Blizzard Beach

On Tuesday, Mom had to go to her conference, meaning Dad and Carter were on their own.  Bed head Carter started the day checking out the fun bubbles and stickers, Mickey left him.

Our 4-day tickets at the park included an extra day at a water park, so Carter and Dad decided to try their luck at Blizzard Beach.  Since Carter is always up early, we got to the park a little before official opening.  Luckily, once we sprayed our sunscreen on and found Carter a good life jacket, we were able to pose with a melting snow man family and take some photos.  

Carter even washed his feet with some face melt from Dad snowman

Luckily the wait for the ropes to drop wasn't too long.  Not knowing how Carter would react to the rides, we started off with an easy one, the Cross Country Creek lazy river

Carter had fun... so long as he was the line leader.  This proved to be pretty easy as no one else went straight for the lazy river and we had it all to ourselves for a good bit of time

Soon it was time to head to the top of the mountain.  Carter was boosted into the chairlift and we were on our way to the top of Mt. Gushmore

While Carter's height doesn't quite stack up to the requirements of the Summit Plummet slide (the one that starts at the top of the ski jump below) we were able to go on the large raft ride Team Boat Springs.  This got Carter into it and we quickly went from slide to slide.

Carter was even a pro at going solo on the Ski Patrol slides

After a few more slides, it was off to Tike's Peak, the kids only area (48" and below).  They had a great splash pool with a very soft padded flooring to which Climber Carter took full advantage of...

Soon though, Carter saw the slides in this area and was inspired to go.  After a quick talk where Carter learned Dad couldn't ride cause he was too big.  Carter was off like a big boy to go on his own.

See if you can spot him at the top of the slide

All smiles on the way down

They also had a kids only tube ride.  Dad helped Carter get his tube to the top of the hill

Then a quick goodbye and "i'll see you at the bottom".

A few minutes later, this smiley guy came flying down

A few more kiddie rides for Carter, then it was off to play with the big kids

Carter and Dad walked to the top of the mat slides.  Carter was easily a foot or two shorter than anyone in line.  He confidently walked up to the life guard and she helped him get ready to ride.  He really liked the slide, but wasn't too keen on going underwater at the bottom.

We stopped for lunch, then it was back to what turned out to be Carter's favorite locale, the lazy River

After a half lap, we found the backside of the mountain called Runoff Rapids.  Here they have two person rafts which were perfect for Carter and Dad to ride together

After Carter watched for the green light...

...we were off.  As Carter would say "I'm the driver"

Then it was back to the mat rides.  This one was called Downhill Double Dipper.  It is a race with six lanes all going at once.  Here all lanes would lie down and wait for the life guard to count to three before going.  They would stand on Carter's mat because he was too light and would float down the slide before the count if they didn't.  The really cute thing was they would count... one... two... (all the sudden they would let Carter go)... three then everyone else went.  Even with his significant head start, he would be reaching the bottom about the same time as Dad.  He always wanted to win, and was balling one time when he got passed (he actually beat Dad down the hill, but the few extra pounds on Dad propelled him many feet further).

One more trip to the tip top of Mt Gushmore before heading home (look close and you can see both Epcot and Hollywood Studios in the background)

When we got home, Mom was still in meetings so we headed to the awesome pool at the hotel.  Luckily, Mom was soon to join

Our pool also had a slide which was a lot of fun for Dad

Carter had a great day (but was confused why his fingers started to look like raisins).

After we dried off, we decided to grab dinner at Downtown Disney.  Afterwards, we wandered through the shops.  Carter immediately gravitated to the Lego store.

He and dad had a blast building Lego cars and racing them against the other kids.

The sun started to set so mom dragged both boys back to the bus!  Off to bed for another, and final, fun filled day in Florida