This year, we gave our kids a trip to Kalahari Water Park for their Christmas present from us. We spent the day after the wedding hanging out and prepping at Jonny and Megan's house and then drove up to Pennsylvania on December 22. It was so fun last year, and this year it was even more fun with slightly taller kids! We had a fun group- Jonny's family, Joanna & Rayne, Timmy, Grandma Blood, and Elizabeth. Rayne came up with the game of singing Christmas songs at the top of your lungs as you go down the group tube slides while the rest of the group waiting at the top or bottom tries to guess what song you were singing. It wasn't very successful since it is so dang loud in there.
It was snowing outside! The whole park was indoor except for a section of the hot tubs. You can cross through a boundary from the indoor to outdoor part of the hot tub. It was so neat being in the hot tub in the snow! The kids kept jumping out to get snowballs.
This little fella had an absolute blast. We sweet talked Grandma Blood into watching him via baby monitor while he napped so we could get in more park time. She had a Spanish copy of Harry Potter and chocolates, so she was good to go.
Isaac eventually figured out how to go down the slides without flopping like a fish like he is in this picture
The red and black slide in this picture is the Anaconda, the biggest slide we could convince Annie to go on. I got a grand total of 0 pictures of Elliot in the park because he was off with cousin Aaron for hours at a time. He was tall enough to do all the rides this year and was doing some pretty extreme ones! He and I have the same favorite ride- Smoke that Thunders. It's a 4 person innertube ride that drops you into a huge funnel. Every single time I felt like our tube was going up so high that it would surely flip upside down. It's exhilarating and even more fun when it's dark outside, so the funnel part is pitch black!
Catherine had a traumatic experience on a waterslide with her uncle that was trying to make her tube rock as much as possible, so she was boycotting all slides- even the super mellow one that Annie dubbed "the family ride." Annie laughs her head off and yells "this is the best day of my life!" whenever we ride it. I took it upon myself to get Catherine to ride the family ride with Megan, Annie, and me. I had to talk her up to it for several hours with Annie's help and physically drag her up the stairs. I dub it successful exposure therapy. She's not converted fully to the wonders of water slides, but she did admit that it was not nearly as scary as she had built it up to be in her mind. I do love that Catherine.
A bunch of Bloods recuperating with screens after a long day of going up and down water slide towers.
We did the same strategy as last time of eating meals in the hotel room instead of going out to eat in the restaurants. Megan was a champ to bring most of the food from home for us to mooch off of, and we supplemented with a grocery run from the Walmart down the street.
After 2 wonderful nights at Kalahari, we drove back to Maryland and took the MARC train down to DC to spend Christmas with the Johnsons. We were impressed by the public transportation system and glad to dodge having to rent a car.
Union Station decked out with Christmas décor, waiting to be picked up by Grumpa!
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