The hotel was connected to the water park, so we didn't have to leave to go play. John and I forgot to pack the kids' life vests, but fortunately the park provided some. However, Nathan was too little for any of them and had to go without.
I looked in the Gift Shop to see if they had anything small enough for Nathan. They didn't, but we did buy some new water wings for Michaila that she used for the rest of the weekend.
Dominic and Michaila kept John and my mom running around, although I took a turn watching both Michaila and Nathan for awhile. She was having fun in the toddler pool, throwing a little basketball in front of her and then chasing after it and throwing it again. On Sunday, she became bored with the toddler pool and wanted to go, but when John took her down one of the tube slides, she was revitalized and they went down that seven or eight more times!
John made sure he tried everything at least once. Dominic did everything except for the really big slide. Friday night and early Saturday his favorite was the one that used a wave board and the water ran uphill and pushed you up . That was also a popular one that always seemed to have an audience! By Saturday night, his new favorite became the very long and tall slide that was four lanes wide for people to ride down -- on their bellies! -- and race each other. (There weren't any real races -- people just went down when they wanted -- but there was a digital readout for each lane if you wanted to keep track.)
My mom spent most of her time either playing with Michaila or taking pictures. My dad either stayed in the room, or just came down to watch. Sunday he got into the hot tub for a little while with Dominic, so at least he got wet once!
I stayed in the kiddie pool with Nathan. I would sit on the shallow end with him in my lap, water about halfway up his torso, and we would sit and watch everyone else play. I don't know if he liked it or didn't like it. He didn't fuss at all and even tried to move his arms and sometimes kicked with his legs. I took him to the bigger pool once when the other two were playing there with John, but I didn't stay long because it was so much busier and he didn't have anything to help him float.
My only regret was that I didn't get to go on the lazy river with him. I did that with Michaila when she was little and I had been looking forward to floating with Nathan.
I managed to take a few pictures with each of my cameras, with so-so results on account of it being inside and me forgetting to wait for my flash to recharge before I take the next one.
We had take-out pizza on Friday for a late supper. The water park is open until 10 and we stayed until about 8:30 or so before we quit for the night to go eat. Saturday morning I wished I had thought to bring cereal and milk for the kids -- the kitchen had bowls and spoons -- but we ended up skipping breakfast and then having lunch at Pierson's Grille and Spirits just outside the hotel, right at 11 am.
There was a little shopping area and we checked out the clothing store and the candy/toy store. My mom bought each of the kids a shirt -- they had $5 toddler sized hoodies for sale which caught my eye, but only in Nathan's size. She bought Boyne t-shirts (full priced!) for the other two. I tried on a swimsuit, but the top was cut too low for my taste.
The kids got candy and one toy each -- a water balloon slingshot for Dominic and a cute plush monster bowling set for Michaila. John showed them how to play, but later I found Michaila putting all of the monsters down for a nap.
Dinner was at Everetts in the hotel -- just six of us since my dad elected to stay behind and eat the leftover pizza. Afterwards, the kids went to the arcade with the package's free tokens and my mom went to get my dad. They won a whoopee cushion and a plastic bracelet with their tickets.
We decided to walk around a bit before going back to the room and we saw that one of the ski lifts was taking people to the top of the mountain. It turns out there is a restaurant up there, but we decided to just ride up there anyway for the fun of it. John and Michaila rode first, then Dominic, Nathan and I, then my mom and dad. I was a bit nervous with all the swaying and Nathan was hungry so he kept fussing and trying to turn around. Dominic said he was only a little scared, but not really.
Near the top, they took our picture and then helped us off. I took a few pictures of our hotel with my phone, and then we got back on and rode down. The ride down was a little easier; Nathan fussed a lot less going down than he did going up. One of the upgoing cars had a little boy who waved at Dominic, and when Dominic asked me why he did that, I told him to wave back. The next car had another little boy and I told him to wave and see what happened. The little boy waved back and Dominic said, "He looks like the other boy!" While I was thinking of something to say, the man in the car smiled and said, "They're twins."
We picked up our pictures Sunday morning and they turned out very nice! Unfortunately, the photographer was only selling 8x10s at $15 a piece, so I could only get one of each. (I really would have preferred 5x7, plus at that size I might have been able to get two sets.) I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with them.
