For Christmas we decided that we weren't going to do presents (okay we gave in and got them a couple of books to open on Christmas Day) but instead spend less and take a family vacation. So we decided to go to the GWL with some friends. Our trip was scheduled for a week before Christmas but the Snow delayed our trip until now. We got to go to the GWL when it first opened last summer and we had fun then, of course it was busy but it never really bothered me. But going during the week during the winter was AWESOME, there was no one anywhere, It was very cool. Of course we were bummed that they closed the wave pool on our last day there, especially because that is one of Lora's favorites. They had one new raft waterslide open but other than that everything was the same as last time. The girls LOVE the water slides and there are some larger slides that they can go on, the first few times down the girls would flip and come down upside down and just had no control, but by the end the girls were coming down and able to get out on their own. We were even able to take turns with 2 of the adults watching all 4 of the kids and hop on the adult only slides! Now most people won't think much of watching 4 children, but realize 1/2 of the kids had Down syndrome, and one child with down syndrome can be hard to keep track of, let alone 2 with completely different ideas of what they would like to do. Thankfully it went perfect and the kids stayed together for the most part making it easy on us. I didn't get pictures of the kids coming down the big slides because I didn't want to ruin my camera and we were in and out of the water soooo much! So sorry you just get pics of the kiddie area! At the very bottom are pics of the whole park, I took them the last day when the wave pool was closed (as you can see)
The Big Event for the trip was that we got Lora to swim alone in just a life jacket! For those of you that don't know, Lora was a water baby when she was little for two summers we had the Blow up Costco pool and we were in it alot. The end of that second summer, we had her floating on her own (she was about 3) well someone told her that there were sharks in the water and it freaked her out, well it was the end of the year and so we couldn't swim and we figured it would just pass. We were wrong we've dealt with this fear ever since. And it's a horrible anxiety for her, she will scream as soon as we get in water that is over her head. We have spent countless hours since trying to help her. Well last year when we were there in the kiddie area Lora would walk around on her hands and kick her legs behind her. Well this time we put a life jacket on her (Oh and she hates life jackets!) and let her do the same thing all the first day. And then the last day we told her to pick up her hands and swim, and since it was so shallow she tried it, and then she'd float and swim through the area. We let her get comfortable enough and then again put her in the deep pool. Which she fought at first, Jer got her to swim holding on to his hands only and let her float but she still wouldn't let go. After awhile being in the pool we decided to leave and Jer got Lora to swim to the stairs if she really wanted to leave, it was maybe about 15 feet she did it, of course she was not happy but she was doing it. Well later just before we left we did it again, and this time we made her swim to the stairs again but this time she was about 40 feet away and she did it! I was so excited, it was hard to hold back the tears! So hopefully we can keep this going.
All the kiddos!
We were trying to get them to go down together, but Cal had her own agenda....
Okay now they are all down.
Love this cute pic of Joe getting Owen to go down the slide
Lora thinking about getting deeper in the water, see she's moving her hands in the water.
See that lever, Calleigh LOVES pulling that lever, because it sprays the other kids that are going down on the slide! She is JUST like her Daddy, loves messing with people!
And then she goes down FACE First, of course the little boy was in the way, she got in trouble because they are supposed to go feet first for safety, but she wanted to have some fun! :) That's my Cal!
Last time this boat allowed you to pull on the handles and water would squirt out of different places, but it wasn't working. Cal loved pulling on all the different ropes and levers!
Cal was getting Owen with her water stream, so he had to get back at her!
Splash Time!
Wrong way Cal!
Tackling her Dad!
I don't know what is cuter the two of them, or Joe looking on!
Splash Down!
That is actually how she shows love, looks like she's eating his face huh!
Wyatt's turn to go down! Isn't he adorable!
Mom, LOOK I'm swimming! She is actually totally off the floor! YEAH LORA! We are so PROUD of you! We didn't get any pics of her in the deep water because I was wet and didn't want to ruin the camera.
Look at that splash!
Wave pool is to the left, a deeper pool is just past that, then you have the Adult slides and then they play fort with the two big slides that our girls could go on!
The kiddie area
And the fort, the slides that the girls could go on were around the back of the fort.
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