Swimming and Sliding

We stayed at a hotel with an attached indoor water park. It was perfect for our assortment of kids. It was big enough to be exciting for the big girls and yet small enough that they could be independent and we didn't have to worry much about them. We could easily spot them anywhere in the place. They swam their little hearts out and fell into bed at night completely exhausted.

I couldn't believe how many times their little bodies could lug those big tubes up all those steps. I went with them several times and it was quite a climb.

Their favorite slide was the Super Bowl, promptly dubbed the toilet bowl for obvious reasons....it swirled you around the bowl before flushing you down.

Ava loved floating with me on the lazy river. She snuggled in close and we floated around and around, just her and I. Pure bliss. We all swam till we were starving, then ordered in pizza for lunch. Owen crashed in the room and the big girls went back for more.

In the afternoon, Ava snuggled on the sideline while Chris kept tabs on the swimmers.

After the naps and the afternoon swim, we headed out to Sturgis for a visit. We came back later in the evening for another swim. This time Kade, Tanner and Mikala joined us.

There was a giant monkey bucket in the kiddie area that dumped water every so often, lots and lots of water. There is an alarm that starts sounding when it starts getting full and is ready to dump. It serves as either your warning to get off the stairs and a safe distance away, or if you are adventurous, it means line up and get pummeled by water.
Well, when we first arrived, we didn't know the sounding bell meant "run for cover," so Grace had Owen on the stairs headed for one of the slides when the monkey bucket dumped and he was terrified. He had done water slides several other times this summer when we had been at hotels and water parks and loved them. But after the water-dumping incident, we could NOT convince him to give any of the water slides a try. We forced him down a few times thinking he would settle in and love them. As you can see from this picture, he didn't settle in, so he spent the bulk of his time playing water basketball, floating the lazy river and soaking in the hot tub. Poor boy.


Grace wasn't afraid to get drenched...