Lake Lanier... test run!

After talking about it, Jeff and I decided that this year for the kids birthdays, we would ask his parents to contribute towards lake lanier islands ("Lanier World") seasons passses. But then, we thought it might be wise if we tried it out first and make sure it would be a place we would want to take the kids often!

Our first time going was near the end of May... and honestly, it was still a little too cool for my taste. But on the upside, there were very few people at the park and we were surprised at how the kids didnt mind the cooler temps/water!

The kids had fun playing for a while in the kids area and we decided to head over to the beach area. Well, that was pretty much a disaster. Mack HATED the sand. Hated having to wear the floaty device. Hated being helped but didnt want to be left alone. So from this experience we decided two things:
1. Jeff would make some trips out to fort yargo with the kids during the summer to get them both used to the sand so that our beach vacation wouldnt be a nightmare
2. We needed to do swimming lessons with at least Mack, preferably both kids.
Its always nice to learn things, right :-)
BACK to the kids area we went. And smiles returned!

Rhyan, with her water shoes on, was just tall enough to ride all of the slides! Which was a little scary to me :-). I know she's tall enough, but she had JUST turned 4! So I told her that if she wanted to, we could ride the slides that would allow us to ride double in a tube. She was SO excited! The lifeguards, of course, measured her at the bottom of the steps before we trecked it up AND at the top again. I'm telling you, she was dead on 42 inches!

We went down twice together while Jeff and Mack hung out at the wave pool and kiddie area. She loved it. Absolutely loved it. Its so funny to me that my 1st born, cautious girl is such a dare devil when it comes to rides/slides. Im actually pretty much the same way. I think that often times perfectionist people dont do well with trying things that we might fail at, but we love to be a dare devil in other ways that wont reflect on us. Make sense?

Anyhow, later on, Rhyan wanted to go down the slide with her Daddy. He was happy to take her :-) Mack and I hung out at the bottom in hopes of a photo op and what we got was THIS!

I guess b/c they are so unevenly matched in size, the tube flipped over (and it did it pretty much every time the two of them rode this slide together, but she and I never had an issue!). But even that didnt scare her! She loved it all :-)

We only introduced her to that one slide that day.

So, we were pretty concerned about going because while Rhyan is old enough to skip her nap and be fine, Mack is not. So we werent sure how it would work but were willing to play it by ear. What ended up happening is that we got there pretty much when they opened and had fun playing till lunch time. We ate lunch at the park ($$$) and went back to letting the kids play again for a while, as long as they were behaving and not getting tired.

We stayed till about 3pm and left for home. Honestly, they had done FANTASTIC up until that point. But we stayed too long and it all fell apart at the end. They both napped on the way home (about 45 min) and then we just did an early bedtime that night. But we definitely learned a good bit and decided two things. 1. We definitely thought seasons passes would be great since Jeff is off all summer and we could go during the week
2. We needed to take our lunch and try getting Mack to nap at the park in the future.

That night the kids were wiped OUT! But i took this pic of Rhyan because its so sweet and just goes to show her nurturing side... she made sure her baby had plenty of room on the pillow :-)

And before I put Mack to bed, I decided to grab a couple of quick pics... and got this!

The next morning I had to take another pic of Rhyan on the monitor. My caption? "Her future's so bright she's gotta wear shades... even in bed!" ;-)

So for anyone wondering, I really think Lanier world has a lot of great things for kids. Rhyan loved the slides and rode ALL of them this summer except the intimidator (its a straight drop and i was glad she didnt ask). Mack was free at the other 3 of us cost about $80 a person. But considering that we went about 9 times this summer, I'd say we got our monies worth!