Vacation 6: Schlitterbahn Day 2 (Pre-Lunch)

After a busy day like Sunday you would think the girls would sleep in extra long, right?

Well, I suppose 7:30 is a little later than their usual, but they were ready to get up and play RIGHT then. It's a shame the park doesn't open until 9am in one area for guests staying in the park, and 10am for everything. That's a LONG wait for some little energetic tykes.

Thankful to have a swim suit and a snack and be on her way!

 Since the little kid areas weren't open yet, Bryan and I took them in the big wave river.

At first the girls wanted to ride in a tube together.... 

That idea was nixed in about 15 seconds

So each girl got their OWN tube and that worked much better :)

The first time around I took Clara and Bryan took Emma. That's when we discovered that there was one thing in the entire park that scared Emma - and that was the giant waves in this river while wearing a life jacket. That was ZERO fun. It didn't help that she'd already been up 2 hours, and was getting sleepy. That's ok. I took Clara around for round 2 while Daddy and Emma splashed in the waves, and then we swapped and Daddy took Clara while Mommy and Emma splashed in the waves.

Off they go!

We had fun cheering them on each time they completed a loop! yay!!!!

After a few rounds the girls decided they needed a snack and some water, and we thought that was a good idea. Plus we wondered if Lulu and Papa were back from riding the Master Blaster, so we headed back to the picnic table we staked out.

He's such a good daddy :)

 Snacks make everything better when you're tiny.

There were many, many cheeses taken.

(Sorry in advance for the lousy quality on a few of the videos - I had to upload them in standard definition instead of high definition because of the internet connection while we were there):

Love this :) She is so my child in so many ways.

 And then Clara waited for the kid area to open by explaining to us all about the trip. I didn't think to video until after she'd been at it for at least 5 minutes, so it's a little different, but still cute :)

Video:

YAY! The kiddie area is open!!!! Lulu and Papa weren't back yet, so we just headed right on in.

Emma watched Clara the first time

 But then she was ready to slide too!!

Emma and Clara going down the Shoe Slide:

After riding the shoe slide who knows how many times, the girls were ready for something with a little more challenge, so we moved onto the pirate ship:

Synchronized slippery ship sliding sisters (say that 5 times fast)

Having so much fun :)

You know those moments that are adorable and awful at the same time, and you laugh even though you shouldn't?

"Mommy, mommy! wook at me!!!"

This was one of them:

*crash*

 Poor thing!! A few hugs and kisses and she was ready to play again :)

Emma kept calling this whale a duck and quacking at it.

so happy

Giving it random hugs and kisses

Loving on Mommy

Both girls riding the "duck"/whale

Miss Clara

Then we knew Emma was all out of steam, so we went back to the picnic table to pack up Bryan and Emma so they could go back to the house for them *ahem* her to take a nap :)

Right around that time Lulu and Papa came back from riding the Master Blaster! 

So they joined Clara on some Pirate Adventures:

a little wary of sitting on the whale after the earlier mishap, ha

this child just loves the water

Then we decided that since Emma was napping, we would take Clara on a tube ride in the original park! The girls saw Bryan and I float by on the Raging River when they were playing the first day, so Clara was curious. 

We caught the tram over to the original park and left the stroller at the house so we wouldn't have to worry about it with only one kiddo and a plan to come back soon for lunch.

Conversations with Papa

 Clara would never, ever admit she was tired or sleepy if she was having fun, but all evidence would suggest that that's not entirely true:

Poor kid, having fun IS a lot of work! I agree!!

It's alright though, she perked up once we got our tubes and were getting onto the Cliffhanger ride.

We had this excellent plan of sticking together in a train. Well.... one thing we didn't take into account is that this particular ride is one that is FULL of these eddy things that make it nearly impossible to advance to the next area, let alone to do it in a group of 4. Papa promised he'd keep a hold of Clara's tube, so I didn't completely panic when they got out of sight. Lulu got even further behind me for a while:

Ahoy there Papa & Clara!! almost within reach!!

That's Clara floating in the yellow tube with a bottom

The best part according to Clara? The "tube slides!" (aka waterfalls)

It doesn't look like she likes it here, but trust me, she LOVED it!

all together after the ride - she had so much fun with this new style of "swimmin'"

Then, since we were at the edge of the park, and she floated on TOP of the water, she was ready to get into the nearest pool and get IN the water, so we obliged her with a memory trip for me: the lily pad and alligator pond! (G, do you remember this too?)

Riding another alligator! 

With Lulu & Papa

Then Mommy was a party pooper and told Clara it was time to head back to the house for some lunch and to collect little sister after her nap.

Stay tuned for more splashing good fun :)