Aquaphobia

Aeryn evidently hates water. Or rather, she's absolutely petrified of it. After the last boating trip, I figured there was hope that one day she'd want to jump in and play. Today we went to Seven Peaks water park with our friends Katie and Karey. Aeryn was so excited for the water slides and asked all morning when we were going.

Naturally, I took the excitement at face value not realizing that it's been a whole year since she was on a water slide and her approach to water is entirely different now. We went together down one of the large, fast water slides and on the first turn she screamed and didn't quit crying until about 10 minutes after we were done. Any hope I had for a joyous, laughter filled afternoon completely diminished after a fateful splash into the lazy river dunked her head completely under water. The remainder of the visit was a series of being held by one of us, and then another, and so on.

We did enjoy a small reprieve when we attempted the wave pool with inner tubes. Her crying and fear subsided as the gentle rocking put her straight to sleep on my lap. I've never seen a child fall asleep in the wave pool.

After coming home Grandma asked if she had fun. In a sweet, honest reply she said simply "no." I suppose this adventure will not be repeated too soon.