A Fun Summer Day!

A few weeks ago, a good friend of ours from church, Jessica (same Jessica whose husband, Will, is our consultant for the Leak) told me that she was going to have to use several vacation days in a row, and that basically she would have a whole week off here at home, a staycation if you will. She said that she wanted to spend a day with me and the twins, so that we could go do something fun...something that I can't normally do with the two of them by myself. It wasn't hard to decide what to do. I said "lets go swimming!"

As you can imagine, one mom vs. two toddlers at the pool just doesn't fly, so we only do water activities on the weekends with Daddy. We've been talking about checking out the Springdale Aquatic Center for a long time, but just haven't done it yet. Actually, I wanted us to take the kids last Saturday, but it was overcast and rainy...so that didn't happen. We've taken them to the free splash park in Rogers several times, but just not the local pool.

So, Jess came over after lunch yesterday, and we bathed in sunscreen, and hit the road. Okay, I don't know what kind of pools you guys frequented as kids, but the Aquatic Center is pretty amazing. I mean, it puts Sun Valley (for the Victoria folk) to shame. This place has something for everyone. There is the "normal" olympic size swimming pool with two slides and two diving boards. There are two giant waterslides (think like a water park) in another area. There are two separate little kid areas. One is for older toddlers with a wading pool and cushy animal slides and dragon and mushroom fountains. One is a fenced in splash pad for small tots with sprinklers, misters, and a very shallow wading pool for babies. And its even shaded, since babies really shouldn't be exposed to that much sun. It's like they thought of everything. There is a first aid, info and rental station for life jackets and swim diapers and such.

Oh, as an aside here, I have been a little surprised by this seemingly new rule that inflatable floatation devices are no longer allowed in many pools. We have baby floats for Alec and Emma that they sit in, and those were not allowed because they aren't Coast Guard approved. So, if we wanted to take them in the big pool, we just had to hold them. Ummm...much easier to let a squirmy toddler float and splash in a floaty. Anyways, I guess we could've rented the baby life jackets, but they wanted to run around, so we spent the most time at the splash pad part and in the wading pool.

This facility also has lockers, concessions, and plenty of lounge chairs. The only thing that bugs me about the place is that you can't buy a membership, or at least I didn't see that option there or on the website. You have to pay everytime you go. You can buy a bulk ticket pack for 20% off, so I guess that's almost like prepaying a membership. It doesn't really matter now, because summer is almost over, and we can only hit the pool on the weekends when Aaron is off. But I know that as the kids get older they are going to want to "live" there in the summertime. It really is an awesome place, like a mini-waterpark!

So, we had a fantastic time. The kids got good and worn out from playing in the water in the hot sun! We went and got frozen yogurt afterward and after the kids had their snack, they went down for a nice long nap, and Jess and I watched the Food Network for a while before she had to get back home to start some dinner for her honey. We had a wonderful day, and I was so grateful to have a good friend willing to spend her day with us to help us do something that we wouldn't normally be able to do on a weekday. I know she had a lot of fun, but I'm also pretty sure she got a good workout running after babies with me. ;-)

I'm sorry that there are no pictures of this adventure. There was really no way to keep a camera or phone from getting wet or dropped as we ran around after Alec and Emma. You'll just have to imagine how cute we all were playing in the water! ;-)