Our Beach Getaway

For the past year, Ryan has been asking me if we could go two places. One was to the beach and the other was San Diego. When I asked him why, he simply responded, "because I've never been there before." Fair enough.
For the past 5 years we have been just a little busy building our practice that we often don't take time to take vacations or to simply stop. We decided that it was time to do this if only for a weekend, we were going to just stop and play. Ryan turned 5 this weekend and so it was the perfect excuse to celebrate. We packed up and drove an hour and a half to an indoor waterpark and amusement park. I think I laughed more this weekend than I have in a long time. It was wonderful.
When we got there, we of course headed straight for the pool. Morgan had insisted on wearing her "swimmin poot" since getting dressed that morning. She was wearing a dress over it and when we walked into the lobby and were checking in, she whipped off her dress right there and was all set to go. I was cracking up. Usually it is Ryan we have to worry about taking his clothes off in public.
When we got to the pool we tried to lay down the ground rules before hand about sticking together and I think that the only thing they heard was "mwa mwa mwa mwa." It was a little crazy at first but then Heath and I got our game faces on and became super parents(really people were looking at us thinking who are the crazies that brought 4 little kids and thought they were gonna have fun) Oh but it was fun. Most of you know that our kids love the water. That is, all of them but one. Jack is not so fond of it. He was clinging to me so tight and crying everytime he got water splashed on his face. I thought, "poor little guy," but then as is typical for me I told him he was fine and we continued on. Kids learn to either cry over everything and someone will come along and make it all better, or they learn that it's ok to cry but sometimes we have to do what we don't want or do things that are hard but we will be stronger and smarter at the end of it all if we don't give up.
Yes you will hear me tell my kids to "shake it off" from time to time. I don't think it is mean or uncompassionate. I love my kids more than anything on this Earth.
Anyway just like when I talk I get off on tangents here too.
So they had these water slides there that you had to be 48 inches to ride. Heath wanted to check them out before taking Patrick on them. He came down and nonchalantly told me that I really needed to try them out. So I opted for the one that you ride the intertube down, and hiked my way to the top of the building for my ride. HOLY CRAP!! The whole time I was going down I was thinking about how terrified Patrick would have been if we let him just go without us first taking a test-ride.
After a little while at the pool we went out for dinner and decided to check out the amusement park when we got back. We walked in and the boys eyes got as big as saucers when the first ride they see contains all these people screaming their heads off as they are thrust up in the air and sideways and then plunged back down. Ryan looked at me and said very matter of factly, "I DO NOT want to go on that." Patrick was right there with him nodding in agreement. I was thankful because Heath gets sick on all those things so I am the designated ride partner. The kids went on this lily pad spinning thing that bored them to tears. We decided to try something a little more exciting for the second ride so the boys chose this fun little mini roller coaster. As boys are, Patrick and Ryan raced to get to the front seat. Before the ride even began Ryan began to second guess his choice and put his head down on the bar in front of him. Morgan and I rode behind them. She was yelling and waving her arms and I was laughing hysterically at the tension on Patrick's face and Ryan with his forehead glued to the safety rail. Poor guy, he did try it a second time with Daddy beside him and sitting in the back seat, but he assumed the same position, forehead velcroed to the rail.
We went back to our room and Heath stayed with Morgan and Jack while Patrick and Ryan and I snuck back down to the pool. The boys loved the wave pool, but the waves only last for about 10 minutes and come on about every twenty minutes or so. When the waves start they would blast this siren so you would know to go back to the big pool. Well Ryan had to go to the bathroom, and Patrick being the good big brother offered to take him in the mens locker room. I was standing guard by the door waiting, and waiting, and waiting wondering if something happened to them. Suddenly the siren blows, and out shoots these 2 little boys yelling "wave pool" as they ran past me.