Hawaiian Falls

My sister's church kicked off their VBS this year by having a church service at a local Mansfield water park called Hawaiian Falls. After the service, the members and their guests had private access to the park rides until it opened to the public at noon. We decided to go and see what Parker thought about it. My mom stayed home with Eden so we did not have to get her out in the heat. (Thanks, Mom!)

Parker was still too small for most of the slides, so we started off our day in the children's area. He really enjoyed the smallest slide and went up and down it several times. I decided to try a bigger slide and see if he liked it too. However, as soon as we got ready to slide, a huge bucket of water dumped on us and scared him. Needless to say, we were done in the children's area. No more slides, even the small one he had enjoyed just a few minutes prior.

Parker and Addison sliding together

We then took a (not so) relaxing ride on the Lazy River. Parker sat in my lap on the inner tube and then wanted in the water with Cory. Then back in my lap and then back in the water, and so forth and so on. We exited the Lazy River halfway through!

Next up was the wave pool. Parker enjoyed this quite a bit because the water was not too deep and he could play and splash on his own without any fear. While he and Addison played, Emily and I took turns watching the kids so that we could go on some of the big slides ourselves. I don't think that in all 17 years that Cory and I have been dating/married we have ever gone to a water park. It was fun getting to enjoy the slides together. They even had tandem inner tubes so we got to go down some of the slides at the same time (which actually makes you go faster).

We tried to get as much of our riding/playing done before lunch because we knew that it would get much more crowded after it opened up to the public. It was so nice because the lines were either very short or nonexistent so we got to go down the slides several times without much of a wait.

Enjoying lunch (especially the Cheetos)!

After lunch, Parker discovered some little fountains on the ground. He spent the next 30 minutes running and jumping in and out of the fountains. It was definitely his favorite thing all day, which is very funny to me because he does not like the sprinklers at home.

We tried the children's area one more time, but Parker was getting tired and wanted no part of it. So we decided to go down a few more slides ourselves before leaving. Cory and Jon enjoyed racing down one of them as did Emily and I. It's funny how being at a water park can make you feel like a kid again. We had such a great time and are already looking forward to going back with them next year.

Cory & Jon racing down the slide

Parker fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot!