Water Slide Conquerors

Long story short, but we had three different hotels with water slides on our trip. Nathan had put on our Summer To Do List that he wanted to go down a water 

slide. So when I saw the slide available at our first hotel, I paid the extra $10 for that particular hotel and water slide. It was one that is totally enclosed and goes outside of the building and back in. 

When at that hotel, it was dark in the pool area so my photos are so-so. This first one is Andrew getting out of the ending trough.

Then Rebekah wanted a turn. She's officially too short, but that didn't stop her for long. She convinced Dad, Mom & Andrew to let her go down with her brother. (He helped keep it slow with his hands and feet.)

Here is the dynamic duo.

Then Dad took her down the slide. 

After that, she figured out how to go on her own before we could join her. Stinker.

Here's the picture they got of me coming down the slide. Sigh.

We had a rough ending there. Nathan worked up his courage for over 45 minutes wanting to go down the slide. But, we didn't realize they close the pool daily from 10-1. Checkout is 11 and the pool shuts down at 10. That stinks!! He cried and cried because he felt like a failure and because he was trying so hard to go down and then we just had to leave the pool. (For those of you wondering, I do not recommend the AmericInn in Rapid City because of this pool closing issue.) Part of how we ended up with three hotels is that I refused to stay there again because pool maintenance should be done during pool closed hours--not during the middle of every day.

The kicker to the whole thing was when Nathan announced that he didn't mean this kind of water slide. He said this one was cool, but he wanted to put a pool at the end of the slide off of their playground in the backyard. That's it?? I could have done that months ago.

We ended up at a hotel with an outdoor pool (not my favorite, but beggars can't be choosers). We told the kids there would be no water slide at this one. It wasn't shown in the pictures so don't look for it. Thanks be to God because when we pulled into the parking lot, the first thing everyone noticed was the slide...

And Nathan went down this slide over and over and over again. He is a winner and an overcomer. It took a little while to get him to try it out, but once he went down, there was no stopping him.

Rebekah wouldn't be outdone so she had to follow Nathan down, too.

On our way back home, we were blessed to stay at an amazing 5-star hotel for less than 50% of normal price. This hotel had a water slide, too. It's the longest one in the area at 130' and is known as one of the fastest. We talked Nathan into trying it with his dad. He wasn't too sure about it, but headed up the stairs.

He didn't want to go down but Sean shoved off. When he got to the bottom he said, "Dad, you and mom were right. I DO love going down this slide."

After that, we couldn't keep him off the slide. 

This gives you and idea of how big it is. And it was lighting fast!

Everyone had fun going down. Here's Rebekah (holding her breath). And notice she took off her life vest after a while. She has been taking lessons and is brave enough to go without. She could dog paddle her way to the steps to go again and again and again.

Here's Andrew.

Here's Sean.

Nathan & Andrew ended up making a train and going down together. They had fun for almost 3 hours going down that slide. Makes my legs hurt to think about how many stairs they did. 

Here they are in the water. 

What can I say? I'm so proud of Nathan for facing his fears and overcoming. I'm so proud of Andrew for all the big brother help he gave us. I don't think Sean & I could have gotten Nathan down that slide without Andrew's help. Rebekah made me proud of her courage and fearlessness (although that same fearlessness causes me to panic at other times). Sean & I both know how blessed we are to have such amazing children who are kind and care about each other.