Seven Peaks Raging Waters

A  hot summer and three young kids to entertain.  This week included family skate night at the Lone Peak Skate Park, tennis lessons for Spencer, family night at the dollar theaters to see Mirror, Mirror, multiple play dates for both kids, Tessa's gymnastics class, swimming lessons for both kids, a stop at the Draper library to check out books and to make a fun harmonica craft, and then a stop at Seven Peaks Raging Waters.  Of course Raging Waters in my memory from when I was a kid is much cooler, but it's still fun for the kids.

I do believe Raging Waters has more little kid fun than other waterparks like Cowabunga Bay.  I just wish it was cleaner, more updated, and had more restrooms.  There is one ladies restroom with about 6 stalls and 2 just changing rooms.  Seriously there are hundreds of women and children (who go with their mothers to the restroom) at the park.  So every hour when Tessa has to go to the bathroom I have to take all 3 kids with me to wait in line to use one of the few restrooms.  At least I have them already come in their swimsuits and change into dry clothes in the van on our way home to avoid those extra times waiting for a place to change.

Back to the fun parts.  There is a very shallow (less than 1 foot) area with a play structure and slide as well as a few places where the water squirts out.  We spend a lot of time here.  Just beware that the slide is very slick and the kids go down fast.

Next to this area is the place we spend the most of our time.  It's a dinosaur themed kiddie pool consisting of 4 pools.  The pool on the west side has a couple of dinosaur statues the kids can climb on.  The pool on the east side has a large floating crab thing that's chained down but the kids can all climb on at once.  The pool on the north side has an obstacle course the kids can go across and a lifeguard there watching them closely.  All of these pools are approximately 2 feet deep and warm.  The last pool is actually up stairs between the east and west pools on top of the volcano.  The pool here is even more shallow, maybe a foot and a half, and the warmest water in the park.  There's even a cave/tunnel the kids can go through.  And going down into either the east or west pools are flat slides.  The one going to the east pool is very wide so I go down with Clara on my lap and Spencer and Tessa next to me.  Tessa loves going down these slides.  Spencer is nervous at first but once he goes down he has a blast and keeps going.  Clara gets very excited, goes down on my lap once with me making sure she doesn't get her head under the water, and then doesn't want to go again.  She loves playing in the water but doesn't care much for the slides.

Then we head over to the lazy river and splash pad.  My kids are too scared of all the real waterslides.  When it comes to the lazy river I would prefer a tube for the kids.  But Seven Peaks/Raging Waters charges extra for the tubes.  And since the lazy river and wave pool are the only places my kids go where they would use them it isn't worth my money.  So Spencer is fine in the lazy river but Tessa can't reach the bottom.  Which means either floating with her life jacket or me holding her.  And I have to carry Clara the whole way.  So we usually only go around a couple of times.

The splash pad is in the center of the lazy river.  My kids love splash pads.  They can get wet and have fun in the water without worrying about not being in control.  Their feet are always touching.  Of course Tessa isn't a big fan of water getting in her face, but loves it falling on top of her head or under her feet.  Spencer loves every thing about splash pads.  As nervous as he seems around water he fell in love with splash pads back in Boston a few years back when we were visiting my sister.  It surprised me how well he did in them and I have worked hard to find and go to them ever since.  Clara loves sitting on or putting her foot on the water squirting places as long as she's taller than the water coming out.  Overall this is a fun splash pad.  Especially since there isn't any rotation--all the water is on all the time.

And of course there is the wave pool.  This was my favorite part of Raging Waters as a kid and my kids also love it.  Of course when I'm responsible for three young children in a large, crowded pool with waves I can't take pictures while they are in the wave pool.  I did take one of them out of the wave pool.  If you haven't been it is a large zero entry pool.  So if you have little ones you can sit at the entrance of the pool and have them just splash around.  If you scoot up just a little the kids can sit with the water going up to their belly and when the waves are going they just move the legs up a little.  My kids like to do this.  When I was a kid I liked to take my tube to the deepest part and just ride the waves on my tube.  One time last year Brodie came with us and we got a tube and Brodie took the two older kids deeper while he was holding onto the tube and I stayed shallow with Clara.  But with all three kids I didn't let them go deeper than 3 feet and within arms reach of me the whole time.  I held Clara the whole time and made sure Tessa at least had on her life jacket.  The waves aren't on all the time so we stayed in for a few rotations of waves/pool and so on.  Their favorite was going as deep as I would let them and then jumping with the waves but letting the waves push them back.  We would keep letting the waves push us back until we were sitting down and then do it again.  My legs got quite a workout doing this over and over again while holding Clara and sometimes Tessa.  Maybe I should do water aerobics?



When I bought my Pass of all Passes I got some free food cards so we just ate lunch at the park and got dippin dots on our way out.  If I didn't have those passes I would avoid the food.  The kids got overpriced, cold, tasteless pizza and I ordered a sandwich that was the most basic, flavorless sandwich imaginable.  And because it was "made to order" I had to wait for 15 minutes AFTER ordering before getting it. But it was more convenient than leaving the park, walking back to my car to retrieve lunches, walking back to the park to try to find an unoccupied shady patch of lawn to eat lunch at, returning the cooler to my car, and re-entering the park.  This is what I usually do because I'm cheap.  Which also means it's a decent walk to my car because Seven Peaks charges $5 to park in their parking lot.  I seriously can't believe all the ways they find to charge.  Parking, locker rentals, beach chairs, umbrellas, tubes, food (they don't allow outside food and drink), etc.  I guess instead of complaining about the lack of restroom facilities I should be thankful they don't charge for them.  They probably will next year.

Wheeler Farm and sleepover at Grandma's

Grandma Julie and Papa invited us to attend a BBQ at Wheeler Farm.  There were also a couple of bounce houses there.  So we ate dinner with Grandma and Papa then the kids bounced and slid and had a blast.  Then we walked around and visited with the animals.  Grandma Julie came part of the way with us.  We do love Wheeler Farm.

After Wheeler Farm we went to my parents house for a sleepover.  My sister and her kids came as well.  My parents really only live 3 minutes away but the idea of a sleepover at Grandma's house with cousins was too fun.  The kids slept on the floor in the play room.  I slept in the kids' guest room bunk bed.  The next morning my mom made waffles with fruit, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and all sorts of sweet toppings for them.  They had a blast!



City Creek with cousins

I like shopping online.  I hate crowds, I like to read reviews, and I like to quickly get exactly what I want in exactly the right size and have it show up on my doorstep a few days later.  But I was curious about City Creek.  I had agreed to go with my mom and sisters back in April but my Father in law was in the hospital and I was helping get him checked out when they were going.  They offerred to take Tessa with them so she went back in April.  Spencer had been at school and after school went to a friend's birthday party at Airborne.  In May we went as a family and Tessa gave us a tour.  She remembered where the Disney Store, Gap, Gymboree, the fountains, and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory were.  Boy am I in trouble when my 4 year old has the shopping center mapped out and memorized after one visit.

In June my sister and I decided to go to City Creek with all the kids to play.  We started out at the fountains and let the kids go wild getting all wet.  The splash pad fountain area isn't very big.  I was thinking more like a Gateway thing so I was a little disappointed but there were only a couple other kids there so they had a blast.  And they got drenched.

 My sister brought up the idea of a person selling towels right by there.  Since there wasn't we walked to the nearest restroom and wrung out and changed clothes on the kids.  Then we did a little shopping as we walked to the other side of the shopping center.  The kids also liked the bridge where they could see the temple.  They get exponentially sillier the more they are around cousins.

At the other side we let the kids play in the dinosaur themed play area of the food court.  There are eggs to climb in, slides to go down, dinosaur bones to climb through and on top of, and plenty of dinosaurs to climb on and slide down.  They played and played and played.  Such a fun day for the kids without having to spend any money.  Of course we did spend money, but we didn't have to. (The picture of my 3 kids on the pink dinosaur was actually taken the last time we visited City Creek as a family but I like it so much I threw it in here).

Movies and tree climbing at the park

Sandy City (along with quite a few cities in the Salt Lake area) put on movies in the park over the summer.  We went to The Muppets at Flat Iron Park.  It turned out our neighbors who have a boy Spencer's age also came so we ended up sitting with them to watch the movie.  But we had showed up an hour before the movie so the kids could play at the playground.  Some kids were climbing the tree right next to the swingset and my kids were very intrigued by this.  I realized my kids have never climbed a tree.  They liked hanging on the lower branch and swinging around.  Then they climbed up on the lowest branch and were very proud of themselves.  But they didn't dare try going any higher.  So I climbed up a bit higher to a nice place to sit.  After I went that far Tessa shot right up the tree.  She also had no problem getting back down.  Then Spencer cautiously made his way up to the same spot and carefully came back down with me spotting him.

When it got dark (around 9:00) the movie started on a large inflatable movie screen.  The kids had seen the movie with Brodie back when it was in the theatre but this was my first time watching it.  It was quite entertaining.  Brodie stayed home with Clara as we didn't get home until close to eleven.  Here's a picture of Spencer with his friend before the movie started.

Hogle Zoo to see Rocky Shores

I've been so excited about Rocky Shores that this year I got a season pass.  I usually try to avoid season passes because there are so many fun things to do around here that I don't usually visit the same place more than once a year anyhow.

We had a blast at Hogle Zoo.  The kids love seeing the animals and it's great to be outside walking around.  We saw the usual monkeys, elephants, giraffes, stinky animals (small animals and reptiles inside a building), tigers and other wildcats, rhinos, camels, and a few others.  Then we saw Rocky Shores.  We were most excited for the polar bear.  The kids were a bit surprised when he wasn't walking around on ice.  We had fun watching him for aboutr 20 minutes.  He would push off the window and back float across the water.  Then he would dive down and swim back towards the window.  Repeat and repeat.  We were mesmerized watching this routine.

We also saw the river otters, seals, and sea lions.

And in the Rocky Shores they have grizzly bears.  They were out swimming and laying on the rocks when we were there.  They were very cute and fun to watch but I sure hope I never run into one outside of the zoo.

And of course the kids' very favorite part of the zoo are the carousel and train rides and the playground.  As they are ripping out this playground I made sure to take a few pictures of our favorite play items in hopes they will keep them or at least be sure to make fun themed play structures in the new playground.

First week of summer and Mt View Park

For the first official full week of summer Brodie was out of town so I had a busy, fun week with the kids.  We went to the Lone Peak skate park for Family Skate Night, took Tessa to gymnastics, had swimming lessons for both kids, and Spencer started tennis lessons (which he loves).

We also had a fun day at Mt View Park on Fort Union.  We've been watching the progress almost daily as we drive by and the kids have been so excited.  I've also been very excited.  I love taking my kids to playgrounds and try to find as many different ones as I can so they don't feel like they are always playing on the same ones.  I am also so excited for the splashpad.  Most of Sandy's public areas were built long before the splash pads came around and the only one I know of close to us is Alta Canyon's but you have to pay to get in.  Last year we drove out to Herriman, Riverton, or Liberty Park to visit splash pads.

We also invited Spencer's friend to come with us.  There are two different playgrounds.  One is geared more for little kids.  There are the little bouncy animals, a small tractor play structure with a little slide, a low teeter totter, and a short climbing structure with a slide.  Even the older boys managed to be entertained.

The other playground is great for older kids.  There is a game thing where you run around tapping the lights and there's music. There is a fun spinning structure you can stand on, climb up, or hang on and swing on the outside.  There's a bridge, tunnels, big slides, rope climbing structures, and a rock climbing structure.

Then there's the splash pad.  The center had buckets that would spill over.  There was also the section of loops that spray, blasters the kids could aim all over to hit people with a stream of water, a frog structure that sprayed just small water out which was perfect for Clara, and then plenty of places the ground would spray out water.  The splash pad rotated through but always had a few places spraying at once so the kids could spread out.  I know this park is brand new and it's the beginning of summer but it was REALLY crowded.

Las Vegas with kids

As much fun as we were having at Tahiti Village we decided to venture out a little bit.  Of course we had to stop at Trader Joe's and stock up on the best dried fruit available.  Seriously.  My favorites are the dried baby pineapple, freeze dried mangoes, and dried montmorency cherries.  Lots of other good stuff there too.

We had to go to Caesar's Palace as that's a staple in my memories of Las Vegas as a kid.  We spent some time walking around the huge aquarium and the moving statues.  The kids were a bit afraid of the show with the fire but after the fact they said they liked it.

We were there around lunchtime and I saw that Spago actually had kids' menus.  I was quite astonished that a Wolfgang Puck restaurant inside Caesar's Palace would have these.  So we went there for lunch.

It was really good.  I can't remember exactly what I had but I know it was a halibut that was cooked perfectly and absolutely delicious.  I don't remember what Brodie had but he really liked it as well.  We were looking over the kids menu trying to decide and our waiter (who was the best waiter we've ever had) let us know that the kids pizza was actually larger than the adults.  And the pizza meal was only like $6.  So we ordered one pizza for the three kids to share.  It came out shaped like Mickey Mouse so each girl ate an ear and Spencer ate the head and between the three of them they still didn't finish it all.  I was really impressed.

From Caesar's we walked over to the Bellagio to see the gardens and fountains.  I love walking through the gardens.  Then we went outside and waited for the next fountain show.  By then Clara had fallen asleep in the stroller but Tessa and Spencer were in awe as the fountains jumped and danced to the music.  The kids also thought it was amusing to see some of their favorite characters like Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse hanging out.  Luckily they didn't recognize the large bottles of booze next to these characters slumped on the sidewalk.

Since we were right across from the Flamingo we decided to go see the flamingo habitat.  Won't do that again.  Wow, the street in front of the Flamingo was the most heavily littered with inappropriate pictures of all Las Vegas we walked through.  And the flamingo habitat wasn't as cool as I remember.  Tracy Aviary is better.

We also visited the M&M World.  The kids wanted pictures by all the M&Ms and were amazed at the wall of M&Ms.  We let them each choose out a relatively inexpensive souvenir and a container of M&Ms.

On a different day we stopped off at another Las Vegas standout in my memory.  Circus Circus.  This hotel is so dirty and run down but I remember it before all the other hotels popped up.  And I used to think the circus acts were so cool.  Since my kids have never been to an actual circus this is what they think a circus is.  And it's free so we went.  We were there for a trapeze performance.  Then we spent $10 on games to let each of the bigger kids win a cheap stuffed animal that they loved.

Then we went to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage.  This is one of the few Las Vegas attractions I had never been to before so I was pretty excited.  We paid way too much money in my opinion but I guess that's Vegas.  It was cool, just over-priced.  And the fact that it was over 100 degrees outside in April didn't make being outside that much more enjoyable.  We were able to get up close to the dolphin pool.  At first the dolphins were just swimming around so we sat and watched them.  Then we went to the underground viewing and got to see them swim around. It was the closest I've been to dolphins and they were really sweet to watch.  Then the trainers came and did a few tricks with them.

 

In the secret garden we saw a really beautiful white lion, some white tigers, and some other wild cats.  That's all there was though.  And in the heat we didn't want to sit around.

Then we stopped at a shopping area right by our hotel where there was a kids playground. There was a little kids' maze that was short enough I could see the kids' heads, a playground with a slide and some ride on toys, a little building/village, and a splash pad that was turned off since we had stopped for dinner first and apparently the splashpad isn't on in the evenings despite the heat.  The kids did have fun running around before turning in for the night.

 Overall it was a fun trip and I think next time we go to Vegas we will just stay at Tahiti Village the entire time.  Especially since by then there will finally be a Trader Joe's in Salt Lake!