Arguably Our Best Day in Australia

On Day 3 of our Gold Coast trip, we visited Whitewater World! This park is connected to DreamWorld, which we'd visited 2 days prior. We are discovering that all four of us really love water parks!

 

As you can see, there were lots of super cool water slides to explore. For most of the slides, you could ride in a 1 or 2 person tube. I wish my fitness tracker was waterproof, because we walked thousands of steps from the bottom to the top, as we went on dozens of slides throughout the day.

One disadvantage of water parks is that it's hard to get a lot of good action shots!

But I did get several pics of the park, without us in them:

 

Here was Ked's favorite (and probably mine): The Green Room. You rode a four person inner tube down a quick slide, which emptied you into this cone, where you slid up and down the walls, all the while feeling like you're one wrong lean away from possible death. The boys rode this with us. .twice! Wow, are they growing up.

View from the top of the Green Room (which obviously I didn't take):

The wave pool. Another great thing about Whitewater World is that it was NOT CROWDED AT ALL. We went on a Wednesday, during the school year, but I still expected there to be a lot more people.

Another great thing: LOTS of lawn chairs in the shade!! Aussies take their sun protection very seriously, so there were lots of shady spots to relax. 

So what made this one of our best days in Australia? For me, it was evidence of how much the boys have grown here. The boys wear their swim goggles everywhere, but were told on the first slide that they weren't allowed to wear them (don't ask me why swim goggles are unsafe. . . but that's another discussion). Rather than throwing a fit, or refusing to try a slide without them, both boys just shrugged and went on with their day. The boys rode EVERY slide we suggested. . . even the scary ones, and there were no tears, tantrums, or fits. We all just had a great time.

AND, after we were done at the water park, we hopped back over to Dream World, where the boys rode a roller coaster, three times in a row, WITHOUT US. In fact, this was the first time that the boys have outlasted their parents at an amusement park! 

 So, for me, this day was evidence of one of the biggest transformations of our time here: Our boys have become more resilient, more independent, and more trustworthy. They have really grown up during the last five months.

Well. . . maybe not in this picture :)