We had a great day at the Hidden Creek Water Park today. With the husbands along, it made for a much more enjoyable, less stressful morning. It was super hot and gloriously sunny so the water felt great.

Believe it or not, we actually decided NOT to get the membership. For our family of three (Ben doesn’t count yet) it would cost $251. And the park is only open May 28th until September 5th. With the weather in Chicago, who knows how many times you could feasibly use it.

Instead we paid $12 for each non resident over 3 years old, a total of $36. Doing the math we’d have to visit 7 times to start saving money.

The water park occupied the boys for hours, and Jack didn’t even get to the sand pit. There was also a deep pool (6 lanes) with diving board and two slides for older kids which I’m hoping the boys will grow to in years to come. What else? A water playground with dumping bucket and slide, a huge zero-depth entry pool with smaller slide, water fountain sprays and a structure that funnels water that you can move around and vary the water pressure. They have lounge chairs everywhere and we were there early enough to be able to get ones under an umbrella for shade. Also a grassy area to picnic and a concessions stand to buy a picnic at.

I’m on a mission to check out all the water parks in the ‘burbs this summer but let’s see if we run out of summer days as perfect as today before I can complete it…