Waterparkin'

Last month my mom called and told me about a deal running at brand new water park which opened about 90 minutes from our house and I thought that would be a nice place to take the kids during the holiday break because let's be honest...two adults and two toddlers holed up for days on end without work or school?  Fun for no one.

On Sunday before New Years Eve the kids and I were sitting around twiddling our thumbs while Jon was recovering from his near death experience with strep throat, so I called up the water park to see if they had any openings.  Even if he had been feeling 100% he had to work the next day so really our hands were tied, we had no choice but to leave him behind!

Of course there were twenty hundred restrictions on the "deal" so we just booked a regular room and started packing our bags. I had a sneaky plan rolling around in my head so before we hit the road I called up my cousin Whitney and said "I'll take you to the water park with us if you come home and watch the kids on New Years Eve" and of course she was in.  I also thought she and David would have fun together with the bigger slides that Ryan and Haylee couldn't go on.

We left in such a hurry that I packed everything except swimming trunks for Ryan, of all things!  Being 90 minutes from home I sucked it up and headed toward the hotel gift shop hoping I wasn't going to have to shell out forty bucks for some boy shorts made in China but when I got there, they were sold out.  The lady said there was a Meijer down the street so I sent Haylee off with the older two while Ryan and I made our way to Meijer and found some basketball shorts.

When we got back David and Ryan immediately headed to the surf board thing, David did awesome and Ryan never ceases to amaze me...there is a line filled with tweens up to adults and then my five year old ready to brave a boogie board.

Little ones weren't allowed in the hot tub without a parent but thankfully the lifeguard thought Whitney was parent material so Ryan got in with her every time and he referred to her as mom the entire trip.

{one of ten thousand trips down the blue slide}

Most of my time was spent walking around this large structure in the middle of the park, it was the area where kids Haylee's age could go on anything without fear of drowning, there were slides and sprayers and little boats for her to play on and she never once tried to walk away from it. 

Everything was so close together I could keep an eye on her while I stood next to one of the other pools that the bigger kids were in. I was surprised that David and Whitney didn't take off for the bigger slides or the lazy river, they both stayed in the smaller pools with Ryan and had just as much fun.

Of course like many indoor water parks there is the big bucket of water the dumps every so often and all four of my kids were there every time to catch the wave.

{David missed the entire backboard every.single.time}

{pool that swirls you around like a toilet bowl}

After a few hours in the park we decided to get dry and go find some dinner, nobody had a decent lunch because we left the house in such a huff so we settled on Ponderosa.  Everyone ate like champs, I think they had all worked up an appetite! 

The next morning we were practically raped by the hotel restaurant for eggs and bacon (note to self: next time pack pop tarts) and then we went right back to the water park because check out was 11:00.   Poor Whitney, if Haylee spotted her she was forced to take the "Whitney, watch me!" abuse over and over again until she could dodge her.

{everyone in the hot pool with "mom"}

{dumping water on her head}

{looks like he nearly lost it}

{Lazy River}

While I was watching those three go round and round the lazy river, Haylee was playing tricks.  She would say "mom I'm going to come down the purple slide, watch me" and then she would pop out of the orange slide so I'd make a big deal and she would laugh hysterically and run back again.  She never got sick of going down the same three slides, ever.

Just before we left David and Whitney thought they would try to sneak Ryan down the really tall twisty slide that goes outside the building and is pitch black inside. Every time they had gone down it, Ryan was sad faced and definitely wasn't diggin' the height discrimination!

{maybe they'll say it's okay with a parent}

{sorry son, go back the way you came}

By 11:00 the kids were tired so we got into our warm clothes, packed up the car and headed for home.  I was bummed that when I called they didn't have any openings for NYE because when we were leaving they were setting up a DJ booth, photo booth, dancing area, etc. so I knew it was going to be a fun time but overall I'm glad we got to get away for the night, glad that Whitney was able to go and glad they all had a little fun while they were off school.