Ahoy, mateys! Addie's water park debut

Yesterday we beat the heat at a water park in Panama City Beach with some of our youth group. With no fear of rain (we haven't had any substantial rain in weeks) we took off, armed with our waaaay discounted tickets thanks to a friend from church.

I camped out most of the day at the Tadpole Hole with Addie, which was fine with me, but did get a couple of breaks to run off and have fun on some of the rides. Addie was fairly content to wander through the water and went down a few of the slides, but primarily hung out in the shallow pools and climbing up and down some of the kiddie amusements rather than really riding them. We did practice some kicking and she wore her water wings for a bit so she could float.

I was really interested to see her reaction to being there. My intention was to get her into swimming lessons this summer, something I really wanted her to do last summer and was determined to do this year. But, the more I thought about it and the more I observed her I felt like we'd push it off just a little longer. She doesn't seem quite ready. Granted, I could probably take her and at some point she might get used to it, but for us, taking on the commitment for swimming lessons is kind of a big deal. Our nearest option is close to an hour away, every day for two weeks. As much as I wanted to do it and thought we could manage that just for the two weeks, I finally opted to wait until I saw more signs of readiness. My goal now is to have her in the water more this summer and get her into lessons later.

We had a great time yesterday and enjoyed a sunny day and I'm really glad Addie had as much fun as she did. No doubt she was worn out by the time we left, having missed a nap and played all day. Since one of us was always in the water with Addie while the other was fitting in some water slide time I dropped the ball a little on taking pictures but I snapped a couple before we left for the day.

Our summer adventures have begun. Along with conjuring up ideas for what to do on hot summer days we have Father's Day to think about, a youth trip to Atlanta for a conference, family visits to the area, youth camp (for Sabian), VBS and everything that pops up in between. Personally, I'm hoping soon for a date night with my husband!

Today I am thankful for a little rain we've had this afternoon. It wasn't as much as we need but I kind of like the cloudy day!