Tropical getaway

Whew!  I’m tired from being in the tropics all weekend.  Des Moines’s only tropical water park hotel, that is.

Josh’s mom & dad invited our family to spend the night with them at the Ramada on Merle Hay Road.  We all had a lot of fun.

Here’s a picture of the main attraction:

Yep, that’s a big pirate ship.

There were slides, water canons, and secret passage ways to keep the kids giddy with excitement for hours. 

If you can see off to the left in the picture above, there were two other twisty-turny water slides for children over 42” tall or otherwise accompanied by an adult.  The kids had fun on those, too.

Here’s a smaller slide that was also in the kids’ shallow pool. 

Jace didn’t swim, but he had a great time pool side.

Now this next picture, this was a mama moment I just had to capture. 

I had just dragged Jude out of the pool area – it was the end of a big day, the excitement was just dying down.  Jude had just had his first fist-fight with a boy he didn’t know, an older boy.  Long story, I don’t know whose fault it was, but it made me realize that I’m not going to be there at every moment to protect him or keep him from doing something stupid.  I won’t always be able to intervene.  With kindergarten just around the corner, that day is coming soon.  I just looked at him for a long time through the mirror watching him watch tv in his penguin pajamas, tired and comfortable – not a care in the world.  Just a moment to soak in, I guess.

Except for the punch-out in the pool, we had a wonderful weekend.  It was such a nice break from our normal routine.