Swimming in the Pool

My brother and I really enjoy swimming in the pool. We try to go every day if we can. We only swim for an hour on really hot days (which is pretty much about every day!) Today we got in and the water was cold, but not too cold. We got in and got used to it pretty quickly, like we always do. First we played that my brother was a bad guy and he was trying to get me. We played that for about 10 min. There really wasn't much to do accept do Cannonballs in the deep end. We had fun with that. I also taught my brother how to get to the side from the deep end. He handled that pretty well. I was kind of bored, so I just sat down in my tube and relaxed. But after a while my brother wanted to play bad guys again, so he started to hit me with our beach ball. I decided to play along, and finally we were warn out! Mom said that it was time to go anyway, so we were ready to go.

At the Clubhouse

In our sub, we have a 'clubhouse' or with a playground and a pool. We went to the Clubhouse with our friends to play spies on the playground. It was cool, because my friend and I were on one team and my brother and his friend were on a team. We had pretend walkie-talkies and we had cool gadgets that we used. Once or twice the other team tried to break into our HQ, and sometimes they stole some things, but we got them back. To have fun, all that you need is a little imagination!

Weeding

This morning after we got up, we had to eat breakfast and get right out to weeding. My brother and I were a little occupied with getting changed and getting our things set up for our new game we were playing. We got out there at about 10:00 and started weeding. Our friends stopped by, so they decided to help too. We got it done pretty fast!

My Schlitterbahn Experience

                                                My Schlitterbahn Experience

 

               It was June 25th, 2009, and we were on our way to Schlitterbahn!!  Caleb and I were sooo excited!  Mom and Dad were excited too, well, I could say we were all excited.  We finally found our way there and saw this big waterpark.  We were more excited than ever!  We entered and we checked in with our pre-bought pass.  We got 2 bands to wear.  One was for the staff to know that you payed to get in, and one was to get Castle Combos for lunch.  We got a special card so we could get all that.  First we went on the Congo River Expedition.  We thought that it was going to be just one of those Lazy Rivers...... but we were so wrong!  We started off on in a tunnel and passed a head that was saying, "Turn back if you can, there are uncharted waters in there. WARNING!  WARNING!  You are about to enter the unknown." Then we floated into a river with all kinds of different animals spraying water at us, and that wasn't so bad.  We saw crocodiles, lions, a snake, and an elephant.  But then we saw a sign that said "Waterfall Up Ahead!" and we knew we were in for something.  Caleb started getting scared, and inside I was pretty scared too.  Next thing I knew, I was next in line.  If you don't like big drops, don't go to Schlitterbahn ( i'm just kidding).  But that one was huge!!!!!  I finally felt myself going down and getting water splashed in my face.  That was scary!  I'm not kidding you!  I mean, if you love roller coasters that would have been nothing to you.  But to me, that was one roller coaster put into one drop.  After we passed that everything was fine, and the lifeguards said that there were no more drops as big as that one.  Phew!  You can't imagine how relieved I was!!  We went through some rapids, but those were just right.  There were a few more drops, but they were not that big.  On one of them, I was coming down and I totally flipped off my tube at the bottom.  Good thing I held my breath and closed my eyes. I had a hard time getting on my tube again, because the water is from a river right by the waterpark, and the bottom of the groove in the rock that you ride through is really slippery. But, I finally managed to get back on.  When I finally got off the ride, I saw that Mom didn't have her sunglasses on.  She said that she lost them while she was going down the waterfall (I don't blame her!!)  She also said that she flipped over just like I did.  Btu, she flipped over on the waterfall.  I can't imagine how scary that would be.  After that ride we all agreed that we were hungry, so Caleb got a Cheeseburger Combo, Mom and Dad both got a Chicken Sandwich Combo, and I got a Chicken Strip Combo.  We ate and then we wanted to go on another ride.  But we left our tubes at the Congo River ride.  You see, everybody had to lug around their tube all day long.  They were big black tubes and they weighed a lot.  So we went to the nearest tube pile and picked up some tubes.  We decided to go on the Hillside ride.  It didn't sound so bad.  Doesn't the word Hillside make you think of peaceful things?  Well, you can't judge a ride by it's name!  It was just like the Congo River ride. At first it was awesome, because we were going down the side of a hill twisting and turning and gradually making our way down.  Then we went under the locker room type of area, and there were BIG rapids (not as big as the waterfall, of course) I wiped out on some of those because, we were going down a chute and we were going downhill.  So one time I wiped out and I lost my shoe.  It was good that they were Crocs because Crocs float.  I recovered from that one. But next there was the end, and one of the staff helping me get through to the next area totally pushed me down a big slide backwards!  I was freaked out!  But it was actually better because I didn't get as wet as I would have facing the front (but it was still freaky!).  Then we got to the very last part of the ride.  When we came down a slide we landed in a Lagoon.  I think the water was river water, because it wasn't clear.  Mom and I both agreed that that was our favorite.  Next we went to get our bag and Caleb and Dad saw The Double Loop.  It was a body slide!  They were excited, and Mom was too.  But I wasn't so thrilled about it.  Mom agreed to stay off and be with me.  I felt kind of bad.  So, after a while watching other people go down, I decided to go.  Mom was very proud of me for trying this new thing.  I felt proud of me too.  So we got in line.  Caleb was first in front of Dad.  Then there were some other people, then me, and Mom.  I was still pretty scared, but Mom pointed out that this one was an Orange Triangle, and the other rides that we have been on were Red Diamonds.  Red Diamonds are scarier than Orange Triangles, but that only made me feel a little bit better.  When it was my turn, my knees were literally knocking together.  Mom was taking her shoes off because she was behind me, and one dropped.  It was funny, but not funny enough to cheer me up all the way.  But I sat down and went. "This isn't bad at all!"  I thought.  I got stuck a few times and I ended really lamely, but I wanted to go again.  Nobody else wanted to go, so I didn't.  We were ready to go, especially Mom and Dad, but we all agreed that Caleb and I would stop at the Wave Pool and go swimming for about 30 min.  We had fun in the Wave Pool, because the waves would push you the way they were going.  After we swam there it was time to go, so we left along with all of our wonderful (and sometimes scary) memories.  That was my Schlitterbahn experience.

The Natural Bridge Caverns

The Natural Bridge Caverns

 

        When we pulled up to the Natural Bridge Caverns, I was pretty excited.  Not exactly out of control excited, but, excited.  Mom decided to snap a picture or two, then we went inside of the Visitor's Center for our real tickets.  After got our real tickets, the intercom screamed, "Tour group 'Discovery', please wait outside on the patio to your left."  We followed the few people who moved to the outside and took a seat.  Behide us sat a brick wall that looked pretty old.  Also, behind us, was the Natural Bridge, made from nature and real stone.  It is how the place got it's name.  I finally noticed how dry my throat was, and found a drinking fountain that said, 'Cavern Water'.  Well, if it's Cavern Water it was filtered by the limestone in the cave and must be pretty clean.  So, I took a drink.  Mmmm!  That was refreshing!!  It was cold and didn't taste like dirty water at all (well infact, it wasn't dirty water!!).  Finally, our tour guide, Jacob, announced that we would be moving into the Caverns.  I took a quick swig of water, and went along with the group.  We walked down a steep hill lined by flights of steps, then stopped for another break by the entrance.  Jacob said, "I will now tell you the rules and history..."  he went on about how Natural Bridge Caverns got it's name and how it was formed.  He also told us the rules like:  No touching!  And: follow the Caver's Creed.  Then we proceeded into the cave.  It was a great sight, but I didn't know that this was NOTHING yet!!  There were plaques with the names of the different formations and areas.  We came upon the original enterance to the cave.  The people who discovered this cave had to crawl through this hole to get inside.  Mom was glad she didn't discover this cave, because she didn't like tight spaces.  That space WAS tight!  Here we learned about Soda Straws.  Soda Straws are stalagtights that are very thin and are hollow in the middle.  We took a few pictures and moved on.  This place was beautiful!  Jacob, our tour guide said that the farther we got into the cave, the bigger the rooms got.  They were amazing!  They really did a good job when they named all of the formations, because they all looked like their names and they really made you look at the formation in a different way.  There was one formation named Fairy Castle, and it was dainty and delicate just like a Fairy Castle.  There was also a formation that was named King's Throne, or something like that, and it was amazing!  At the end of the tour, we went into the biggest room you can imagine.  It was soooo cool!  It was like a dome.  We had to hike pretty far to get to the exit.  Some of the formations looked really and  truly like wax!  It was very interesting.  I was dieing of thirst at this point, so I found a sign that said Cavern Water, and took lots of sips!  We were at the end of our tour, and we had great pictures, so we were in business!  Everybody got their picture taken at the end, but you had a choice if you wanted to buy it.  We decided not to, because Dad took some wonderful pictures himself.  We had such a great time!