My sister-in-law called yesterday and at the last minute she found out she had the day off. We loaded up the kids and headed out to Pirates Cove. I had never been there before, and I just have to say this place is FANTASTIC. When we arrived it was busy, but we were able to find an up-front parking spot. We unloaded the kids, along with our whole barrage of pool gear and food.

Because the aquatic center is owned by the city of Englewood, the prices are very reasonable and the facility is well maintained. As we were looking for a table, a family offered us one right in front of the leisure pool. What a great start to the day!

The area that we were in front of had water only a foot and a half deep, and contained a pirate ship that had water guns, hoses with water spraying everywhere, and the best feature of all – THE DUMP BUCKET.

The dump bucket has 750 gallons of water that fills up, the bell rings, the kids gather and then it dumps all over the pool. Kids go running, and I couldn’t snap pictures fast enough without getting wet.

Monkey thought this was the best thing ever, although I don’t think there was anything we saw yesterday that she wasn’t excited about.

Monkey splashed around all day, rode in the lazy river with me, and wouldn’t even stop to eat until around 4pm. You know she’s having fun when she won’t stop to grab a bite to eat.

The older kids rode on the 35-foot slides, played in the huge sand play area and even humored Monkey by hanging out with her in the leisure pool.

All in all, it was a great day and we will be returning again very soon.