Summer Adventures, Part 2

Today's destination: White Water, a water theme park for kids of all ages. I say that because I -- all 31 years of me -- had a great time today, splashing and sliding with the girls.

This was another on my list of 'to dos' with Meg (and Kate) this summer. Meg is 38 inches tall, which makes her tall enough for nearly every ride, and she's certainly brave enough for much of what White Water has to offer young kids. I knew she would love it. The original plan was for today's adventure to take place back on Monday . . . I had my dad here at my house to keep Kate and everything . . . but the weather did not cooperate. The rescheduling required me to bring Kate along on our big kid adventure. Everything happens for a reason . . . Kate loved it and was really not much trouble to take along at all. So it was two mommies, four kids, and a great day for everyone.

For this Summer Adventure, we joined the Alford boys, Ryan (6 yrs) and Daniel (2.75 yrs). And their mom, of course, who is a dear old friend of mine from my days back in the Redcoat Band at UGA (what?! you were in the band?! yes, friends, I am proud to say that I was!). Tricia and I were a little worried about how the day would go. Who will ride what? Who will watch the kids? What to eat for lunch? What time will the kids totally melt down and force us to retreat to our homes? We agonized over bringing Kate along, and we talked at least 2 different times yesterday trying to line up all of our plans. My buddy and I worried ourselves for nothing . . . all four kids did great. They had a total BLAST and lasted until a shocking 4:00pm before we decided to leave . . . and I think the moms were really a little more ready to head out than the kids were. No meltdowns by anyone. Not even Kate.

White Water has way more to offer young kids than I ever realized. They have 3 fairly large kids areas with play equipment, sprinklers, slides of all kinds and sizes . . . and they even have a more intermediate kid area with a large 3 foot pool to wade around in. All of that plus the 'curvy lake', as Meg called it . . . which was actually the Lazy River that floated around the park . . . was more than enough to keep the kids entertained and happy. Kate loved walking around through the sprinklers, and she very happily floated around in some of the wading pools. Meg and I rode one 'big' ride together in a 6 person raft, enjoyed the lazy river a few times, and she had a great time on all of the play structures.

Well -- scratch that -- there was one play structured she hated. She actually said that: "I hated that Tree House, Mommy." Tree House Island is probably for the 5 and up crowd, but we took the little ones over anyway to check it out. The large playground structure has water squirting everywhere and several slides that I know Meg would have enjoyed . . . if it weren't for the LARGE bucket above the tree house that fills with water and dumps massive amounts of water everywhere intermittently and without warning. One sighting of the water dumpage, and Meg was freaked. I tried to take her on the Tree House anyway, but she was a no-go. Luckily Ryan was not quite that fond of the water bucket either, and he was happy to take a lazy river ride back to the other play areas (where Tricia, Kate, and Daniel were waiting for us).

The $30 price tag for admission and the additional $10 for parking was a little hard to swallow . . . but I did manage to get Meg in free (though she should have bought a ticket since she's 3), and of course Kate was no charge. So, it's a little more expensive of a day -- including a $9 chicken finger basket -- but I felt it was money well spent. I had so much fun with the girls and with the Alford boys, and you can't put a price tag on that.

Another successful Summer Adventure. I'm not sure exactly what our next adventure will be, but I have a few ideas. If you know of any super fun kids things that you'd like to share -- fire away! I'm always looking for something fun to do with these kids.