Our Fifth Anniversary! and Ethan's First Visit to a Water Park

It's hard to believe how fast time flies! Today is our fifth anniversary :) Seems like SO long ago that we were figuring out all of the wedding details and arranging for the photographer, florist, videographer... Mom and Dad were kind enough to watch Ethan for us twice today. In the morning I went and got a haircut (the first in quite awhile). I decided to do something dramatic, so my hair is now 5-6 inches shorter. To give you an idea of how long it had grown, even after that huge lop off, my hair is still shoulder-length! Mom and Dad babysat Ethan for us in the evening also so that Dan and I could go out for dinner. We had a really great time and great food.

This afternoon I met up with some friends at The Beach, a local waterpark that has a really nice zero-entry baby pool with a shaded area, an area with little fountains, and a part that has a chute that water comes down with paddles all along it that kids can rotate. Ethan was pretty leery of the pool when we first got in; Even though he's been walking for a month now, he would not put his feet down on the bottom! Later, when Nicole was holding him, he started splashing like crazy and absolutely loved that. And Brenda was able to get him comfortable with putting his feet down and trying to walk through the water. She said that it was funny to see how he took steps while getting used to the feeling of resistance from the water.

There are also plenty of slides at The Beach (unfortunately Ethan is way too little for them at this point!) and a lazy river. Ethan loved sitting with me in an innertube on the lazy river. Nicole, Brenda, and I went around probably 9 or 10 times. There is a place where the lazy river T's, and you can take the "calm" route or the "rapids" route. We tried both, and Ethan liked the rapids best. You get sprayed with water and there are jets that make the water more turbulent along that section. We'll definitely be visiting The Beach again!