missouri gets a yay!

missouri gets a yay on aquatic centers now (although it's still a boo that there aren't very many and they're far away, oh, and expensive! if we would have gone during non-twilight hours it would have cost our family $30 to swim! ouch! we went after 5 and paid $15 and got lucky because they didn't charge us for sophie). anyway, this park that we went to, tiffany springs water park, was a blast and so family friendly. most pools don't allow you to go down the slides with your kids, this one does. it had a big play area for kids in the zero-depth entry part with 4 slides and lots of spraying mechanisms as well as buckets that dumped water. the slides were fast and so sophie was not able to go down alone (although she would have if we would have let her!) matt and i were able to hold her and she had a blast. i'm not sure how many times we went down the slides. molly was not a fan of the pool. she said it was too dumpy - meaning there were too many buckets dumping down randomly. she didn't want to get her hair wet. i think only taking her swimming once in almost 2 months made her forget how much fun she has when she lets herself get totally wet. the water was a bit chilly too so she was cold which didn't help her cause either.

this pool had a lazy river and a tornado like pool that spun you quickly into the center. sophie loved it, but i'll admit it was a little dangerous holding her in it because it's easy to lose your footing and go down. molly, well, she was in her mood during that also, even though matt was holding her. there's a sauna section also with jets and a small fountain next to the lazy river for parents to sit on while their kids play. there are also two large slides. matt and i each went down one. that was fun! i hadn't been down a waterslide since i was at a conference in wichita for school. it's been 4 years at least, probably closer to 5. sophie thought it was funny that i went down a slide.

there is also an olympic sized swimming pool with diving boards. matt loved this part because he could swim laps. trouble was, he forgot his goggles and his eyeballs paid for it.

another thing about the zero-depth entry area is that they have little fountains coming up which are perfect for the kids to sit and play in. sophie had fun filling her bucket then walking out of the pool to "water the concrete". molly, my little social butterfly, tried to make a friend to play with, but unfortunately picked the shy girl and sent her running when she asked if she wanted to play. :(

i love this pool, and though it's a bit of a drive, i think we'll be back a lot (with season passes so it's not so expensive)! hopefully molly will overcome her fear of getting wet while swimming once again ( we go through this every summer) and enjoy herself as much as sophie and i did.

there you go missouri, you got a yay!

introducing yay and boo!

welcome to my newest label, yay and boo. here i will compare kansas and missouri as i discover more about missouri.

public swimming pools (aquatic centers):

* yay kansas! there are pools all over the kansas city area on the kansas side.
* boo missouri! there are only a handful of pools in the northland and we have to drive 20 minutes or so to get to one. we do have a small pool in our subdivision but it's not kept very clean. lots of dead bugs floating around.

parks:

* yay kansas! parks all over and in open areas.
* boo missouri! we have 2 small playground areas in our subdivision but have to drive 15 minutes to the nearest park (right now b/c the large park in parkville is currently underwater) and it's so secluded, i wouldn't go there alone. and the play area's really small too....