THE OL' WATER HOLE

There is a new meaning to "the ol' water hole". It's called a waterpark. Last Friday I spent 4 hours and 45 minutes (not that I was counting) with my grandchildren floating around the lazy river, watching Max come down the slide, kind of forcing Colby to go in the lazy river and seeing Sarah giggle and smile all the way around.

This was my kind of day. I got to do two of the things I love the best. Spend time with my grandchildren and be at the pool! The kids were rewarded with this day because they were so good when we were in Willmar. They had spent 5 days cooped up in the hotel, went swimming only twice and sat through numberous lunches and banquets. They deserved a fun event.

Jenny dropped the kids off at 7 AM but they didn't know they were going anywhere special. they just thought Nana was going to babysit since their normal daycare was closed. They watch Ghostbusters and at 10 AM I told them it was time to get ready to go out, "come put your swimsuits on!" "What?" "Where are we going". I told them the surprise and told them to hurry up so we could get there to be in line for when it opened (I figured it would be busy with it being the "official" holiday for the 4th). all I could go was laugh when Sarah came down tugging on her suit. It was too small and she had a just a bit too much showing that shouldn't have been showing. Well, I guess we were going to make a stop at Target on the way. In the car we piled, made the quick stop and headed to Apple Valley.

I was right it was crowded with a capital C. There was no way we were going to get a chair to sit on so we spread the towels out on the lawn along with a hundred more or so people. After a dousing of sunscreen for the kids (oops, forgot me), we hit the water. In and out, have a snack, go to the lazy river, back to the big pool, Colby swimming underwater, Max scaring the begebees out of me and Sarah just giggling , smiling and trying to put her face in the water, then back for a snack and so the afternoon went. I lost sight of Max for a little bit but figured he was probably in the lazy river since he loves doing that - sure enough that's where he emerged from.

When it was time to go, no one really wanted to but Nana had had enough "sun" (it was actually cloudy) but you wouldn't have known there was no sun. Nana got extremely sunburned. Oh well, wasn't the first and probably won't be the last. Then it was on to Sonic for Corn Dogs and Ice Cream. I ordered and the kids thought it was pretty cool that the lady brought the food out to us. They started on the corn dogs and then asked when they could have their ice cream. Sarah gave me back her corn dog and said she didn't want it. Oh well, no ice cream for her. I ordered and when it came handed it back to Max and Colby. Sarah says "Where's mine?" I told her since she didn't eat, she couldn't have ice cream. You should have seen how quickly she wanted her corn dog back. She gobbled it up just about the time Max said he had had enough ice cream. Well, I saved some money there because Sarah ate the rest of Max's!

We pulled out of the drive-in and headed to Jordan. Three very tired kids and a Nana who figured she better get the kids home fast so she could get home and REST!! Compared to the mucky lake I used to swim in as a kid, this ol' water hole was GREAT!!