White Water with the Neighbors

Today my neighbors and I decided to break the monotony of going to the pool and took the girls to White Water Park. For all of you Georgia natives, you know that White Water is an exciting adventure as a kid, a right of passage into independence as a tween and a place to pick up boys as a full-fledged teenager. Seeing it through a parents eye is a totally new and terrifying experience- there are tons of life-threatening situations any child can easily get into, not to mention all the germs and scary people that are walking around the park! Looking back, I'm not sure what our parents were thinking letting us girls walk around unsupervised at 12 and 13 years old. I guess we all made it through unscathed... :)

Ava and Caitlin, of course, were blissfully unaware of the turmoil churning in my chest and loved every minute of the day. There were nine girls all together and the older girls ran from one huge slide to the next, taking breaks to come reapply sunscreen, swim in the wave pool and take a ride around the lazy river with the smaller girls.

After our lunch break, Ava begged to go on the big slides with the older girls- but as a novice swimmer and with her just barely reaching the height minimum, I didn't feel comfortable letting her go. Jason or I will both have to come one afternoon and split up so that one can watch Caitlin in the Wiggles World and one can take Ava on the slides- where is my mommy double when I need it?? On the other hand, I love Ava's adventurous spirit- seriously, even though it goes against every over-protective parent grain in my body, I hope she never loses that courage and bravery.

The girls were sweet with each other all day. Ava was a great big sister and showed Caitlin how to go down all the slides and where the coolest places were in Captain Kid's Cove- she even stuck up for Caitlin when another kid tried to cut in line in front of her.

Of course, nothing ends a day at White Water more perfectly than an M&M ice cream sandwich! They have become somewhat of a tradition in our family and as long as bites are shared with me, I am happy to keep it up! :)