Because People Asked and Stuff

There are certain things that are guaranteed in life and one of those things is that something bad will happen on my birthday.

This year was no exception.

But! With age comes wisdom! This year instead of sitting around and waiting for the suck, I demanded that we hightail it out of town and spend the weekend at Kalahari in Sandusky, OH. That worked out for me in several ways, including the one where it meant we missed the whole snowstorm thing. There was no snow just 30 miles west of Pittsburgh, so by the time we made it to Sandusky, the only white we saw was dried salt from long gone snow showers.

I mean, I love snow. I'm a little sad we missed a chance to go sledding. Yet, it ws probably for the best because sledding on my birthday sounds like a recipe for stupid. BAD THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN ON JANUARY 23rd, YOU GUYS.

This was our first time at Kalahari, which means we have now officially stayed at all of the water parks in Sandusky. Because so many people have asked, here's my opinion about all of the places.

Great Wolf Lodge? FANTASTIC for preschoolers. The rooms rule. There are a ton of activities outside of the water like making a treasure hunt and a knockoff Build-a-Bear. Annnnd ... it's not so good for bigger kids who want to ride big water coasters. There are only a few bigger rides and certainly not enough of them to keep the current incarnation of Alexis happy.

Castaway Bay, on the other hand, hits that golden spot for younger school-aged kids. There is still plenty for toddlers and such, yet it has a nice balance of bigger slides and smaller slides. It sits right in the middle by being neither too big nor too little.

Kalahari caters to the bigger kids. Alexis and her friend were in heaven, but they've never met a single ride they're scared of conquering. They greatly enjoyed every single second of their time surrounded by all of the things. Mila, though? Meh. She had fun, but Kalahari didn't have a whole lot for her to do. There was an area for toddlers and preschoolers, but it wasn't as good at the similar area at the other two parks.

Not that she minded. At all. She has never been to the other places so she has no comparison.

And there were swings. Swings! She needs nothing else in life.

So basically everyone had a great time getting wet while I had a great time ignoring the calendar.

Except for that thing where Mila is now traumatized for life. She may never forgive the universe for it.

She and I found ourselves with a few minutes to fill. The bigger girls were riding on a slide, so while they did that, Mila and I stood around. And stood around. And stood around. And then it happened. A giant bucket of water poured hundreds of gallons directly on top of us. We had no idea it was coming. (Castaway Bay has the same concept, but a bell sounds before the deluge, so you have time to move in or out of the way.)

Mila was PISSED. SO PISSED. At that point, she was done with being wet and then water fell from the sky and she was suddenly very, very wet.

I'm not sure that she will ever trust the sky again.