Schlitterbaun

My work had a company picnic a few weekends ago.  They paid for everyone to go to Schlitterbaun in which they included a cater lunch score (well actually the food wasn't so great but it beat paying fifteen dollars for a turkey leg)!  They even threw in a 30 dollar gas card to get us there how could you pass up a deal like that?   Ethan has only had a handful of times were he has been in a big water setting, most of his water interactions consist of a bathtub or his baby pool in the back.  So taking him to the largest water park in the United States was a bit overwhelming.  He did so great.  We had  a lot of fun.  The picnic area that was reserved was right next to one of the many kid areas.  He was hesitant (thats probably an understatement) at first.  And when he took interest in the slide we thought why not?  Big mistake, he slid down and got submerged for just a second and freaked out!  From then on out he was glued to our legs.  We decided after an hour of trying anything to get him to play in the water that we would try out the wave pool.  Jenny let us borrow this really cool thing called a puddle jumper think a crossover between water wings and a life vest.  We snapped him in and Matt held onto to him and we went round and round.  He absolutely loved it.  He kept waving to the lifeguards as we floated by yelling "hi."  He liked it when the waves would push him and Matt really high up in the air only to jet them forward.  "More More" was all he kept saying so we just kept going ( that and Whoa and YAY). He was so fearless in that wave pool and you could see the envious looks on a few other dads faces as they saw Ethan and Matt floating by, because their little boys wouldn't attempt it.   After a while it started to get really crowded and it no longer became fun as it became jammed packed with tubes and people.  When we took him back to the kids section he acted as if it was child's play compared to the wave pool, which it was.  One of the funniest things about the whole day was the fact that he was absolutely insistent on wearing his sunglasses and hat, two things before that day he would have immediately ripped off if you tried to put them on him.  It was almost as if he saw everyone else wearing them so he wanted to sport them too.  By the end of the afternoon he was waving to people saying "BYE BYE BYE" blowing kisses and pointing at the water and saying "wa wa. "

All ready for the wave pool!

Ethan and Matt pool side

Hanging in the baby pool

I want to be just like dad with my shades and hat!