If you have missed reading the first three posts you can begin with this link.
We and our six school age grandchildren had been together since 4:00 the previous afternoon. We had already shared lots of swimming, a water slide, playing in the water, a pizza dinner, a surprise sleep over in a hotel, breakfast, more swimming, and a workshop pool side by the wildlife zoo but, Papa and I still had a couple of surprises left for the kids.
The kids had all been amazing. Following the zoo workshop we headed back to our hotel room for a late morning snack of string cheese, crackers, juice boxes, chips, and cookies to hold us over until we stopped on our way home for lunch. After our snack time we shared another back to school tradition with our grands.
We presented each child with a few back to school supplies and a bag of m&m's.
It wasn't much but as part of the gift Papa and I had spent quite some time hand selecting notebooks for each one of the kids. It turns out we know them pretty well. Our selections were right on in both colors and styles!
We were now within a couple hours of having to check out of the resort.
We had already been to the pools three times but the kids were anxious to get back.
There was one thing left on their to do list too. That was to get grandma on the water slide.
My last experience on a water slide ended up being very embarrassing but I had learned from it and I would not make the same mistake again. So, up I went to face my fears and to bring smiles to six little grands faces. They all went before me. As I plopped down in the top of the tunnel waiting for my turn to go I was very nervous. Once I pushed off it was full speed and completely dark. I closed my eyes. I don't know why because I couldn't see anything anyway. I would open my eyes to a squint ever few seconds to see if I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was very relieved when I saw the light!
Right before I was ripped under the water I could see all of my grands and Papa right there laughing and squealing with delight. I had screamed all the way down and they had heard me. Because of the crowd that just my crew had created it stopped other spectators to see what all of the excitement was about. It was just grandma coming down the slide at at least 80 miles per hour!
As I surfaced I was quick to check the crotch of my swim suit because my last water slide experience was on some top of the line super duper fast slide that nearly tore your suit off when you hit the pool at the end. That time I walked quite a distance before I realized that I had a full blown wedgie going on on the backside of my size 16 swimsuit! Let me tell you ..... it was no small incident!
I thought I had come out of it this time pretty good. I just smiled and waved to the crowd. I even stopped and chatted with three women who was trying to talk their older mother into going down. Look at me I said. If I can do it you can too. After a few minutes of conversation I realized something had gone terribly wrong and nobody had said anything. My husband had to have seen it. I learned later my grands had all seen it. The group of ladies I was chatting with had clearly seen it. I had invited them to "Look at me!" But, not a word to tell poor ol' grandma.
I had forgotten that my suit was a two piece but when you are properly wearing it your entire belly is "supposed" to be covered by the long top. To my horror, somehow on impact the bottoms waistband had been pushed well below my belly button and my swim suit top was pushed way up to reveal my entire very, very bright white and my very flabby grandma belly! Thankfully, I had a few more years of maturity on me with this incident and I didn't care as much and most importantly, I will probably never see any of those people again.
The one trip down the slide was it for me while the kids went over and over. Our time was winding down and I was feeling pretty sad that it was coming to an end because the kids were all still having a wonderful time together.
As we left the pool for the last time we caught this group shot of our adorable back to schoolers!
As we left the pool we tossed our final pool towels into the towel bin at the exit. All in all our group had used 40 towels in less than 24 hours! That is so not me. You can ask my kids about that!
To be continued.... Use this link to see how this awesome activity with our grands ends.
Have you ever pointed something out to a complete stranger to save them some embarrassment?
I once pointed out to a woman at the grocery store that she might want to hold onto her purse (that was wide open in the front of her cart ... as she was halfway down the aisle AWAY from her cart) because the previous week I'd been there when a man snatched a woman's purse from the cart and raced toward the doors (he was caught by store staff). She looked at me and said "I think I know how to take care of myself and my belongings. Thank you very much, but I'm not an idiot." Sheesh! I figured that was the last time I'd point out ANYthing to a stranger.
ReplyDeleteI thankfully had a stranger tell me that the back of my dress was caught in the waistband of my undies with no slip! I had just used the restroom and was walking back through a big room of people at jury duty.
ReplyDeleteI was very grateful that my embarrassment didn't go any further into the room.
What a great back to school party. I can see why the kids didn't want it to end.
ReplyDelete