Jacob's Aquatic Center

 

Sterling promised us a couple days of fun between classes ending and before his next set of classes starting--in the midst of his studying for boards. So the one day (a few weeks ago) we hit up the zoo and rode the bike. Then we waited until  Ruth was on Spring Break to have another day with daddy so that she didn't have to go to school in the morning to throw off the groove of fun! We drove down to Key Largo (about an hour away) and went to Jacob's Aquatic Center which we had heard was really fun--plus it's been on our list of 'Things to Do in Miami' since we first moved here, and we're almost moving away! Also----SOUTH FLORIDA IS CRAZY when it comes to pools and splash pads, and even though it's hardly ever below 70, most of them close and don't reopen until after Memorial Day, so our options were limited even though it is SUPER hot outside already. 

It's not heated, so that made the giant Pirate Ship a little bit of a let-down because with the little bit of a breeze, the water spray at the top of every slide was quite chilly and the kids got cold really quick. I have to say, they were awesome though! Molly's lips were blue and the kids were shaking before they'd get out and come warm up. So still worth it!

Ruth hitting the end of the slide. She LOVED it!

See that adorable grin?

The pirate ship

More fun playground

See all three of my kids up there? Driving the ship!

Ruthie was sooooo excited that she could go off the diving board! Will was not so happy that they wouldn't let him go off with a floatie, or let me catch him. It took a good amount of time to refocus him elsewhere, poor kid. In his defense, Ruthie is usually his best playmate and she spent a good portion of the afternoon just going off the diving board over and over and over again. And see that high dive behind her? My camera battery died before I got a picture of her going off the high dive, but I caught one on Sterling's phone later.

Here's jumping off the high dive!

 The pool behind the above picture is where we spent most of our hours. It was nice and warm. :)

Baby bump photo! And in future, remind me that if I am going to french braid my hair, to SUNSCREEN MY PART! Now, I look like I have dandruff.

Will would lay on his towel in the hot sun to warm up inbetween pool runs.

This girl won the heart of everyone at the pool. She was sooooo cold on the slides and splash pad that she spent the majority of the day in the pool---it felt a lot warmer once you were swimming around. Reminded me of Roy Aquatic Center in utah in August, chilly-haha. Anyway--Molly would jump in at the deep end, paddle across the ENTIRE pool, climb up the stairs at the shallow end, run around to the deep end to jump in and start the whole process over again. But she would paddle through EVERY SINGLE group that was congregated to chat. Specifically the 50+ yrs and older crowds. She'd smile at each person and say hi and paddle through their circle of fun. It was hilarious.

Freezing

Since it was probably the last time we headed down to the Keys....ever....we stopped at the 4 for $10 tshirts stands (they have those all along the keys) and let the kids get a shirt. Their options were pretty limited---Molly had that ONE shirt in her size to pick, haha, but they LOVED it, so that was fun. Plus I got one for my mom, who bought one when she came in November but then she told me it shrunk too much in the wash so she wanted a size bigger. So that was pretty exciting.

I'm really glad we took the day and drove down there. The kids swam for almost five hours straight and it was really fun to have the slides and things to play on. They are still talking about the pirate boat pool! It was a really great way to spend an entire day with daddy and cross something off of our Miami bucket list!