On Tuesday the 4
th of August, we decided to play Hooky...
That's right, I told my boss that I wouldn't be coming in, Jack took his regularly scheduled day off, and we kept Jackson out of his last day of Summer Camp at his school so we could have one last "
Hoo-Rah" as a family before Jackson started Kindergarten.
We told Jackson that we were going to take him to
Splashtown, but before we went to the water park, HE got to decide where we ate for breakfast, since it was his special day. So he chose
IHOP because that is his favorite restaurant in the whole wide world!
It was so funny to watch him eat his pancakes too! People watching him must have thought we starved him or something because after he so delicately poured each and every one of the syrups displayed on the table (there was at least six of them) on to his pancakes, he literally inhaled them! He had strawberry syrup from his lips to his ears!
Jackson was a little bummed because usually
IHOP has someone there making balloon creatures, and today that person must have not been working. After we finished our meals, we practically had to roll ourselves out to the truck. We ate like kings!
Splashtown is such a fun place to go during the week in the Summer-time. We are lucky that we live so close, maybe 30 minutes (if that!) from the water park.
We were smart and printed our tickets from home so that we could bypass the ticket stand at the front of the park and just we just went right in. This method makes things so much easier for everyone, and you get to start having fun just as soon as you get your personal items in your locker! We all put on our 45 block sunscreen, and we were ready to get wet!
(Click on the picture to enlarge map of the Rides and Slides)
Jackson now meets the height requirement of 48 inches to get on the rides/slides. For a five year-old little boy, he's pretty darn big! The first slide we went on was called the Texas Free fall! It's five stories of heart pounding, side by side free falling excitement. Daddy went first, then Jackson, then me, and let me just say, OH MY GOODNESS! Jack and I both screamed...but not Jackson. No, he was either very brave, or too scared to scream! I think maybe it was a mix of the two. This slide was one of Jackson's favorites!
Then, we swam into the Wild Wave Pool. It's about a half-million gallons of water and every 30 minutes or so waves surge through the pool just like at the beach, only without the seaweed! It's great fun for the family, and is really nice for kids of all ages. They also have life vests available for free!
The Blue Lagoon Activity Pool, Tree House Island, and the Guadalupe River (Lazy River) were also a lot of fun. Jackson was swimming underwater all by himself in the Lazy River and he also hitched a ride on Daddy's back a few times. Tree House Island is a three-story play area with climbing nets, slippery slides, and a huge 1,000 gallon bucket that tips over periodically and blasts water over anyone and everyone who is standing below!
We also went on the Rip
Qurl (I have no idea why it is spelled that way!) and Big Spin, both of which remind me of toilet bowls being flushed, Space Rapids, and the Tornado.
I have to admit, the Tornado was a pretty great ride! We rode in a quad-raft, and I was lucky enough to be in the position that made me face backwards pretty much the entire time, and it was scary! The ride begins on a platform set 75 feet in the air, then riders are set in motion down a 132 foot long tunnel and thrown into the giant open-ended funnel splashing back and forth on 5,000 gallons of swirling water. I seriously thought we were going to fall out of our raft because we went up so far on the sides of the funnel!
I really enjoyed taking the day off to spend with my husband and soon-to-be Kindergartner and our 'Family Fun Day' certainly was a lot of fun, but after four hours at
Splashtown standing in long lines with the sun beating down on us in 107 degree heat (with the heat index), we were spent!
Jackson passed out pretty much once his seat belt was fastened, and I sat in the passengers seat looking back at his sweet little sleepy, sun-kissed face. Jack and I reminisced about how little he used to be, and how there are times now that when he moves a certain way, or when we catch a glimpse of his profile, it takes us back to the day he was born!
There are times when it makes me sad to think about how fast the years have gone by, especially knowing that I can never get that time back, but more often than not it makes me happy to see how much he's grown over the years. He's turned out to be quite the charmer - he's very intelligent and also very handsome.
We are all very excited for Jackson to start Kindergarten and I will post very soon to tell all about his First Day!
