A Day at the Water Park

Kelly, Erik, our kids, and I all went to the local water park on Tuesday.  The weather was perfect, started out cloudy and cool, and turned sunny and hot!  Karina did not like the life vest, but got used to it.  She rode with me down one ride, called Cowabunga, which was a short slide that basically makes a sharp L into the pool.  We rode in a double tube, the shape of an 8, with one hole and one hole with a bottom, where Karina sat.  I was really nervous, but Kelly had her youngest son in one, and he's 4 months younger than Karina.  I figured, if she and Erik could do it, so could we.  Karina did not like it too much.  I did not like it too much.  I thought it was a little too fast.  Apparently, I was supposed to let my butt drag on the floor of the slide to go slower, but I think I'm not too willing to do that, either!  So we didn't go on any other slides, but next time, we'll do this one again.  Like Kelly said, exposing her to it will help keep her from being too afraid when she's older.  And she had the life vest on.  Then we moved on to the floating highway, where you wear a life vest and float around.  I did that in the summer when I was pregnant with Karina.  We did it together today.  She didn't like it very much, I think because the lifejacket kept riding up and forcing her to lay on her back, which of course put the sun in her eyes.  I would have taken her on the lazy version, where you go in an innertube, but she was asleep by then.

At lunch, we took off the lifejackets, and I had a hot dog and ice cream.  And a soda, which I have been good about avoiding lately.  It was sooooooo good.  Karina had food from home, though, because of the stupid peanut allergy, and I couldn't find any allergy info online for their food.  I would have to contact them directly.  Then we went over to another play area, which Karina loved, because we didn't put her lifejacket back on.  Kelly and I talked about it:  we aren't leaving them anywhere, they aren't on a ride, and the lifejackets were making it really hard for them to walk.  So we decided it was okay as long as they weren't on a ride, and it worked out great.  She loved it! 

She was walking all over the pool area, walking without holding on to me, even!  She was doing so great!  She even went up onto the play platform (where the little slides come down).  I was disappointed that the really little kid area was closed.  It has some really short little slides that I think Karina would have liked.  She was asleep by the time we got to that area, though.  When I realized it was 1:45, and she usually naps by noon, I decided to just put her in the stroller with the back down and the shade up and see what would happen.  Once she fell asleep, I put a blanket over it to make it darker, and she was out for 2 hours!  I was so surprised.  I thought she might sleep for half an hour, being that we were in this noisy park and all.  That was great, but it meant I didn't get to do much for those two hours.  Then she woke up as we were getting ready to leave, and eating more ice cream!  In all, it was a really great day.  To make it even better, as we were walking out, they had some birds on display.  There were two macaws, one red, and one blue and yellow, and a green parrot.  Karina has seen birds like this in her books, and it was so cool for her to see the real ones.  She loved them.  She was laughing and pointing at them, and the birds were making all kinds of noises.  The blue macaw was moving on his perch in such a way that he looked like he was dancing!

I hope next time Bill will be able to come with us.  Tickets aren't cheap, but fortunately I can now go back all summer for free, just have to pay to park.  When Bill does eventually buy his ticket, he'll get the same deal.  I think he will have fun, too.  Too bad it will be a lot more crowded later in the summer.  Going the day Kelly and I did was great.  School here is still in session, so local kids weren't there, and the whole place was practically empty.  We didn't have to deal with any lines--not for rides, food, or getting in.  It was fantastic.  I can't wait to take Karina back again!