Piano playing with shades on...and a cut-off t-shirt sleeve headband...?
Papa tackles!
Working hard!
Everyone getting in on a little fishing action.
These might be my favorites...you could wear a cape and stand in front of a big fan with mirrors...SUPER CONNOR! :)
Connor did not want to touch the snake. Annalee? Ran back every time we tried to show her something else!
We all loved the fish!
Okay, these were so weird, don't remember the name. Like worms sticking out of the sand in one of the tanks!
Oooooooooh....
Connor doing the slide in the "grossology" section - it was all about the way things...flow...(it was all about poop)!
Lights and sounds!
Strong!
Creating.
Stronger!
Sweet rocking chair snack time. Except our little rocker (Annalee) looooooves to rock and rocked her snack all over the floor! Connor shared... :)
The giant water table - we did this part twice!
We got to celebrate Papa's birthday with him!!! That was great, I think the last time that he and I were actually in the same place on his birthday may have been when I was in high school!
59!
One morning, Dad and Jonathan got a round of golf in, and then watched the kids the rest of the day so Mom and I could check out the National Whitewater Center. It was SO COOL. Who knew it was there all this time? Not only can you go whitewater rafting (on both an easier course and a competition course), but you can also do a huge zipline, "mega jump", kayaking, stand up paddle boarding (on the Catawba River!), high ropes, obstacle course, rock climbing, and bouldering! They also have miles of trails for mountain biking, walking, and running. Incredible! We found enough time to do the adventure rafting, mega zip (3 times!), mega jump, stand up paddleboard, and climbing wall! Phew...incredible and exhausting. Since it was just the two of us, we didn't get to take pictures while we were actually rafting or anything, but we took a few before we left to show what it looks like!
This is a picture of the competition course. There are Olympic athletes that train here - you can see the gates hanging over the water.
This gives you a better view of the class 4 rapids...right where our entire boat flipped over! Basically, we were grouped in with an interesting group - an elderly lady with her daughter and tiny 10 year old grandson, two girls from NYC, and us. Let's just say that there wasn't a whole lot of paddling power, and some people were not listening to instructions very well - because they were freaking out! The guide worked hard to get us to paddle together and we made it through the course once...then we went up a conveyor belt to go through again. The second time, the front end of our boat popped up as we went down a rapid, mom was tossed into me and I was tossed right out of the boat! I managed to swim to the side and someone threw me a rope to clime up the steep side with (yeah...I felt like a weakling trying to hold my paddle and climb up, kept slipping!) I managed to get back into our boat and we went on our way. Our guide was like, "Nice swim, Michael Phelps." Ugh...ha! When we went up the conveyor belt again, we turned a different way and headed to the competition course. You could immediately tell how much rougher it was!
Our guide told us that we were doing well and we were about to head into "Pinball Alley" and then "Carnage Corner". Well, we technically made it through both but then were a little stuck, not in the currant. So our guide tried to get us back into the current by having us paddle IN to the rapid so we would be pushed back out. On our third try he yelled, "GET DOWN!" (our cue to move from the side of the boat to tucked in the bottom of the boat with our paddle between our knees). We got down all right...and the next thing you know I was pushing one of the other girls off of me so that I could get up to the top of the water and breathe! When I popped up, I whooshed past Mom and tried to get my feet in front of me as I went flying down. Another boat was getting close to me and the guide held out his hand and dragged me until we came to a spot where he could pull me in. Once I was in, I could see Mom's head bobbing in an eddy (well kind of, near the ladder below but in rough waters) and all the rest of our group scattered around, with our guide a ways off getting the flip line and righting our boat. Mom had to wait a looooong time because they must've been able to tell that she was a better swimmer than others in our group! :) Well, eventually we picked up everyone in our group and made it back to the start, but it was definitely an adventure!
Here we are under the zip line and with the rapids where we flipped just behind us. Just a little worn out at the end of the day!
Thanks for visiting us, Marmee and Papa! We love you and miss you!
