Schlitterbahn: German for "slippery road"

Thanks to our very friendly bus driver I learned what Schlitterbahn actually means today. It also happens to be the World's Best Water Park and its a mere 2 hour drive from where we live. We visited all three sections Schlitterbahn West, Blastenhoff, and Surfenburg. The kids probably did well over 100 slides between them, D took a very peaceful nap in a tube while I floated with him around the Torrent for probably an hour. The Torrent is like a cross between a lazy river and a wave pool, you just float around and around but waves come and push you along. D looked so funny with his head completely covered by his lifejacket and just one foot sticking out. Everyone said "oh look at the baby sleeping in there!" Dave and Cali were off trying to go on the BIG slides but I guess Cali didn't feel like waiting in line so they climbed back down and played at the 5-story Pirate Ship instead. My favorite part was taking the whole family down the Raging River (World's Longest Tube Chute, a 30-45 min ride). The kids had to sit in their own tubes (with bottoms) but they did great and Cali totally loved it, especially the "fast" parts. We also went in the Family Blaster which is a big round raft that we all sat in together; it goes down a fast curvy hill then pushes you back up the hill just as fast. Very fun! Last time we were here Cali was not-quite one and I was pregnant with Diego so it was really fun to do more as a family this time. Not so many pictures of the really fun stuff -- we have too much fun to take pictures here! But here are a couple...