Waterpark

There are a few things that really motivate my children. Ice cream is one. The neighbors are another. But the biggest one? The Waterpark of America.

We have used this as extra incentive before, where Jack had to fill a sticker chart to earn a trip there. Ryker was a baby, so we had Grandmommy along with us to keep an eye on him.

Awhile back we began a family marble jar. We wanted Ryker in on the action and something that we as a family could work towards. That kept Ryker cheering Jackson on and vice versa, because they knew they would benefit too. They chose the prize - a trip to the Waterpark of course.

It worked really well actually, and in a combination of being very close to the top of the jar, and our Groupon expiring, we decided today was the day to give them their reward.

I'm not sure how many of my readers have been there, or if our experience is unique, but getting INTO the Waterpark is the most harrowing part of the whole endeavor. You're GOLDEN once you make it in there.

Our entrance today took about 45 minutes. Thirty of that was spent by Chuck waiting in line with Ryker, and me waiting in the bathroom with Jack. Once that was in order, we got into the actual park, but couldn't figure out the lockers. We brought quarters. Silly us. $6 a locker. And if you want to use a credit card you can't go to one of the desks. They send you to the other one, who sends you back to the first one, who will NOW take your card. IQ test of some sort?

While Chuck was figuring the credit card/locker conundrum, I volunteered to take both boys up to the kid area. Off we went - Jack running in front of me and jumping into the pool area. I looked back at Ryker, who was holding my hand but suddenly not really moving. And there stood my baby, with blood all over his face and chest. He gets nosebleeds all the time so I'm fairly used to handling it, but Jack was now off somewhere and the other guests looked like they might faint, so I hustled Ryker back down the stairs and into the women's locker room, banking on the maturity and swimming prowess of my orphaned 6 year old. I cleaned Ryker up and raced him back out of the locker room and up the steps - back to Jack. Chuck was there by now and burst out laughing when he realized what happened.

So that was the entrance. The rest of the time went swimmingly. Get it? I took to hiding kleenex in random decorative plants so they were readily available when Ryker's nosebleeds started up again. I got him to ride down the lazy river with me, which is a really great way to get him to cuddle - he clung to me like a little monkey the whole way around. I only got worried enough to scan for floating bodies ONCE, and that was when Jack hadn't made it back around the lazy river in 20 minutes. It's not that lazy. Turns out he had found Chuck halfway around and bailed to go back up to the kiddie area.

Anyway, we truly had a blast. The kids had so much fun and were so well behaved. Neither wanted anything to do with the bigger tube slides, but Chuck took full advantage and I went down the body slide once, which was plenty. Jack even tried the body board thing all by himself. It was AWESOME!

Here we are during the entrance exam (the only pics we took all day).

Now we're back home and got the kids to bed about an hour early. They are pruny and tired but happy happy babies.