Water play

More excitement today! Since Natalie gets therapy at CHOC, we were invited to participate in a water play day in Long Beach, along with 6 or 8 other groups with special needs kids (with a wide variety of abilities). It was held at the Marine Stadium...Tom remembered rowing there with his college team a quarter century ago...how's that for making him sound old? :) Anyway, it's a cool place because it's an ocean inlet, but the only waves are caused by the boats, so kids can play in much deeper water than they can at the ocean because there aren't ocean waves constantly coming up with the threat of dragging them out to sea.

Lukas rode on a mini power boat with one of the volunteers. She asked him if he wanted to go slow or fast and he said slow. Then our whole family rode on a large power boat. That boat went much faster than Lukas did on the personal watercraft, and I could tell he was having a good time, but not if it went very much faster or got a little more bumpy as the driver rode back over his wake. Natalie just zoned out because she didn't know what was going on: noise, wind, water spray, huge life jacket immobilizing her. What in the world?

We had a fun time playing in the sand and water, but there were too many people for us. Groups came and the sand was packed, then they left and there was more air to breathe...we never go to the beach when it's that packed, but it was fun for the boat rides for the kids.

Two big days of activity in a row = tired kids! And then there's tomorrow!