Birch Bay Waterslides

For our last summer event before school starts, I took the kids to Birch Bay Water slides.  I took them to the Great Wolf Lodge last year but it seems to get much more expensive every time we go.  I decided for half the price, we could camp for a few nights and enjoy the water slides in Birch Bay.  We left on Wednesday afternoon and stopped in Bellingham.

We started at Mindport, a hands on museum.  The kids had a fun time exploring the exhibits.  Jacob didn't even want to go in because he figured it would be boring.  After spending two hours there, I had to drag he and his friend out because our parking was expiring.  He told me "It was ok."  (High praise from him!)

playing with Bernoulli's principle

Miriam getting to see sound made visible

see this boring plastic?

A rainbow lives inside it!

Jacob and his friend Shamois worked for at least 30 minutes to build this face.

After the museum, we went to Mallard Ice Cream.

They're supposed to make ice cream worth driving for and being such big ice cream lovers, we had to check it out.  They are really working the duck theme!  I got the most adventurous scoop, Vanilla Black Pepper and I thought it was addictive.  Smooth creamy vanilla with a spicy after burn.  The rest of the crew stuck with more familiar flavors: chocolate, vanilla, root beer, and coconut almond fudge. 

After ice cream, we headed to our campsite at Birch Bay State Park.  I'd been dreading towing the cargo trailer around Bellingham but after successfully finding two different parking places to stash our ride, I was contemplating bringing along the actual RV next time.  I felt so confident in my abilities and was wondering why I hadn't thought to hook it up and go.  Well, we got to the campsite and I was soon humbled.  Isaac and I are a great team when it comes to maneuvering the trailer around but we've never practiced having me back up around a sharp 90° corner.  That's what we had to do to get into our campsite and he had me start turning the trailer too early.  That left me up against the bushes and after 5-6 back and forths, our nerves were frayed and we decided to take the trailer off and push it into position.  Maybe I'm not ready for the bigger RV (at least not until Isaac and I practice in the driveway!)

We enjoyed some time at the beach that night, digging, building sand castles, and walking the beach road.

We stayed until sunset, getting in every bit of playing we could.

We set off for the water slides the next morning.

It was a cool, windy day and we pretty much had the park to ourselves!

Anastaya is saying, "Mom, that's cold water !"

August in Washington at the water slides, looks warm!

Anastaya LOVED the speed slide and did it several times.

Isaac Colson couldn't let her be the only one to play!

He only did it once after getting a killer wedgie.

My Isaac used his cast as an excuse as to why he couldn't go down.

(He wouldn't have gone down without the cast either!)

It was so cold at the water slides, it was difficult to have fun.  When I asked William what his favorite part of the water slides was, he told me "The hot tub."  I think most of the kids would agree.  I can make the best of most situations and still have fun but that cold was punishing.  Once half the kids were frozen, we loaded up and headed back to camp while Isaac, Isaac, and Elizabeth played until closing.  I'd payed to stay a second night but once everyone is frozen, you're camping in a tent, and it's windy with scattered showers, there's really no way to warm up.  We packed up and headed home early.

Isaac must have had a blast at the water slides because the next day we had to head back to the bone doctor to have his cast fixed.  He'd broken it!