The Official Vacation

Our family went on a little vacation a few weeks ago. We've had a bunch of exciting adventures this summer, but this trip was actually scheduled ahead of time so we'll call it our official "Vacation."  We had a wonderful time in Boise. Here goes:

We spent the first day at Wahooz. This is a repeat from last year and the kids couldn't wait to go back. They all agreed that we needed to ride the Bumper Boats right when we got there. 

Greg and I made a good team. We were both rookies.  Last year we had to stay on the sidelines because he wasn't tall enough and I had a large, handicapping belly.  But this year we had a blast squirting people. Well, I drove the boat and Greg ran the squirter - so I think we mostly just squirted the pool. But it was fun.

Ben and I took turns. It was almost just as fun to watch him get chased around by the kids squirting him. He was getting soaked.  I was laughing at him, thinking he was being a little wimpy about it -  but I was wrong:

Yes, that's me on our final boat ride - I'm the one hiding in shame on the blue and white boat. I tried fighting back but couldn't.  I tried running away but that didn't work either. Finally I gave up. It was nice of Ben to get it on camera. I was entirely 100% soaked when we left Wahooz.

Zach was old enough to join Jonathan on the Rookie Track this year. Zach is there in front and Jonathan is  in the red car. They both won a few times. Is it time to hand over the keys to our family car?

Greg loves this lizard game. He remembered it from last year. Each of us got a certain amount of game tokens with our day pass.

Zach thought it was really cool that the game tokens came on a credit card this year.  The kids just kept swiping the card and playing until the card was empty.  (Sound familiar?)  Of course the card also counted the tickets they won too, so we didn't have to carry around handfuls of those.

The little ones loved the play area.  Greg would point to where he wanted to go and then run as fast as he could to find his destination. My job was to tell him when he got to there.

I have always loved mini golf and it's really fun with the kids. They make up their own rules and appreciate every little feature and statue along the way.

They're actually getting pretty good at it too!

Greg has his own methods.  (It's hard not to laugh at his cuteness.)

Nicole and I are buddies.

After this, we realized we had been at Wahooz for EIGHT hours. We certainly made good use of our day passes!

We spent the second day of our vacation at the water park. (Represented by children in swimsuits, watching TV at the hotel.)  We had a BLAST at Roaring Springs. Every one of us. A few of the highlights: *Ben and Jonathan went on the super-scary Avalanche ride for the first time (meaning that I didn't have to, whew). *Zach's favorite slide is the big Rattlesnake one, although he calls it "getting flushed down the toilet." *Nicole went on some of the really big slides and then found her niche at the medium-sized kid slides where she could go up and down by herself a million times. *Greg and Josh played on the water teeter-totters and splashed around in the kiddie pool. *Then there's me. My favorite parts were 1) Going on the toilet ride with Zach and coming out backwards, 2) Having Josh fall asleep on my lap in the sun while I watched the older kids drowning swimming with Ben in the wave pool, and 3) Making a few laps around the lazy river as a family. Five kids on five tubes = chaos.  (Whenever we got close to the waterfalls, Joshie's little feet could feel the current and  he'd scramble to get away, his eyes huge.) It was so fun! By the time we were all waterlogged, we had spent over eight hours at the water park. That's a lot of sunscreen!

I can't forget to mention - Josh's favorite part of the vacation was that one restaurant. And that other restaurant. And then the other place where we ate at too. Basically, as long as we were eating he was loving it. (This was at Cheesecake Factory.)

On the third day of our vacation we went school shopping. This was NOT the boys' favorite part. But we came away with less money and more clothes so it was a success. Nicole and I had fun at least. Boise has a few more stores than our little town.

Then we headed home - with our car full of kids, clothes, and memories.