Yay Wahrpart!

We spent this past weekend mixing with the obese and heavily-tattooed clientele at Blue Harbor Resort and Waterpark in Sheboygan. This was our first experience at a waterpark, and it went very well. It was supposed to be an early birthday celebration for Claire, but I think it was as much a present for Elsa as for the birthday girl, if not more so.

The girls loved our hotel room, which had a "Kid Aquarium." This was a separate sleeping space for the girls, with bunk beds and an under-the-sea décor. Claire slept in her Pack and Play, but we let Elsa sleep on the top bunk, which she loved.

They especially liked this little window from their room to the main area.

And Claire fell head over heels in love with this fish, which was part of the room's decor. Every time we left the room or came back again, she had to give the fish a hug and a kiss.

In the "wahrpart," as Claire called it, it took the girls a little time to get their feet wet, figuratively and literally.

Elsa was instantly afraid of the toddler slides, despite the fact that they were not much longer and steeper than the average pool slide. After much discussing, reasoning, and convincing, she finally gave the red slide a try, and of course she instantly loved it.

She then proceeded to do it over and over again, about a thousand times. She practically wore out a path between the pool and the red slide. But no amount of begging and pleading could convince her to try the slightly taller and steeper blue slide, even though I swear there were kids younger than Claire who were going down it quite happily. Nor would she even consider doing the inner-tube slide with me, even though we could do that one together on a double tube. I know in the long run it's probably a good thing to have cautious kids (hello, teenage years), but at this age it's often just aggravating, especially when they won't do something that you know they would love and have a blast on. Oh well.

Although Claire was initially not thrilled with the splashing water, she surprised me by adjusting to it very quickly. Within about 20 minutes, she was wading in to the kiddie pool by herself up to her waist and above.

She also liked just wandering around the park, splashing in the fountains, or going up and down the steps of the pools. One time we got a whole bucket of water dumped on our heads and Claire didn't cry at all. We even floated around together on the lazy river, with her on my lap in the inner tube. (Although I think I enjoyed that activity more than she did!)

Elsa was very brave about water in her face too. She voluntarily dumped large amounts of water onto her own head.

She even stood underneath the huge water waterfall that came from a pirate ship high above the park, which dumped every five minutes.

So the "yay wahrpart" was a big hit. Bob and I had fun too—it was nice to just have fun, quality time with them. We also had some very good dinners—on Friday we went to an English pub for fish and chips and bangers and mash (Elsa had the kids' bangers and mash), and on Saturday night we went to a pizza place that has a Neopolitan certification for authentic Italian pizza.

Evidently, several Milwaukee chefs drive all the way to Sheboygan just for this pizza. Claire clearly agrees with the Milwaukee culinary community.

She may be picky, but this girl loves her pizza! "Yay peeda, peeda!"