This all took place last July of 2013 on Prince Edward Island. It was a life experience for the kids and one they will never forget.
We joined my brother-in-law's family (wife and 4 kids) and rented a cabin at a campground for 3 nights. That in itself was a great experience. Cousins, campfires, smores, junk food, bar-b-ques and 10:00 bedtimes. The campground was great. It had a playground and kids entertainment and evening hayrides. It also had a giant bouncy "pillow". It must have been 30 feet long and 15 feet wide and it inflated to a dome and you could bounce on it like a trampoline. At one point there were probably 20 kids on this thing... it was a blast (I loved it, too.)(Of course). Anyway, a bonus to the campground was it's proximity to a water park. It was 36C (97F) on the day we arrived. We were cookin' hot. So off to the water park we went.
It was an interesting layout they had the water park. The entrance was at the back while all the water park stuff was at the front. Or at least what I'd call the back and front in relation to the road. Anyway, as we're walking through the park to get to the water slides we come across a small petting zoo. Thinking the 2 year old would like see the animals we carry him into the small barn. There was a low wall inside and we went over to see what was behind it. At that same moment, the alpaca that was laying down decided to pick his head up to see who coming to see him. Cooper lost his mind. Wanted no part of being in that barn any more. Not to see the miniature horses or the donkeys or the guinea pigs. Even mention the word alpaca and he'd start crying. That was the end of the petting zoo. Six months later he still talks about being afraid of alpacas.
The water made it all better. They had a kids' area with a small wading pool and a bunch of kiddie size slides. I had fun on them too, naturally. The 2 year old learned to float and dunk his head. No alpacas in this water, so it was all good. He was a little otter by they end of the day. Beside the wading pool were the big, giant water slides that required you sit in inner tubes. I took the 6 year old on one. We climbed about 50 feet up and it was our turn to go down. The attendant at the top then told we couldn't wear our hats or Crocs. She told us to just toss them over the side and pick them up at the bottom. I tossed our Crocs down and they landed in the grass. No problem. I toss his hat down and a gust of wind decides to blow. The hat landed on top of the next water slide down! Stuck. We made several trips back to that slide in hopes that if the wind could blow it onto the slide, it could blow it back off again. No such luck.
We went back to the water park the next day, though it wasn't nearly as warm. We went over the paddle boats this time. The kids loved that they were shaped like pirate ships. Afterward we decided to go through a fun maze. Or at least we thought it would be fun. It looked fun. Some ropes to climb through, steps to climb and a slide to come down. The 2 year old loves slides as much he loves water, so why not take him down? Because, as I'm carrying a 2 year old, that half way up a skeleton will pop up like a rabid gopher, hydraulics will hissssss like air brakes heard at close range and that 2 year old I'm carrying will jump out of his skin screaming and crying. Fortunately, there was a slide for us immediately after that so that sort of made it all better - like a band-aid on a boo boo. So now he's scared of alpacas and skeletons that say "pssss".
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