Parker and Mom's trip to Chicago and Wisconsin dells day to day
August 7-13, 2025
Rundown of our 6 day trip:
-Flew into Chicago and drove to Wisconsin Dells
-Noah's ark Waterpark (America's largest waterpark)
-Sushi restaurant (all Parker's sushi dreams came true)
-Kalihari Resort Waterpark
-Church (so small compared to ours with a tiny chapel and only folding chairs)
-Dells Riverwalk (beautiful)
-Tommy Bartlett Exploratory (cool hands on science museum)
-Mt. Olympus Waterpark and theme Park
-Chicago Glass box Skyledge on top of Willis Tower (used to be Sears Tower) (so cool!)
-torrential downpour on the 40 min drive back to the hotel after the Skyledge-probably the scariest drive of my life! So grateful we survived!)
-Six flags Great America (some incredible rides and the crowds weren't bad at all. Got an all day dining pass we shared which was so worth it)
More Detailed day to day...
Day 1
First full day of mine and Parker's trip! We had breakfast and drove the 45 minutes to get to Noah's ark water park. We got there before opening so that we could run to the first rides. Parker studied the map and decided which ride order we should go in. On the way running to the first ride, Parker got stung by a bee! It flew in his mouth and stung his bottom lip! It totally swelled up. We went to Black anaconda first, then to the drop body slide that does a loop And we were able to hit all the rides today and most multiple times. The second time we went on the drop loop water slide I totally got stuck at the top! I had to push myself down 😁. We also were able to do flowrider for three different sessions which was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and even though we didn't have towels we weren't cold at all. We stayed until past close (they close at 7:00 but we were able to get into another session of flowrider right after 7:00 so we didn't leave until about 7:45). People loved watching Parkers mad skills and a couple people talked to me about how good he is. One lady videod him to show her husband and she sent the videos to me.
We checked into our super 8 hotel, showered and went to dinner at an Asian sushi buffet in the same parking lot as our hotel. Parker absolutely loved it!
We had some great conversations while waiting in line with some questions I had written down. The audiobook we're listening to (inheritance games) has been great too!
So grateful for the connection, fun and smoothness of the day! So grateful that my feet survived with wearing my supportive flip flops and carrying them on rides. They're sore but man they could be worse!
Day 2
Five crowns after breakfast before we had to leave
Kalihari Resort
Extreme rush slide outside SO FAST AND FUN!
Started raining at 1
Favorites inside slides: toilet bowl drop slide and master blaster (we rode them so many times)
Super crowded mid day for several hours especially because of the weather (also extremely loud)
Collecting and shooting elastics at their targets intended for that
Hot tubbing with the waterfall giving us a massage
TONS of time on flowrider-getting pretty good 😊
Brought some snacks we had for lunch and then bought a soup, salad and sandwich at the little grocery store in kalihari's lobby for dinner.
Closed at 9. Stayed all day 10-9
Stopped at Walmart on the way home to grab food for tomorrow (Sunday) and got some ice cream to eat back at the hotel while we watched "fresh Prince of Bel Air"
Such a fantastic day
Day 3
Happy Sunday!
Breakfast
-Church in baraboo (20 minutes away-closest) at 10-construction but found a way 🙌. Friendly nice tiny church where they only had folding chairs, very small chapel. Really great talks and so grateful to have taken the sacrament.
-lunch at the hotel
-come follow me. Really great discussions.
-rain finally cleared up and we went to the Riverwalk downtown
-Tommy Bartlett exploratory science museum (spent 4 hours there had a great time)
-hotel for dinner
-movie with popcorn (step up) and an episode of "fresh Prince" Parker laughed SO hard and loved it.
Day 4
What a crazy and awesome (and terrifying) day!
-Shopping downtown dells in the morning after breakfast (each got a shirt and got a little candy at goody gum drop)
-Mt Olympus water park. Tickets were $33 but then we went to Park at it was $40 parking and we could only stay for 4 hours. We ended up parking across the street and walking into the park. Had SUCH A GREAT TIME here even though it was only for 4 hours. The turn wheel Medusa ride was AMAZING-so unique and so much fun. We had to do that twice. I loved America's tallest waterslide (did that twice too but Parker didn't love it because it burnt his back), LOVED the HUGE wave pool (wow intense and so fun!), and the mat racing waterslides were also a favorite. We did the gocarts too on our way in.
-drove 2.5 hours to our hotel in Schaumburg, IL (quality inn) while listening to our audio book.
-checked in, quickly got ready
-had dinner at Marino's Pizza which was pretty good!
-drove over an hour in bad traffic to downtown Chicago to get to our 7:30 reservation for the skydeck at the Willis Tower. Got there late because of traffic but it was ok. Such an incredible sight 103 floors up! We got to go out in a glass ledge box (90 seconds at a time and then you could get back in line which we did 4 times) it was awesome!
-started raining and lightening while at the top
-had a hard time finding our car in the rain with the GPS jacked but finally found it!
-the drive back to the hotel was SO TERRIFYING!! honestly one of the if not the scariest drive I've ever done. It was raining SO HARD that the windshield wipers just couldn't go fast enough. I could barely see the line at all, lightening, thunder that shook the car, GPS not working right and driving in a place I've never driven combined to be terrible!! Prayed the whole way and I know angels were helping us get back safely. Truly a miracle. Holy smokes I was so scared and grateful to be alive.
Day 5
SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA
-Got to your 30 minutes early and was already super long line to get into the park
-wrath of rashaka first. Only had to wait 5 min *****
-viper steel wooden (got right on)*** (Parker gives it ****)
-raging bull 2x because line was so short *****
-loco mine drop (only had to wait one ride)!****
- River rocker
Six rides within the first hour!
Started raining within the first half hour but only lasted 5 minutes. Really humid and hot.
Lunch walking tacos with all day dining
-one similar to jet Star ***
-Dark Knight coaster (indoors and unique!)****
-Had to wait for about 50 minutes for the joker ride because of lightning but Parker gave it***** (I give it 3 because of a headache it caused 😁)
-x flight ***** (so good really feels like flying)
Shut down twice for lightening in the area for about 40 minutes each time which was a bummer but overall we did everything we wanted to and many rides multiple times and enjoyed our all day dining pass where we could eat every 90 minutes and get drinks every 15 minutes. We got our money's worth eating 5 times and refilling drinks often. It cost $45 and we both got in plus free parking with one $75 season pass (it came with a buddy for a day).
What a fun day and I'm SO SO GRATEFUL FOR THE MIRACLE that driving went smoothly and that rain didn't affect our fun too much. HUGE RELIEF especially after last night..
Tender Mercies on this trip (smooth travel, car working, safely getting home in a terribly nasty storm, safety, my feet survived!!!!! (Sore but ok), health for us both, not loosing anything etc.
More memories:
He really enjoyed our audiobook we both got "hooked" (inheritance games), always up for a game and LOVED fresh Prince of Bel Air (full belly laughs multiple times per episode) plus he admitted to me that he hadn't flossed for days when I asked (honest). It was also hilarious to me that when he put his arm around me for pictures he would unknowingly have his hand lifted not touching my shoulder like so awkward-so funny. At the start of the trip I mentioned it might be educational to keep track of all our expenses and he was totally on board-we tracked everything. Parker LOVES Flowrider and is so good at it! We spend a ton of time at flowrider at both Noah's ark and Kalahari. I even got decent at it 😊.
Parker's trip highlights: "everything! How could I choose?! That's impossible to choose because it was all so good!"
My highlights: "I agree-everything was awesome but especially getting to spend time with Parker one on one and get to know him better was my highlight! Getting to share our thoughts and excitement after each ride/side was so much fun. Waiting in line with him was a great time to just hang out together and have some meaningful conversations."
Finishing up this trip to Wisconsin and Chicago with Parker, I wanted to record some attributes that I really admire about Parker.
-ENDURANCE (he can go go go)
-DRIVEN (if he wants something he'll do what it takes to get it done)
-DEDICATED AND LOYAL (to both his friends and his family-he appreciates a good mix of time between BOTH)
-GRATEFUL (he is so good to recognize things people do for him and to really appreciate it!)
-FRUGAL (this kid knows how to save and values frugality -we had multiple conversations about how we'd see people spend money frivolously and how silly it was. I'd also offer to buy him some things and he'd turn it down saying it wasn't worth the money)
-ATHLETIC (we had to walk up innumerable amounts of stairs for these super tall waterslides and he took them all, running up them like they were nothing!)
-COULD EAT ANYTIME (and most anything including pickle flavored Taffy)
-STRONG (physically and emotionally)
-ADVENTUROUS (up for literally anything fun)
-FEARLESS (not afraid of much at all-with the exception of having any zits popped 😁)
-PLAYFUL with a little MISCHIEVOUSNESS (is a good time to be around although likes to push rule boundaries in a typically harmless way)
-SPIRITUAL (has a testimony and wants to do what's right. Willing to do come follow me, go to church and pray together every night plus listen to spiritual things in the morning, willing to pray for me when I was driving in a scary storm)
-SELFLESS (wanted my say and opinion on what we did, where we ate, let me choose where to sit etc)
-RESPONSIBLE and CAPABLE (wakes up when he needs to, gets things done when asked and a good gps navigator helper)
-WILLING (to help with most anything without complaint including going back to get my shoes from leaving them at waterslide entrances etc)
-ENCOURAGING (flowrider encourager, cheerleader, encouraged me when driving in a scary storm)
-UNDERSTANDING and FORGIVING ( is able to put himself in others shoes and understand, accept and forgive like when I had a panic attack while driving in the scariest of rain storms navigating in an unfamiliar city with the GPS not working and unable to see the lines in the road, I had to pull over and cry and breathe for a bit before driving the rest of the way home and he totally got it)
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