Water Day at Jellystone Park

Last week we finally got the chance to go to Jellystone Park out in Waller.  We had tried several weeks back but the weather didn't work out - I think it was Tropical Storm Bonnie that altered those plans.  Its been a tough summer to plan anything in advance - we have been getting tons of rain - way more than I can remember in past summers.  I don't really mind it too much since its keeping the temps down a little, but it does get kind of irritating when we actually have somewhere outside that we want to go.  We took advantage of a clear day and made the most of it.  We loaded up the car with all 3 kids (oh the amount of stuff that is needed to go anywhere these days - its pretty comical) and brought Andrew's cousin and Grandma (Andy's mom)with us too.  We also met our friends, Natalie & Blakelyn (a.k.a Brookie's partner in crime). I was worried how Cannon would be since he is either hit or miss with water these days...but luckily he did really well.  We had so much fun - the slides and splash areas were perfect for the girls - they went non-stop and wore themselves out.  We ended up staying for about 5 hours and we were running the entire time.  It was pretty crowded but we still had a good time.  At one point we had a little scare when we couldn't find Brookie - there were so many kids it was hard to find her in the masses.  We found her a few minutes later - some kind woman found her and was walking around carrying her looking for her mommy....that has got to be the WORST feeling as a parent.....I did the same thing to my mom when I was about Brookie's age too - and I still hear about it to this day...oops - sorry Mom :)

Anyway....I'll just share the pics that Natalie took with her new waterproof digital camera (THANKS!!!).  I didn't even attempt to bring my regular digital camera - I knew I'd be running crazy with Brookie and Cannon....and I'd probably end up dropping it in the water.  Just my luck :)

This was in one of the pools.  I am so excited - Brookie is doing so well with her lifejacket now in the pool - she LOVES to just float around on her own - such a big girl!  Can't wait for swim lessons next summer.

Here is a shot of the splash pad area with all the smaller slides where we spent most of our day with the girls - this was obviously earlier in the day before it got packed

Brookie loved going down all the slides over and over.  And the best part was that there were no lines for these ones - very important for a 2 year old ;)

Even the grown ups got to be kids that day - the slides were a lot of fun for us too :)

Ok....this next slide.....yeah it was definitely out of my league!  This thing was huge!  Of course Andrew & his cousin loved it although even his cousin took awhile to warm up to it.  Anyway I decided to give it a shot with Andrew earlier in the morning since at that point his cousin refused to go on it.  The further we walked up the stairs, the more and more I was thinking I was in way over my head. I loved all things wild & crazy (waterslides and any roller coaster I could find) when I was younger but for some reason even when I was younger, tall waterslides scared me to death.  I always had a fear I would somehow trip and just tumble and fly down the slide..so waterslides like The Edge and things like that at the old Waterworld here in Houston just didn't happen with me.  So like I said...walking up those stairs scared me to death.  Then of course when I got to the top and just looked down....yeah I was in trouble.  But I was going to be a grown up and just do it.  That and there were little kids up there - like really little kids.  So I stood there and watched people one by one go down...and a few people would get stuck at the top before they finally pushed themselves free and began their journey all the way down.  At that point another moment of panic set in - I just knew I was going to get myself stuck and be in the most embarrassing position (you had to lay on your tummy looking down the slide so all the people still waiting had a perfect view of your behind in all its glory) and then have to flop around trying to un-stuck myself.  What a terrifying thought!  At that point I didn't even think about my original fear of tumbling down the slide....I was more mortified of looking like a fool and drawing attention to myself...hahaha!  Anyway...my turn came and guess what????

 

I GOT STUCK!!!!!  The pic above shows how far behind I was....Andrew is already at the bottom on the blue slide on the far left.  I am on the yellow slide right beside him (the one on the furthest left) wayyyyyyy at the top!  My new fear came true - I was flopping around up there like a fish out of water trying to just get down the slide already.  I'm sure it was only a few seconds at most, but to me it felt like hours...lol

I finally managed to dislodge myself free and down I sailed...you can see in the pic above again how far behind I was.  Andrew and everyone else had already stopped and gotten up and were exiting....then there's little 'ole me....finally making it to the bottom...at least my original fear didn't come true - I stayed on the slide the whole way down and didn't fly off  :)

And the aftermath of my slide adventure....so happy to be  back on the ground!  At some point I hit my ribs on the left side and I think I must have bruised them b/c I felt it right away when I stood up.  And they are still killing me - its steadily getting worse each day too :(  I can pretty much feel the pain 24/7 with almost anything and everything I do...not fun.  Even sleeping is an issue right now - I can't roll over to that side or it feels like someone is stabbing me.  Hopefully it will go away soon.

You can already see me holding my ribs on the left side as I climbed off the slide.  Ouch!

Anyway...all in all it was a fun day.  We can't wait to go back.  We are trying to get Andy to take a day off work so we can take the kids back for another play day :)  But you better believe, you won't catch me on that big slide - ha!