It was Mitchell's last full day of Summer Camp so I decided to go out with a bang and bring the other 3 to Splash Station Waterpark in Joliet. We have been there before and it wa totally doable so I figured what the heck.
Well it turned out to be a typical Ivey outing. Grace and I hung out the whole time, Steven sat in the shade fully clothed including socks and gyms shoes and Caroline found a new BFF within 5 min of arriving. I really though Steven would change his tune once he realized how hot is was (95 degrees) but he didn't. He sat for 2 hrs just kinda stairing at the ground then he started to play with my phone. He really has been making the effort to get out more but I have been pushing him really hard so I figured 2 hrs was long enough to suffer.
Grace quickly learned that in order to go into the deep end she needed to wear her life jacket and off we went, having races and jumping contests and swimming all over the place. We attempted the lazy river " they called it lazy because it is really sloooow" Grace says as she moves her arms in front of her slowly in a waving motion, but it was quite crispy above water for too long so once around and we were done.
Caroline introduced us to her friend Megan (pronounced Maygen) then referred to her as Maggie and later discovered her name was Marilyn. Caroline has never been good with names. It is really a family joke. Caroline & Marilyn were hungry but I really didn't feel like starting to feed the whole water park so I told Caroline to play for a bit more and then we will eat. Sure enough she was still hungry a bit later and after hearing how Marilyn had a season pass while she is here visiting her mom and half sister and she lives 4 hrs away with her dad in the country but not sure of the town she lives in and comes to visit her mom during the school year some weekends when her mom is not busy yep I bought her a snack too. She seemed like a really sweet girl and fit the profile perfectly of the kind of people Caroline befriends all the time. She asked if we were coming back again tomorrow but I told her we couldn't and I was sad when we had to leave her at the Waterpark. Later tonight when we said our prayers I added Marilyn to our friends we prayed for and in perfect Caroline fashion she said "who's Marilyn"? That's my girl alright.
We had a good time all around I think. Steven didn't complain about the day so I think he took it matter of factly that he sat and watched everyone have fun in the water because that was absolutely not something he wanted to do. Caroline and I worked on our tans and Grace enjoyed having just me to herself and not having to share with anyone.
When I start to feel bad that Mitchell misses out on days like today I remind myself that he would not have had fun. He would have been on complete sensory overload and would have wanted to just run around the place and would have had no where to go to cool off or to have some well needed quiet time. He had a much better suited day at Tri-County SRA summer camp. It was swimming day for camp too.
