb and slide down.

And if you have older kids or want to ride some bigger rides, they have PLENTY of huge awesome rides outside! 

Be sure to try out their newest thrill slide "Smoke Thunder"!! It's a super fast ride but, wow, worth going down at least once or twice!

Back inside, another reason I loved Kalahari was the middle section for kids of all ages. It was a great section for my 5 year old who is too big for the baby section but too small for the older rides or deep ends.

 It had a large jungle gym in the middle, when you climbed up it lead to various slides to go down! This picture just shows half of it! There are a ton of slides to choose from in various sizes! 

Ashton's favorite was the yellow Snake Slide! He went down it countless times. It was a great slide for little ones. Adults are not allowed to ride down these slides with their kids but they are made for kids so there's not much to worry about. I saw some TINY kids going down them and loving it. 

In the middle there are basketball hoops and basketballs for the kids to play with in the water.

 We spent a lot of time here in the middle. It was great I could put my youngest in the swing and sit back and watch my other two climb up and go down the slides or watch them splash in the water. I love it wasn't completely open to the rest of the swimming area. 

There were only 3 small narrow exits if they would escape, so I could always see if they were headed out of this area but they never did-it was too much fun to leave. 

Another great thing about Kalahari is the Family Raft Rides!! I hate riding on bottomless tubes while trying to hold a small child. It's uncomfortable and I always feel like I'm going to fall off. This was not the case at Kalahri! Sure they had tube rides, but they also had some great rides you could do as a famiy on a raft that has a bottom you can sit down on! There were 2-3 like this we went on over & over again. And if you like Lazy Rivers, they have one of those too.

I will say, they only thing I didn't like about Kalahari was the wave pool. They allow tubes in this section which just makes me so nervous about kids getting stuck under one & it just adds to the chaos. I only allowed Ashton in there if he was with his dad. The lifeguards there are top of the line but this is the only section I saw a lifeguard have to go in and grab a kid because they were getting in too deep in the waves.

But as you can see, there's a small splash pad for kids to play on, a playground with a small slide, and more baby swings in this section! 

Now aside from all the kid stuff, there are plenty of adult things to do.

The Wave Runner was a favorite of my husband. He took a small course that allowed him to be able to stand up and surf. 

If you don't want to take a quick learning course, you can belly board on it as much as you want! They also have a swim-up bar, some huge slides with the drop-floor, a hot tub area, and so many more slides!!

There's so much to do, you could never get bored.

And if you get tired of swimming, they have a handful of other things to do. If you want some fresh air, they have chalk outside for the kids to draw or a nice easy game of Bag Toss.

Or you can go inside and try their indoor amusement park!

There's a large arcade portion, indoor mini golf, go carts, obstacle ropes course, merry-go-round, climbing rock wall, and more! These are an additional cost of course but you can pay one flat price for your entire stay and go and play as much as you want!! They also have family bowling and a food court and more. Too many games and activities to count but, like I said, you just CAN'T get bored at Kalahari!

Like Great Wolf Lodge, they have special times for kids to take apart of activities. Like FREE cookie decorating in the afternoons!!

They also have other activities like coloring contests, scavenger hunts, craft time, etc. Just be sure to check out the activity calendar of events on the dates you go! They even have set times they bring in baby tigers! You can pay to get your pictures taken holding them  or it's just fun to see them up close!

And if you do go and your husband loves video games, be sure to have them try out their new Virtual Reality!! It's crazy!!! We did the Zombie game and it was terrifyingly real!! Seriously, pay the money to try it out-it is an experience!

Another couple perks with staying at Kalahari, you get free tickets to the Timbavati Wildlife Park & Tommy Barlet Show!! These are for a limited time so be sure to check the dates HERE!

We didn't go to the Tommy Barlet Show because I didn't think my 2 year old and 7 month old would want to sit a couple hours to watch it. But my parents went and said it was entertaining. Especially for being free!
As for the Timbavati Wildlife Park, it's nothing fancy. It was sad I felt like it was a bit run down and they were desperate for funds. They had some neat animals and you could feed the goats, birds, pet the cows, and they had a pig race. But being from Iowa, this was nothing new to me. And we live close to some amazing zoos like the St. Louis Zoo so this is nothing compared to that. But we tried it out for free! If your kids don't get the chance to see animals at the zoo or on farms then it's probably worth going to-again, it's FREE, but we went for a short while but probably wouldn't go again Mostly because my kids would rather stay and swim than walk around a hot mini zoo. This is just our preference though, I know some people who have gone here and loved it.

If you have little ones at Kalahari, I recommend taking a stroller. The resort is huge so depending on where your room is, it can be quite a jaunt to and from the waterpark! Especially if they get worn out from swimming, strollers are handy so you can carry all your stuff down anyways.

I hope this gave you a good idea of what it's like at Kalahari at the Wisconsin Dells.
I have more to share but that will have to wait until tomorrow where I'll compare the Pros & Cons of Great Wolf Lodge and Kalahari and even share a few tips with you of what to pack or things to do/not to do!