Wet and Wild

Yesterday couldn't have been a more gorgeous summer day.  It was even what I would call unusual for an August day.  Normally, we would expect high 80s, maybe even 90s, with a lot of humidity.  Instead, we had sweatshirts on in the morning because the temperature was only around 55 degrees.  While the day started out cloudy, the clouds soon parted and the afternoon was amazingly cool and sunny.  There were even little white puff-clouds left in the sky just to give some texture to an otherwise flawless blue.  The afternoon temperature - 75 degrees.  PERFECT . . . except if you were part of the Arnold family!  Let me explain.

We have waited all summer long to go to our new water park,  Zoombezi Bay.  It's only a few minutes away from our house, so it has sat there taunting us with its humongous, colorful water slides and waterfalls.  Originally, we were supposed to go on Mason's birthday back in June.  The day before we were to go, the forecast was not promising.  There was rain and cool temperatures expected.  Because it's not inexpensive to go there, we decided to delay our trip until a better day.  That delay has lasted throughout the summer.  Each time we have tried to go, either weather or schedules or unexpected things have kept us from it.  So when we decided that August 11th was the day, there was nothing that was going to stop us!

We didn't plan on going until 4:00pm on Monday because of some special discounts that we had - buy one, get one free means a lot in our family!  So at 3:45pm, we loaded everyone up and headed off to the water park.  I figured I could stand anything for four hours until the park closed for the night.  Let me just say that the park was not crowded.  In fact, there were only a few hearty souls who had braved the elements as we had.  And cold doesn't begin to describe the water temperature.  It is amazing what kids will withstand for a little thrill.  They jumped right into the water and began to play in the kiddie land, letting giant buckets of that same water dump on top of them.  We even managed to hit all of the water slides multiple times.  

Only later did we realize how cold the kids were.  As we stood there, all slightly blue and covered in goosebumps, Molly said, "Look Dad!  I can shiver and talk at the same time.  That's a talent!"  Despite being so cold, there were very few complaints all evening.  Toward the end of the evening, we chose to float together down the lazy river, some of the warmest water in the park.  As we floated along, I took a moment to look around.  There was no fighting, no whining, no bad attitudes.  All I saw was six smiling faces, my family enjoying each other, helping each other and loving the time together.  I love being a part of this zoo!