Waterpark with swim team friends

One of my swim team mom friends started a group chat with about a dozen swim team families, suggesting that we meet up at a water park this afternoon. So that's what we did! 

When we took this picture we had about 25 kids (though some more came later). You might think it would be difficult to gather 25 kids from several different families together for a picture, but this waterpark enforced "adult swim" for the last 15 minutes of each hour. 

Adult swim is not my favourite concept, but I do admit that it has a few perks. It forces the kids out of the water so they check in with their parents. You can reapply sunscreen, make sure kids go to the bathroom, take a group picture...and so on. 

We really took advantage of the first adult swim that was called. 

"Come on, moms!" one of my friends called. "We've got the pool all to ourselves. That's right—all of us. Miriam grab Phoebe. Who will take Baby Red?"

She marched us all over to the water slide and demanded we head up the stairs. It was really quite fun! We all went several times. 

And then the kids suggested a jumping contest off the high dive. 

It was also fun to just float around in the pool, taunting the children that we were swimming and they weren't!

This was supposed to be a silly picture, but the kids weren't getting very silly...so Zoë went to the front to really step up the silliness. But still very few joined her in being silly.

Our sweet friend Abinet packed a cooler with enough freezies for everyone. Here they all are crowding around for a snack:

My friend Des (baby Red's mom) talked about how much she loves the waterpark because once they arrive she really doesn't have to do anything the whole day (except now take care of the baby). Her older boys can all swim (her next youngest is Alexander's age) so she just lets them go and doesn't worry about a thing. 

And I've gotta say...

It's been a minute since I've been to a waterpark with all the kids and it was nice to just let them loose. I did have to keep within arm's reach of Phoebe, but that's just one kid so it felt easy. In the past when we'd go to the Springville Rec Center, I feel like I had two or three (or four) weak swimmers and it always felt a little overwhelming. 

But suddenly I have a whole brood of confident swimmers and can just turn them loose in a waterpark and relax (almost). 

It was rather nice! 

Phoebe thought it was relaxing as well...

She had had a bit of a rough morning. I had wanted to temper her expectations about the waterpark because I knew she would see the big yellow slide and want to go down it (she has changed a lot since she was a baby and couldn't tolerate slides at all). Unfortunately, you have to be 48" (4 feet) tall to ride the slide. Phoebe is not quite that tall yet. 

I explained all of this to her and she started weeping. 

We looked up pictures of the waterpark to show her the other attractions, everything that she could do. 

Nothing held a candle to that big yellow slide in her eyes. So I let her grieve the loss of possibility (for what I felt was an adequate amount of time to grieve...how long can one cry about a slide, truly?) and then told her that it was time to get ready to go and she had two options. She could either stop crying and come along with us and have a ton of fun doing everything but the yellow slide...or she could stay at home and cry about the yellow slide all day while the rest of us went out and had fun.

*****

Andrew told her the story about Josie putting grass in a milkshake (an incident from the summer of 2008). I don't know if I actually ever wrote about it...because I was afraid she'd find it embarrassing, but I think the statute of limitation has passed and she no longer has anything to be embarrassed about because kids get to be kids, people have difficult days, and that's normal. 

We all grow and change and should be offered grace regarding our (mis)handling of life's difficult moments because nary a one of us has any idea what we're doing here. We're just figuring stuff out one day at a time.

So this is not a reflection of Josie now and it isn't even an accurate reflection of typical Josie then...it's a story about a bad moment. But it is illustrative. And has kind of become family lore (sorry, Josie).

On that caveat...

When we drove down to California for a family vacation with Andrew's parents and siblings shortly before moving to Egypt, we took Josie with us. She went to hang out at my Auntie Arlene's house and I did all the Heiss stuff. 

I think it was on the way home from this trip that we stopped at In-N-Out and for some reason Josie was really mad about this. She had wanted to stop somewhere else, but Reid overruled her (because she was in the minority anyway) and announced we were all going to In-N-Out. 

He planned to buy a meal for everyone, including Josie. 

She would not order anything. 

She stormed out of the restaurant and plopped into a little grassy area to stew. I followed her and sat with her in uncomfortable silence. Soon everyone else came out, carrying all the food and chatting happily. 

There were burgers and fries and milkshakes for everyone!

"And I got a milkshake for you, too, Josie," Reid said jovially, handing her a milkshake. "Just in case."

He figured that since it wasn't a meal she would be fine with it. She had been going through this "I'm a vegetarian!" phase that Reid (and everyone else on the trip) found rather confusing because she was chowing down on beef jerky in the car...but adamantly refusing all other meat. 

But a milkshake is a milkshake, right? 

It's not like he offered her a burger or anything.

"I said I didn't want In-N-Out!" she raged. 

"If you don't want it, I'll have it!" James (Gillespie—he came on the trip, too!) offered. 

In response, Josie ripped up a few handfuls of grass, tore the lid off the milkshake, stuffed the grass deep into the ice cream with her bare hand, and held it out to James with vengeance burning in her eyes.

"Here!" she growled, her entire being shaking with rage. 

It was...quite comical...actually...because it was all such an overreaction to the entire situation. 

So Josie didn't get a milkshake. 

James didn't get a (second) milkshake. 

And everyone was like, "Whoa. Calm down."

I think Karen eventually took her over to Subway to get something different (just so we could check "hangry" off our list of possibilities for the outburst...and because Karen was very kind).

*****

"And that's the story of Auntie Josie and the milkshake," Andrew said. "So you see, crying and crying about something can ruin the whole experience for everyone. It's better to just enjoy the milkshake, even if it's not quite what you wanted. See what I'm saying?"

"I think so," Phoebe said.

Lucky for her there was a little red waterslide in the wading pool, which she got went on over and over again!

When we got home, Andrew asked her, "How was the waterpark? Did you enjoy your milkshake?"

"First," Phoebe said. "There were no milkshakes, although we did get freezies. Second, I didn't even cry about anything. Third, there was a little waterslide in the baby pool. So..."

"Good day?"

"Yeah. Can you help me pull off my bathing suit? It's size 3T and it's getting a little tight. And can you tell me about Auntie Josie and the milkshake again?"

See—family lore.