Today I am aching all over from a strenuous work out yesterday. It wasn’t a run, a gym session or a fitness DVD but a morning at the local Splash centre where we ran up steps, pushed through slides and swam against currents. It was a great morning and reminded me of similar childhood visits to the Oasis pool in Swindon, hopefully today’s outing will help the children create their own happy memories too.

The trip was another example of the type of activities we’re able to do with the children now that they are that little bit older. They were both tall enough for all the rides and wanted to do them there was no fear just a need for speed, excitement and challenge. Mr S has a bad back so he wasn’t able to do all the slides but as the children and I ran up the steps he was at the bottom of the slides ready to fish us out! The Splash centre is an impressive site with a variety of slides, steep, windy, short and long, some you float down whilst others are tackled with a rubber ring. We wore a smart arm band to tell us when we could go down the slide and it also recorded all your stats for a certificate at the end. I was a bit reluctant to pay for the certificate but am proud in the knowledge that I did every slide enthusiastically! Strangely what struck me on the visit was that whilst the children on the slides were boys and girls in equal numbers there were very few women in the pool, far more were watching on the side. I was proud that in the words of a current campaign to encourage women into sport ‘this girl can’

Yesterday was another fab family day full of encouragement, fun and celebration. I’m sure we’ll be back again for more and are thinking of similar new challenges to do together.