splashfest

The visit to Point Mallard water park went much better than anticipated. All three babies had the best time playing in the water. Caedmon and Mirella loved the wave pool, and Dennis loved the water slide in the toddler splash park. The adults loved that the babies had so much fun. It was a perfect overcast and not too hot morning to go. We couldn't keep Dennis off the slide once he discovered it. And I will have to commend the folks at Point Mallard for making such a great toddler area. The entire playground is in a shallow pool, shallow enough that when Dennis stumbled, his face didn't go in the water, and shallow enough that Mirella could crawl all around and sit in it without her head going underwater. Dennis enjoyed walking around in the water, and playing with the different wheels to turn, and then he discovered the staircase leading up to the slides. He climbed up again and again, without help but with close parental supervision, and we decided to try him on the slide to see how he'd like it. It was a small slide, one complete corkscrew turn, and we managed with one parent up top and another parent below to catch. Once he went down once (giggling the whole time), he was hooked, and he kept walking over to climb the stairs again. Caedmon also enjoyed the slide, and Mirella enjoyed all the splashing fountains everywhere and playing in the pool. The slide was wonderful, with a nice soft foam pad just a couple of inches underwater at the bottom for landing. Of course, I caught Dennis all but one time before his rear actually hit this pad, and the last time I missed because we'd just reapplied sunscreen and it was like catching a wet, greased piglet--he slid right through my hands. He landed sitting up on the pad, and never went underwater, and I quickly scooped him up out of the way of the next slider. We had debated whether to adjourn for lunch and return in the afternoon, but then decided to run the kids to the point of exhaustion and then leave for lunch and naptime. This worked fairly well--they enjoyed 3 hours of water park fun before getting tired enough to leave, and all 3 of them tired out at the same time. We couldn't believe how perfect our water park experience was, when we'd been expecting at least one meltdown or tantrum, or babies hating it and us having to leave after a half hour...

Our little family spent the rest of the day at the campground, following Dennis around the campground or towing him along in his bike trailer, like we were a parade catching the attention of all the other campers who waved to him as we passed. He expended an amazing amount of energy today and took very short naps. I hope he sleeps well tonight. David and I certainly will if he does. Tonight, the Carroccinos came to the site to visit and brought barbecue for supper, and we had a nice picnic and more bike rides, and we watched the children play for a while before it was time for bed. Dennis and Mirella sampled a number of different geologic specimens on their campsite wanderings (read: they licked a lot of rocks), and Dennis kept trying to wander across the street to the giant expensive motorhome parked there. I suppose he was fascinated with it, but that's an awful expensive way to camp, and if we ever do it, it will most likely be after he's left home! We think our pop up is luxurious after tent camping for years. He can dream about buying his own motorhome one day.

The forecast called for an extreme heat advisory, and we were prepared for the worst. We were, however, blessed with overcast skies and breezes, and then they predicted severe thunderstorms. We only heard thunder and experienced cooler temps--no big storms here. It just made for a nice afternoon that we could actually spend playing outside. Don't get me wrong--the humidity was beyond excessive, so much so that I think even my fingernails were sweating, but it wasn't unbearable at all. It was a perfect day for toddlers, as Kristin said, with water play all morning and playing outside and biking in the evening. Heck, it was a perfect day for me, too! I had as much fun as Dennis!