Pool Party and Corona Point
Trip Start
Apr 23, 2011
1
8
9
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
What I did
Pool Party
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Saturday, September 24, 2011
The events were hosted by Joey from last night’s campfire (I think he might be the biggest kid there). He had a way with kids that would just get them to smile. He even got Kody to say his name into a microphone. I never thought I would see that day. The first game of the day was snowball fights South Carolina style. The pool was divided into two teams the pirates (ARRR team of course) and the crazy kids (or something of that nature, didn’t really care since it wasn’t our team). The goal! Put more of the snowballs (plastic balls that float on the water) in the other team’s half of the pool and you will be the winner. Team pirates had a rough round one, but we gathered the troops and were able to execute our game plan. I realized at the start of the second round all the balls were in the middle and it would actually be easier to splash the whole group of the balls as well as the other team to push the balls to other side versus trying to throw them. I even had Kody doing a little reconnaissance as he continued to venture over to the other teams side and keep the balls over there. Mamaw and Papa were even enjoying the game as they were launching the balls deep into the other team’s side trying to keep team pirates afloat. With this strategy and a few huge throws by Kody we were able to win the next two matches to proclaim VICTORY for team pirates. This would have to be our celebration as it was our only one of the day.
Round 2 - The arctic freeze relay race in which a rag dipped into a bucket of ice cold water (no exaggeration here as there was ice cubes in the water) was passed through a line to an empty bucket where the rag was squeezed out. The first team to fill the bucket was the winner. Team Pirates consisted of 4 kids and 1 dad (me), the other team 1 mom, 1 dad, and 2 kids. I think the odds were stacked against us but Kody and the team put up a valiant fight as we handed the icy rag back and forth for the next 5 minutes. It was funny to hear are the squeal and giggles as the rags hit the kids (not so funny when one fell in my lap), and Kody was even getting into the game and would get aggravated if some of the other boys would skip him. He stopped playing for a little while, but eventually sat on my legs and passed the rag back and forth for team pirates. We may not have one the event but we went down fighting and the younger boys on the team even doused the cast members with the icy water for a good measure.
Round 3 - This game was a relay race that was considered to be a rescue and recovery for Mr. Potato Head. You had to find the missing parts at the bottom of the pool and put Mr. Potato head together. Kody had the lead leg of the race for Team pirates. Again our team’s odds were stacked against as we had 1 adult and 1 kid (Kody) who couldn’t dive due to his flotation device, but again we would not let the odds slow us down. Kody started off the race by springing into action over the steps and finding Mr. Potato heads feet on the second step. He quickly gathered the feet and headed back to the side of the pool so he could put the feet onto Mr. Potato head. I made the first dive to the bottom of the pool and pulled up the fire hat for Mr. Potato head. The rest of the kids pulled some random parts, but Kody was up again and he headed back to the steps to find the arm of Mr. Potato head. At the sight of the arm on the steps he tried to dive under, but was restricted due to the float. He was able to reach the plastic arm with his long reach, and stood up on the steps to launch him back towards the side of the pool so he could swim as fast as he could. He was all smiles and was enjoying the game until the other team had completed their potato head. Another loss for team pirates, but we held our heads high and gave high fives in celebration of ARRR hard effort and great laughs.
The last game of the day was an individual task that I wasn’t sure Kody would want to partake in, but to my surprise he was third in line. The event was the balloon bust. Kids would throw a ball at the bull’s-eye which would pop an ice water balloon, if the target was hit hard enough, resulting in icy water falling onto a victim sitting in the chair under the balloon . Kody got up and made two good throws with the second landing on the bull’s-eye, but with his arm not quite being able to throw a major league fastball the balloon did not burst. Someone did hit the target for Kody dropping ice water onto another kid. He loved this and chuckled at the site, but it was now his turn to sit as the victim under the balloon. I really didn’t think he would do this, but he went up quickly and quietly to the chair, so I thought I would let him try this on his own. With all the pandemonium going on around us I focused my attention on Kody just to see how he would react. He covered his eyes and sat in the chair as they loaded his balloon over his head. The cast members told him to sit all the way back so he leaned his head back on the backrest, hands over his eyes, waiting for his misery to come. As he leaned back the first wave of throws went with no bull’s-eye hit, but to my dismay one of the little boys came up and push the button sending and icy burst of water onto Kody’s head. At the instant the water hit him he went into panic and jumped up with tears filling his eyes. I ran over telling him how awesome he was and telling him that he was a tough guy and needed to give me some high fives. We jumped into the pool to warm up and then he wanted to go back again and throw balls at the bull’s-eye again. However, he did not want to sit under the chair again.
As the party wrapped up there were two events left and little Miss Noel had finally arrived after awaking from her slumber. The first event was the traditional cannonball lunge in which everyone stood on the side of the pool to jump in at one time and do a cannonball. Kody was game, but Noel was leery as she sat in my arms clinching for dear life. On the count of 1…2…3….. We all jumped in and made the pool an instant wave pool. Kody popped to the surface and was smiling ear to ear. He thought it was so cool. Noel was like “No more” and clinched on tighter and tighter. The final event really wasn’t an event, but the cast members were trying to get rid of all the ice water they had so they had the kids line up to have ice cold water dumped on them. Again Kody surprised me and jumped into the water and held onto the wall waiting to get drenches with water. Of course I couldn’t resist the urge either as I sat beside him waiting for the 20 gallons of ice water to hit us like a huge blast of adrenaline. As the cast members dumped the water into the pull all the kids around us screamed with excitement. I pushed Kody into the mix so he could swim in the water and feel the cool spots created by the mixing water. The water in the pool is normally heated and these cool spots felt very refreshing to swim through. Kody liked trying to catch the ice cubes, and I even heard one of the kids from the Team Pirates say this is Cool but the ice cubes are melting to fast. Noel wasn’t into this part of the party, but she did stand and watch at a distance as her brother played in the water.
The party was over and our hosts disappeared, but this did not slow Kody or Noel down. Kody had somehow made friends with 2 boys that were 3-4 years older than him. They were like come on “Koby”. They headed up and down the slide over the next hour constantly getting reminded by the lifeguards to stay feet first and on your bottom on the way down. Kody even told Papa “These are my friends”. Noel was in the pool swimming with Grandma, Grandpa, and I as we played a friendly game of hot potato with her. This was the first time all weekend that my dad could hold her without a panic in her eye. We did this for about 15 minutes as Kody was going up and down the slide. Noel was enjoying this as she would jump out of your arms toward the next person and come up with all smiles. She would even try to find Kody who was running around with his new friends. There were several times Noel would provide a personal escort for Kody up the steps to the slide only to say “I’m Not going!” But she would make sure to say “Go Kody, GO Daddy! I can make it down”. I don’t know where she gets her independence from. As Noel continued to play with Papa and Mamaw I watched Kody continue to interact with the kids. They were like the 3 amigos as they would wrap their arms around each other and walk up to the slide, but my one of my favorite moments was watching 2 of the kids hang over the slides and give the 3rd a high five as he came down the slide. When it was Kody’s turn for this game, the two boys gave him a big five, as he exited the slide Kody was grinning ear to ear and eyes wide open right before he hit the water. I was a proud dad to see him interacting with kids this way, because there are some days Kody will keep to himself and just watch in awe at the activities going on around him. What an awesome day to watch Kody play with kids and Noel start to connect with my dad!!
Noel wasn’t quite done with Papa Gee yet as she wound up sitting on his lap when I tried to put more sunscreen on Kody. The sunscreen for some reason started creating burning sensation on his face so he ran to the room and never appeared again. Noel sat on Papa’s lap and graciously lathered her feet in sunscreen. I don’t know who was more excited, me watching my dad finally getting to play with Noel or Papa Gee realizing his little girl was sitting on his lap. Needless to say all that ended when I walked over to sit down, but the few moments were just awesome to watch. As I sat and talked with Papa Gee, Noel managed to drink all my coke and just grinned when I asked if she wanted more. After I filled it up again she repeated the process and gulped down entire mug of coke. She just gave that grin like…Yes I did it and I’m too cute to do anything about it.
As the evening wrapped up Papa and Mamaw Gee headed home, and Noel, Papaw Davis, Nana, and I headed for a last refill of our drink mugs. I told Becky on the walk back from the pier about a place I named Corona point. Kody and I had discovered this little slice of heaven when we were biking this morning and offered to share it with the group. Why Corona point? The four beach chairs overlooking the water and the tree covered in Spanish moss in the background just reminded me of a Corona commercial. As we arrived at my secret location Nana said I can understand why you have named it this. We all sat in the beach chairs and enjoyed the breeze in our face and relived the Corona commercial in our minds. Noel even joined in the fun by throwing shells into the water as we sat and enjoyed the scenery and the boats coming in as the sun was setting. What a way to end the night!!!
