Jurney to Nauvoo: The Water Park; Day Three

We had a picnic lunch on the grass outside the LDS Visitors Center after touring the sites in Independence.  Nearby, another family with four beautiful little girls was also eating lunch.  Elias left our picnic with his sandwich and hid behind a tree near the other family so he could spy on the little girls.  One seemed to be near his age.  Little did he know he would meet her again later. 

After lunch, we were ready for some activity and fun, so we went to the Independence City Parks and Rec: Oasis Adventure Water Park  It was cheap: only about six bucks each.  There was a more fantastical water park called Oceans of Fun in nearby Kansas City, but it cost forty dollars per person.  Our budget cried for the former: it ended being the perfect afternoon release of energy.

I opted not to take my camera--I just wanted to have fun and play with the kids, not be a photographer! So I don't have any cute pictures. 

The kids loved it.  There were three water slides.  Elias was too short by a quarter of an inch to slide down, but at first there was a boy lifeguard and he let Elias go down.  Later, a girl lifeguard refused him admittance. He was happy to have his first three turns down and didn't complain.  Leah who was very nervous at first, went down and then said, "I want to go down a faster water slide!" 

There was a kid play-park in the water that had fountains and little slides.  All the kids wanted to play on it.  There was a huge water bucket about 15 feet up that filled up with water and dumped out about every five minutes.  All the kids at the park would sit or stand at the "deluge spot"--they figured out exactly where to sit to get the full force of the water as it careened down.  The force was so great that it would knock them right over--whether sitting or standing.  Elias would jump up afterward and do his little shake and yell, "It's beatin' me up! It's beatin' me up!"  All the parents were chuckling at him.  Later he befriended three cute teenage girls.  He just walked up and introduced himself and they were smitten.  They played with him in the kiddie park for a half hour.  He told them all about his brothers and sisters and even pointed out his mom who was watching.  He made them laugh and giggle.  What are we going to do when he's a teen?!

There was also a rock climbing wall in one pool.  We all tried it out, without much success.  Mckay was a conqueror, though, and made it to the top several times.  The rest of us just fell off and splashed into the pool. 

Our family favorite was the park's "Lazy River". We floated around on inner-tubes many times.  In the lazy river we played tag, chased each other, and made a six-person tube train and "choo-chooed" all the way around. We also had fun trying to shove each-other under the water fall. Ryanne got me good every time we went around!  The funniest thing that happened all day was that one of the kids (name withheld) was trying to jump onto their tube backwards and slipped off.  Somehow, as this person slid off, their shorts went down about five inches.  Everyone near had a nice view of "the Crack and Cheek."  There were some cute teenage boys near too--Ahhh!  I must say it was embarrassing at first, but the  child and I laughed our heads off about it later. 

Although I insisted on sunblock for everyone, Wes fried his legs.  He doesn't like sunblock.  At least he let me put it on his face and neck!   We stayed at the park about four hours until we were all hungry for dinner.  All-in-all, a great way to shake off two days of travelling and one morning of quiet tours.