Out of the mouths of babes...

We are back from our final vacation this summer! We spent a few days down in Galveston as a family, and hit the beach, hotel pool, Rainforest Cafe, Schlitterbahn, and newly remodeled Moody Gardens. it was a great trip! Paul and I agreed as the boys are getting older the level of stress goes way down with less worrying about getting separated/having trouble in the water etc so it was much more relaxed. I was so proud of Jonathan who the few times William got excited and took off, Jonathan was the first to notice and was very protective of him. I have zero photos because I didn't want to ruin my phone but I think Paul got a few.

One thing I want to quickly share was a particularly sweet moment with William: it was our first visit to Schlitterbahn (even though we have one less than an hour from us) so we were pretty unfamiliar with the layout and it was of course crowded. One of our favorite attractions was Torrent River, like a lazy river at other water parks, but with huge surges of water and high walls which produced very choppy conditions in some parts and crashing waves in others. It was almost impossible to stay together as just as you would almost catch up a wall of water would roll by pushing them out even further than before and lots of tubers coming in between. There were also several exit points that would lead to other rivers or wave pools, and early on, Jonathan got swept into one and even swimming his hardest the current was too strong to get back out to where we were. The bottom was too slick to get our footing and remain in one place with the water pushing against us and William and I kept floating away from him, while my husband went in to get him. We kept trying to swim back and straining for a glimpse of them but eventually got pushed around a corner and they were both out of sight. While I knew Paul would stay Jonathan and Jonathan would be okay swimming on his own, my mind flooded with questions wanting to minimize how long we are all apart: Should we get out at the next exit? Should we float all the way around and hope to meet up with them? Should we stop at the next beach and see if they float by? Should we go back to our cooler and wait for them to show up? Will Paul be mad if they are already waiting for us there for a long time? Will I be mad if we are waiting there a long time?? (All these questions occurred pretty much simultaneously)

William put his hand over mine and said, "Mom, we need to do four things: first, pray to God. Second, stay calm. Third, try our best to find them. Fourth, call Daddy and tell him where we are." * Well! I was so proud of my wise little 6 year old, and told him so (also very humbled I didn't think of these things first and allowed myself to get even a little bit anxious). How comforting to know that he's already figured out what he needs to do and in the right order when facing problems! And so we did just that, and of course, it all worked out, good day!

Thanks for letting me share! Card coming up!

*Neither of us brought our cell phones that day, but yes, eventually we could have called Daddy!