I've been wanting to take Oliver to a semi-local playground that has a free splash park for a while. I've been nervous that it'd be too chaotic for me to participate (i.e., a bunch of big kids running into people), so I hadn't gone.
Early this morning, I asked Andrew if he'd want to go with me. We packed Oliver into the car and made the three mile drive to Ray Ross Park. As we got close, I started to have doubts. The neighborhood is a bit dilapidated, and there is a worn-out trailer park nearby (the moral of this story is: don't judge a book by its cover). I felt better as we got closer and saw some joggers out and about.
We got to the park at 8:30am, and it was already bustling! There were two little league games going on, and there were kids in the playground. Surprisingly, the splash area was empty. All we had to do was show Oliver the water, and the rest was history.
Oliver was a little timid at first. He only wanted to touch the water with his hands. I tried to coax him into running through the spray walls, but he was a little too nervous. Andrew taught him how to partially plug up some of the water with his feet to make it shoot far.
Then, a couple kids came and started to play. Oliver watched them intently and started to be more brave around the water. Pretty soon, he was stepping over water and running around like a big boy. His favorite part, though, was when Andrew picked him up and ran him through a tall spray wall. Oliver squealed in delight and demanded more over and over. 
I've never seen the child have so much fun.We played for a full hour. Apart from the two other kids, we had the splash area to ourselves. We let Oliver run around on his own and discover the drains and such. Afterwards, on the drive home, he babbled excitedly nonstop and wore a huge grin on his face.
Free local splash park = huge success
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