We may be approaching a new record for delayed blog posts. This one focuses on an event that is already three weeks old, and I'm on my third day of attempting to complete the post.

As you can see from Daniel's leisurely pose, we took a family trip to a waterpark the last weekend in August, taking advantage of our last year not beholden to the school calendar. The Grand Harbor Resort in Dubuque includes three large waterslides (one of which is navigated while riding on the tube Daniel is modeling, though his pose was for show only; the boys had to ride in our laps.) It also has a big climbing playground, for lack of a better descriptor, that includes lots of sprayers, buckets, and any other implement for playing with water that you might dream up. There's also a lazy river (though it wasn't working while we were there) and a smaller zero-depth entry pool with sprayers like the ones our kids have enjoyed at the splash pad this summer. The whole thing is a Huck Finn, steam boat theme (Dubuque being a Mississippi River town.) We were there when Edward was about 20 months old, but this was an entirely different experience.

It's hard to take pictures in an aquatic adventureland such as this one, especially when neither one of your children is an independent swimmer. Plus our camera isn't really good enough for action, so we never were quite able to capture the delight on the boys' faces at the end of a slide. Delighted they were, however, and so were the people who happened to be standing in the pool when John and Daniel came whooshing out of the tallest/fastest of the three slides. This slide had a separate set of stairs, much more intimidating than climbing up the "steam boat" playground area to the other two slides. It took Daniel a while to decide he wanted to try it. Edward had gone several times before he finally consented to ride. But when he came down: pure glee as he shouted, "I did it!!!" The other people in the pool could not stop smiling as John paddled the raft over to the side so I could help Daniel off as he shrieked with delight.

Another moment was a bit less gleeful. Even after his roller coaster lesson at the county fair in July, Daniel totally hasn't learned that he isn't big enough for all the things Edward can do. After a few trips down the two simpler slides, we suggested Ed could go by himself since they ended in only a few inches of water, not a pool. I went first, then Edward and the plan was for John and Daniel to follow. Waiting for Ed, I saw that by the time he got to the bottom he'd twisted around from the swirling slide motion and ended up sideways. Next thing I know, here comes Daniel, completely twisted around and on his stomach. It's not deep water at the end, but it is if you're a toddler laying on your stomach! I scooped him up and waited for John, who explained that Daniel had a total fit and insisted that he go by himself like Edward. Let's just say neither of them wanted to go alone again, which was fine.

Edward was very proud to practice/demonstrate his new level of comfort with getting his face wet. He wanted to be watched over and over dunking himself. Water play can be exhausting, and also a bit chilling for those without sufficient body mass (Edward) to keep warm. When we were not in the pool, we also had the opportunity to visit the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, which is part of the same complex. The boys loved all the hands on displays, especially a water table set up to demonstrate water currents, lock&dam operation, water ecosystems, and other kid-friendly lessons. They probably didn't absorb too much other than the water itself, but they sure had fun.
Here they're "operating" a steamship boiler, inserting logs and then watching the boiler fire to power the ship. They probably ran around this display 25 times, retrieving the log and re-inserting it to watch the fire.Here we see that preschoolers do not pilot steamships for one of the same reasons they don't drive cars--they can't see over the wheel. But they sure can spin it. This boat would have had quite the seasick crew with these two at the helm.
Here's a nice lesson in teamwork. If you look closely, you can see that the barrel doesn't get much height with just one person on the rope. But working together:
Here they are looking for the shark (note Ed's wet shirt from his previous water table adventures.) In the aquarium displays we also learned that crayfish swim backward, which is sort of a Cliff Clavin ho-hum factoid, but I must tell you greatly enhanced by observing this phenomenon in close proximity to a curious preschooler.
The lizards were also a popular feature, though you can't quite tell from Daniel's expression standing next to this Komodo dragon. He liked the smaller ones a little better, especially an exhibit where you could crawl through a tunnel and stand up with your head in a bubble "inside" the habitat.
They also got to touch a fox snake.

Even with all this excitement, there was still time to play "firefighter" in the hotel room, using the windowsill as the truck. I'm not sure this is the approved uniform, but they improvised.


It was one of the first weekends with cool nights/mornings and we hadn't thought to bring sweatshirts for the kids. We were up long before the 9 a.m. pool opening, so they were quite the fashion bugs with their pajama shirts and swim suits taking a riverside walk at 7:30 a.m.

It was a really nice get-away, even though it did confirm my assumption that it's WAY more work to take a vacation with kids this age than to stay home. But also more fun.