Living Locally: Rogers Aquatics Center

This is a sponsored post for the Rogers Aquatics Center- Thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Summer time is here! Where did this month, let alone this YEAR go? I asked Ben to get the P90x for me at the end of January and he’s made excuse after excuse and finally, this week in a fit of frustration I said “I’d be at my AFTER stage here if you’d have just got it!”

When I was a kid we LIVED in our bathing suits all summer long. I remember having a swimsuit tan line that was insane! The smells of sunscreen and chlorine, the sounds of laughter and splashing, combined with the rough terrycloth of a line-dried towel brings back feelings of freedom, perfection and simply just being a carefree kid. I look back on those times as some sort of missed perfection, a utopian existence.

I want my kids to experience that.

Recently I was asked to go tour the new Rogers Aquatics Center and immediately agreed- I worked too much last summer and really haven’t been able to give my kids that same experience I had so the idea of spending the day together as a family was very appealing. We don’t live in Rogers, but I work just a few minutes away so Ben and I discussed him meeting me up there after work some evenings for the Twilight pricing (see below) at the park.

First of all, I was thinking of the pools of my childhood. There was a big pool with scary diving boards, typically a medium pool for the older kids, then a toddler/baby pool. We spent every summer in Dallas, TX until I was in junior high and the pool was a nice one. The Rogers Aquatic Center was NOT like that at all…

It was much better- it shocked me actually! It is a mini-water park with all the fun extras that people typically have to spend a LOT of money to go to! It is brand new and had a freshness to it as I walked in. The bathrooms were SPARKLING, had hard wood accents and a clean floor- which was HUGE for me. I walked over to a lounge chair and claimed a few for my family as I yelled at Bear and Bug to WAIT FOR ME before going into the exciting kid’s area. A giant bucket of water would fill up then dump out all over the fun activity area in the pool which, actually, frightened Bear quite a bit. 😉 I stayed with Bug as he excitedly ran (WALK!) around the shallow edge of the pool, shooting the water guns and watching the older kids.

Ben took Bear over to a splash park area, which he loved. He is so sweet and gentle, he loves to watch calm cartoons and doesn’t like loud noises. I think that is pretty typical of William’s Syndrome but what I loved is that not only was there a large splash park area for the older kids, there was a smaller wading pool for the littler kids that he spent most of his time at. There was even a beach styled incline in the little pool, fun toys in the water and a small slide that Bear went down again and again which made me happy (see pic near the top)!

Bug… oh my sweet just turned 3-year-old… RAN everywhere, completely ADD’ing over all the things to do. I was able to go on a tour to see behind the scenes and Ben finally had me take him so he could stay with Bear.  The thing that stood out to me after seeing all the park had to offer, was the safety it offered. If I ever (God forbid) lost a child- I saw how well they could find him! I felt reassured that my kids were very safe.

As we walked around the park, I suddenly wished that I didn’t have my kids with me… They had racing slides that were insanely high, a *climbing* wall in a pool of water, an extremely tempting looking lazy river, basketball, volleyball, a giant toliet bowl! Bug ran up to the tower of stairs to the twin tube slides and tried to convince me that he was old enough to go there. Not quite yet, buddy. I’m kind of partial to him staying young and little!

We wound our way around the exterior of the park and then came to a ledge that looked over to a lap pool where adults could swim without kids around them and where swim meets could be held for competitive swimmers. I walked down to the little pool where Ben and Bear had been happily playing for the last bit and Bug eagerly joined in. He kept running so I finally had a lifeguard talk to him about safety…

Speaking of Lifeguards- they were EVERYWHERE. Wonderful!

We spent time playing in the water before the kids got hungry and we went to the food area that had plenty of covered tables. As much as I love the sun, I love to sit in the shade as I eat! They even had several pavillions which would be perfect for private pool parties! The food was good, better than typical pool-concession-food that I was expecting and even had healthy choices in addition to all that you would want and expect at a pool.

We went back to the pool area and spend the next hour chasing the kids around. We had an amazing time- there were fun things for every age! We will be sure to go back!

2013 Season Admission Prices:

Hours: Monday—Saturday 11-8pm Sunday 12-6pm

I received passes for my family and meal tickets to attend and write about the Rogers Aquatic Park, 100% of the thoughts and opinions are my own.