Last year was the first year that the girls were aware that spring break might involve a trip. They have always loved traveling, and staying "at ho-TALE" is such a big deal to them. As an aside, we were going to the mountains in February of last year, and the most attractive aspect was getting to stay in a ho-tale. We were maybe an hour out of town when Gracie looked over and saw a Hampton Inn on the side of the Interstate. She yelled out, "Dat's ho-TALE right there!!!" She could not understand why we were so incompetent as to drive past a local hotel and continue a lengthy drive to our final destination.
Anyway, we had a couple of late winter trips last year, and therefore, did not have any additional travel when spring break rolled around. The girls were crushed when their friends talked about their spring break plans. The beach! They wanted to go to the beach! And then, adding insult to injury, we did not travel over the summer, since George was born on July 12th. They thought the summer was a complete bust, travel-wise.
With those dashed dreams, we decided to coordinate a trip to a water park in the Appalachians. Historically, Gracie and Lauren have never been car sleepers, but we had hopes for George, who would be taking his first lengthy car ride. Turns out, he is not a car sleeper either. During the five hour commute there and back, he slept maybe 30 minutes. We are 0-3 in the car sleeping department. They did not get their sleep prejudice from me. On the contrary, I can sleep in a car, going near or far, on a plane, even on a train! On the upside, George did really well while traveling, and he adjusted to the room.
He doesn't know what the words "spring break," "vacation," or "road trip" mean, but he likes it! He REALLY likes it!
I purchased George's swimwear collection at a couple of consignment sales. We thought he looked smashing. Unfortunately, I could not talk Gracie and Lauren into wearing their nice suits, and they opted for their much used/abused character suits instead. Win some, lose some.
The water park is indoors. There are two water parks in the area, and we opted for the smaller park, more suited to our age range. After some initial hesitation, there were smiles all around.
We tell Gracie and Lauren all the time how truly lucky they are to have each other, a build in best friend, if you will. On trips like this, they believe us.
Although we had a day of rain, we enjoyed the indoor fun, even if the green tinted roof cast a greenish hue on all of us.
George, in the baby zone, was absolutely hysterical. He wore the below expression for the longest time. Whenever he gives us this look, we say he is channeling my brother, his Uncle James, and saying something along the lines of, "You're seriously just gonna plunk me down in the water like this????"
"I can't swim, Clark!"
He finally relaxed and had the best time people watching.
My mom went with us on the trip, and she kept strategically placing George next to a water bucket so that he could watch the splash.
"Are you just going to let that bucket splash me?!"
He finally learned that he could kick and splash on his own.
"Yeah, ok, I like this after all. This is all right."
Since the girls' birth, Skip always like to identify photos the girls will like when they are older. I think Gracie will really like this one. George loves his sisters.
I think they will like this one, too. Or perhaps I am projecting... I definitely like it.
We watched them slide a few hundred times. Up the slide...
And down the slide...
Such a happy boy!
George thinks his sisters are so BIG.
And they kind of are. They tackled the lazy river, and declared this pool their favorite. Lauren spent about two hours making the lazy river loop, and Gracie spent some quality time there, too.
In braver moments, they went to the splash zone. This pool had the extra challenge of not being heated.
That is ice cold water raining down, and they made the smart move of alternating between that pool and the remaining (heated) pools.
They enjoyed hours and hours and hours of entertainment.
They could not get enough.
After one day at home, the girls were ready to return to the water park. George, on the other hand, visibly relaxed and was glad to be back in his home environment. There's no place like home.
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