Daddy, go another-again

Great weather, lots of fun activities, but very little sleep: summer ended with a

bang this weekend.

My folks were in town through Saturday. We went to the Discovery Museum with Owen on Friday afternoon, and to a favorite park on Saturday morning. He had so much fun he didn't want to nap ... so the fun continued, albeit with a little more saggy-eyed fatigue. The zoo was excellent on Saturday afternoon. Owen left us in the dust when he saw the carousel near the entrance. We rode it on our way in and again on our way out. In the middle, there was great fun with the sea lions, sun bears, and tigers.

Oh my.

Sunday was a little more predictable. We went to another park in the morning and after a "let's take him on a drive" nap, he was refreshed for a trip to the pool. Owen and I had been to the Fairview pool several times, but we'd never gone as a family (the pool we typically go to closed several weeks ago as summer wound down), so we'd never really had a chance to check out their two water slides. Amy indulged my water slide fancy by sitting with Owen, who seemed quite delighted to see his dad zip down the slide and into the pool at the end. "Go another-again, Daddy!" he would say.

On Monday, after going to the Labor Day parade downtown in the morning (his first experience at having significant amounts of candy thrown at him), Owen wasn't napping again (coincidence?), so I took him back to the pool. After playing in the wading pool for a while, Owen pointed at the slides. "Go another-again, Daddy."

Without Amy there, we went over to the slides and watched other people ride. After a while, though, I noticed some parents coming off the "slow" slide with their children in arms. I hadn't seen anyone do this the day before, so I went over and took a closer look at the rules. Indeed, you could ride down this one slide with a child under 48" tall.

"Do you want to go, Owen?"

Mmmm hmmm!

The lines were long since this was the last day the pool was open for the summer, but we rode the slide three times. It was the highlight of the day for both of us. Owen giggled and was adamant about going again and again. It broke my heart that we were going to have to wait until next summer to go again, but the sun was strong and he, go figure, was looking tired.

So we went home. But the experience left a lasting impression. As I was getting him into bed on Monday night he said "I rode all the way down the slide, Daddy. I rode all the way down the slide."