Jul 8, 2011

The beach: Thursday

After Wednesday's events, I was more than ready for a change of pace yesterday. And I think we can all agree that seeing your kids shoot out of a hippo's ... orifice ... at a waterpark counts as a change of pace.





Jake spent a large part of the day practicing holding his breath under water.



I was standing two feet from him, but it still made me want to gag because it made me think of the terror I'd felt the day before, picturing Nathaniel lifeless beneath the waves.

Call me melodramatic, but I'm still not over it.



But there was no drama yesterday. No lost children, just a lot of fun on the slides and in the pools at the waterpark.



Our friends the Clarksons went home on Wednesday night, so there were only 12 of us adults and 12 children at the waterpark. Even so, we qualified as a "group," and we were quite a sight to see.



In addition to practicing holding his breath under water, Jake decided it would be a great day to teach himself to swim.



At our pool at home, he's always got his swim vest on to help him float. Unencumbered by his swim vest, he took to the open water and took no prisoners.



We arrived at the waterpark when it opened at 10 a.m., and we met for lunch mid-day. Then we decided to get snow cones around 3:45. All five in our family opted for cherry flavoring. (This IS why you come here, right? For this type of titillating detail?)



On the heels of our snow cones, we headed over to the Wild Racer slides. Here's a portion of our crowd:



Jake was absolutely desperate to ride, but all of the slides in this park required 42 inches of height. He's a little lacking in that department, at age 3.



Nonetheless, he got in line with the crew, thinking maybe he'd get a last-second approval.



And I realize that even my little point-and-shoot camera has a spot in the middle of the lens. (I KNOW, DAD.) Sorry to do that to you all again. But when Nicholas came down the slide in the middle of the day, he totally drenched me and the camera. And I can't wipe that spot off.

So anyway, Jake ultimately had to stand at the end of the slide with me, dejected, watching every other person on the planet get to slide down. It was pitiful.



I have to say, he was a much better sport about it than I thought he might be.



Nathaniel came down first with a group of strangers.



Then Mikey, Ali, Charlie and Anna Kate came down. Um, did I mention that the zoom function is also broken on the little point-and-shoot? It is.



Last, Grayson, Heather, Tiffany and Nicholas came flying down.



They looked like they had so much fun!



I really wanted to ride the slides, too, but in my current condition, I'm not allowed to. Having this baby at the beach really isn't on the agenda, so I had to stay off the rides.

But this is something that might become an annual tradition, since it gave the grandparents a quiet day at the house, gave the kids a break from the beach, and got us all into a different setting for the day. This was the first year it was really feasible with the kids' ages, and next year we'll only have the one new baby who might need to stay home.

Only one more day at the beach before we have to say our goodbyes and head home!

1 comment:

Sewconsult said...

Fun times had by all...well, most of the time. I think baby sista would have had fun going down that slide. She's got plenty of bubble wrap around her.

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