The kids and I spent half of last summer at our local water park, so a day alone with 3 kids there didn't scare me at all. It helps that Chris is kind of a wimp about a lot of water rides, so they can mostly just play happily in the kiddie areas, wave pool and lazy river.
Plus, Caitlyn and Lorelei have the coolest life jackets ever. I swear, they must have been invented by a mom with multiple kids. Normal life jackets bunch up around your kid's neck like some sort of contraction device, in a position that is neither conducive to swimming nor feeling remotely relaxed in the water. The girls' jackets are a combo of floaties and a ring, and even Lorelei can control her body enough to "swim" happily within arm's reach of me. (And yes, I'm putting the whole 'within arm's reach' disclaimer just in case anyone gets the idea that the kids are off frolicking in the pool while I lounge in a chair--who knows who reads this stuff!)
Anyway, I'd been to Blizzard Beach in high school, but obviously did not appreciate how neat it is for kids. The entire park is themed to represent a ski resort that is melting away, complete with snow-capped peaks and a chair lift.
Our first stop was the kiddie area where my little beasties had a blast on all of the slides. Here I met my next defining moment. Are Caitlyn and Chris old enough to climb to the top of the slide by themselves while Lorelei and I play in the adjacent "baby" slide area? Keeping in mind that there was a good 25 feet of pathway in a blind spot, but I would be able to watch them enter, slide and exit to the return path, I decided to let them try it. They received a 35 minute lecture on staying together, holding hands while WALKING, not talking to anyone, as well as a brief safety drill on what to do if they couldn't find me and a pop quiz to ensure they knew how to identify a life guard.
Considering the entire area was about the size of my parents' house and they were out of sight for about 10 seconds, I may have been slightly overreacting. The kids loved it, and I remember that giddy sense of budding independence I felt when I first got to do something fun by myself (Which, incidentally, was a hell of a lot more dangerous since that first memory happened when I was 5 at a ski resort when my friend Travis and I got to ski the bunny slope solo while our parents watched from the lodge).
We hit the lazy river for a good hour, and here again I marveled (yes, really. I marveled) at the fact that while Disney offers the traditional assortment of tubes for floaters, they also have tiny kid-sized tubes with bottoms for toddlers. If you haven't been to water park with a small child, you have no idea how novel and convenient that concept is, but trust me, it was worthy of the marvel.
At this point the kids and I stopped for lunch. In an effort to save $$, I packed lunch for the kids and I. My mom always did this. I hated it.
For one thing, my mom never bought the good lunch stuff. She sent us to school and the beach with bologna sandwiches, whatever type of chip was on sale (usually tortilla chips or pringles), fruit and Little Debbie snacks. I longed for fruit roll-ups, Ding-Dongs, cheetos and the little rolls of salami and cheddar that my friend Natalie brought to school.
With that in mind, I packed Uncrustable sandwiches, rainbow goldfish, chocolate chip granola bars, bananas and, wait a minute. That sounds strangely similar to the lunches I hated with some very slight tweaks. Hmm.
Oh well, I made up for it when I bought the kids a pail of ice cream. Yep, you read that right. I bought the kids a PAIL of ice cream. It was my cool mom moment of the day as I presented them with an entire sand pail filled with bits of waffle cone, cherries, strawberry sauce, hot fudge, nuts, sprinkles and soft serve.
Little do they know I made that choice because the one giant pail was cheaper than 3 individual desserts! And I'm willing to lose a little bit of cool mom luster by admitting that. They still loved it. 
Our final ride of the day was a family raft ride that is supposedly the longest of its kind in the world! It took some talking to get both Caitlyn and Chris to try it, but try it they did. Caitlyn asked me before the ride if it would freak her out. I pointed out the gentle slope and easy curves of the ride, reassuring her that it would not.
Much to my dismay, about halfway through the ride, she turned to me and said, "Mama, I'm officially freaked out!" I just choked back a laugh and pulled her in my lap for the remainder of the ride.
Our day ended with happy, worn out kids who were perfectly content to climb into our giant whirlpool bath together to wash off the detritus of the day before they settled in to watch a movie.
We will definitely be adding at least one day at the Disney water parks on all future trips.
oh why did i not book this with you. what is five kids with 2 adults? =) oh how i want to be there. I just bought kausten the puddle jumper for when we are in victoria. and by the way i paid $300 for the clipper, hotel 2 nights, and rental car. I should of came to Florida. have a great time you awesome mama.
ReplyDelete