St. Mary's Aquatic Center

Last week Gigi treated all of her grandkids to a fun day at the St. Mary's Aquatic Center.  This park is perfect for young kids.  The first thing that we did was to go to the splash-play area.  This was one of those play-sets that has the bucket that fills with water and then dumps out on everyone.  The play area had a couple of smallish slides and various wheels and levers that let you dump water on other people.  The kids had a great time here.  Even Julianna found a slide that she liked and went down it many, many times.

Another favorite feature of the park was the lazy river.  I really liked this lazy river because it was big without being too big.  I could stand on the side of the river and watch the kids as they went around (and see them the whole time) without having to get in myself.  We let the girls go around the river all by themselves.  They thought that they were big stuff because they didn't have an adult with them.  Of course we had eyes on them the entire time, but still we weren't "with them" which made a huge difference in their minds.  

 There is only one large slide at the park- the "Orange Crush".  You have to be 48 inches to ride.  They had a measuring stick at the entrance to the park and we sized the kids up before entering.  Claire was the only one who was definitely tall enough.  Ava looked to be right at the line, and Olivia seemed to be about half an inch too short.  Owen was no where near tall enough.  Well, Claire was not interested in going down the large slide, but the two shorter girls were.  Ava went up first, got measured, and came down the slide.  Olivia saw this and wanted to try too.  I let her try- even though I had a bad feeling that the lifeguard would turn her away once she reached the top of the tower.  I saw her climb, get measured, and then come down the slide.  She loved it, and I was relieved that she didn't get turned away.  Hannah and I stood there and watched the girls go down the slide several times- then Hannah got the bright idea that we should go down ourselves.  We did- and it was a little spooky- totally dark all the way down.

While the girls were going around the lazy river and down the waters slide, Owen kept busy by playing with the shuffleboard set.  Julianna also thought that this was big fun.  We were at the park for several hours, and had a great time.  We will definitely be back.