Kalahari

Earlier in the fall we decided we wanted to do Kalahari waterpark with the kids again this winter. We missed out on so much because of Covid, and we wanted to do something fun as our gift to them since they don't need more stuff in their lives. We also invited Knoxes and Uhligs because it's always better with friends! Because of school and prices, we opted to go Dec. 22-23. Since our Christmas plans were just staying home, we figured it would be fun to go and then come back for Christmas. 

Well, the funeral kind of shifted all of our plans. Suddenly a whole bunch of Bloods were coming to our house (and Timmy's) for Christmas, which I was SO excited about! But we already had these Kalahari tickets and weren't sure what to do. Just leave everyone here while we went? Instead we opened the invitation up to everyone and were so excited when it worked out! The Uhligs ended up not being able to come, so it was the Knoxes and a whole bunch of Bloods. 

What made it extra fun was Elise puking ALL over the back of the van about 40 minutes into our drive up. We stopped to clean it up as best we could, and then debated what to do (and so did Stephen and Claudia since Brianna was in the back right by Elise).  We figured by that point everyone had already been exposed since I fed them all dinner the night before, so we kept with the plan. And, thankfully, no one else got sick!

Because we have 7 people in our family, we no longer fit into one room. Neither do the Knoxes, so we bought three rooms and split them between us. Aaron and Seth got to share a room with the Knox boys, which made them all feel really cool (especially since none of the grownups had a key to their room). 

The boys lounging in bed watching cartoons

The girls and Paul doing the same.

We usually get Paul in the mornings since most of the other Knoxes sleep in late. 

I took zero pictures inside the park.

Thankfully Claudia snapped a couple of me pushing Elijah in the swing!

He did NOT want to leave this swing!

Visiting a water park when you have small children is really not super fun for the adults. I spent most of my time in the small kid areas or carefully navigating my way around the lazy river with sleeping Elijah on my lap. But thankfully there were a couple of times I managed to pass Elijah off to Jon or Uncle Aaron so I could enjoy some of the actually fun stuff.  The best part was when Ashley and I managed to coordinate our child-free time and ran off together to the slides. I had a goal to do all the scary slides in the park, but I psyched myself out when I saw them up close. Thankfully Ashley was there for some positive peer pressure. And, as it turned out, the super scary rides were actually TONS of fun! I didn't actually make my goal of going on all the slides because of various children needing attention, but I did go on the two that scared me most, so I'm calling it a win. Thanks for being my buddy, Ashley!

And, because Bloods are Bloods, we all opted to eat sub sandwiches from Walmart in the common area rather than dealing with fast food on the drive home. I loved seeing everyone together and watching the cousins all running around together in various combinations. It was such a fun adventure together. 

We literally took over the entire common area. 

I still feel a little guilty that we ended up kind of ditching the Knoxes, but they don't really have small people anymore and got to enjoy riding the rides the entire time! I'm sure we'll get a chance to do it again in a year or two.