Rio Lento!

Our summer would not have been the same this year without our membership at one of the waterparks in the area- Rio Lento.  (yes, I agree that this is an odd name for a water park in a Middle Eastern country, and no, I have no idea why it is called that...  I do know that the owner is from Atlanta, GA so go figure...)  Anyway, we first started going to this waterpark several years ago and it quickly became a family favorite.  Nestled in a beautiful valley, surrounded by mountains, away from the concrete jungle that is Beirut, it truly is a wonderful escape.  If you know me well, you know how I need my wide open spaces, and this park has been perfect for our family.  I didn't do the best job of taking my camera so the pictures are kind of random, and you might have to use your imagination a little bit.  As a mom, I love the layout of the park.  The wave pool and kiddie pool are right in the middle, with the lazy river going all the way around the edge.  It makes it possible to choose a spot somewhat in the middle and pretty much have an idea of where everyone is all the time.  There are various slides scattered around the park- several great innertube slides that empty into the lazy river, one pretty straight down slide called the Kamikaze, one called the sidewinder that is a pretty steep drop and is like a massive skateboard ramp except you do it on innertubes, and one that my girls have dubbed, "the toilet bowl" (you'll see why).   Above picture is the wave pool with the sidewinder (skateboard ramp like slide) in the background.  They have all sorts of snack stands set up when you walk in- some normal, some not so much...

Notice the sign above for SnoBiz (and also cotton candy which you can't see), right alongside the stand for "Healthy Corn".  Strangely, this is a popular thing here.  Basically it's a big vat of canned corn that the season and serve in little cups.  Of course, you are not allowed to bring food into the waterpark as they want you to buy their stuff.  On days we're staying awhile, we pack a picnic in the cooler and go out and eat it in the car and come back in.  

Maddie and Naomi like to eat picnic style.  Abbey and Jason (when he's able to join us), enjoy sitting in the cool car. (I'm usually eating on the go..)

Here's the kiddie pool.  Every toddler's dream!

I love how we're surrounded by green at this park!

The yellow and blue striped tube slide that you see in the background is what the girls call the "toilet bowl".  As Abbey explains, you go flying down the tube until you get to the circular part at the bottom where you spin around and around until it flushes you out...

(sadly no pictures of this slide in action because it's not always open but it's a madhouse when it is.  The people getting "flushed" out the bottom always come out looking a little dazed.  No, I have not tried this slide.  

Here are some action shots.  The wave pool is by far the favorite thing.  Naomi is all about "riding the waves" with Daddy and no one else will quite do.  She is always thrilled when he is able to go with us...

(and yes, swim caps are required in almost all pools here- isn't it cute??)

Naomi riding the waves alone while the big girls are in the deep end .  The child is fearless...

AJ and Maddie getting in on the fun too...

The sidewinder quickly became a favorite of Maddie.  She will fly down with hands waving in the air.  Abbey has tried it once, and it was not for her.  Personally, I agree with Abbey...  I'll try anything, but in my opinion this one is just not fun.  Maybe I'm too old for a tummy drop like that, I don't know but it was just not that fun to me...   Naomi on the other hand has been begging to go down and when the girls came and told me that other small kids were doing it, we thought, why not?  So up we climbed to the very top (yes, I sacrificed to ride the thing with Naomi on her first time down, but that was it for me- she goes with Maddie now).  Anyway, up we climbed to the very top only to my told by the teenage lifeguard that Naomi was too small.  At which point Naomi went into hysterics as I carried her back down the steps.  Fortunately as we got to the bottom of the steps, one of the lifeguards who we have known for at least 3 years now asked what was wrong.  When I told him they wouldn't let her go, he immediately said, "that's not true" and picked her up and we headed back to the top.  To ride on the double float, Naomi kind of has to sit right behind the person in the front instead of down in the hole of the float but she still absolutely loves it...

Here are Maddie and Naomi climbing up to the top...

The initial drop off (this is what always gets me...)

(Maddie in front, Naomi in back)

You can't really tell by Naomi's face that she's enjoying herself, but she always gets off saying, "again, again!"

Here it looks like she collapsed back once the initial shock was over...

Worn out!

It's been a great summer!

Tea Party

It shouldn't shock you to know that with three little girls in the house, we love tea parties, especially Maddie, my little chef.  We did this several years ago when Papa and Nana were visiting, and Maddie was determined not to let Annie and Da get away without having a tea party with them as well.  She planned it, and with a little help from Annie and me, carried it out. 

Maddie found a recipe for "easy petit fours" in her cupcake cookbook.  It called for melting the store bought cans of icing in the microwave and dipping the tops of cupcakes into the icing and it was then supposed to harden to look like fondant petit four icing.  First problem- no store bought icing- we had to make our own.  Apparently the point of melting the store bought icing is that all the chemicals in it make it somehow work for this recipe.  Obviously no chemicals in my homemade icing.  We ended up just icing the cupcakes, which all the girls were of course happy about.  I'm still not convinced that there exists a simple recipe for petit fours- anyone?

This tea party served as our lunch for the day, and with men in the house we had to have something a little substantial- but it could still be pretty!  Here's Maddie cutting bread into heart shapes for our tuna sandwiches...

I have to comment on the differences of attire of my girls for our tea party.  When Abbey heard tea party, she immediately wanted to borrow one of my dresses and get all fancy (no, this is not something we let her go out of the house in- it was dress up...).  Naomi, on the other hand decided to wear her ballerina outfit... because that's perfect for a tea party, right?  Maddie was taking her role of serving very seriously so she opted for the plain white tea shirt with her apron that Memommy made covering her skirt...

Our spread including heart-shaped tuna sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, tortilla roll ups, cupcakes, and of course tea.  Below Maddie is giving directions for the meal...

Naomi enjoying her cucumber sandwich...

Fun in Dubai

Ok, so the title of this post may be a little deceiving since, in my opinion, it's kind of hard to have fun in a place that is so incredibly hot.  As you will see from the below pictures, that is totally MY opinion as our kids managed to have a blast.  Me, I tend to have the most fun in the great outdoors, and lets face it, the outdoors are not so great when it's 110 degrees- and we weren't even there in the hottest part of the summer!  However, I will say that the Emirates have truly mastered the art of indoor entertainment, and I don't think we even saw half of it!  We begin our trip to Dubai with lunch in the largest mall in the world followed by ice skating.  Yep, I said ice skating.  Kind of made me flash back to my childhood and the Mall of Memphis.  Anyway, the girls were SOOO excited and Abbey and Maddie had a blast...

Naomi thought she was going to have a blast...

but that quickly changed...

She wasn't too excited about letting go of the wall..

Abbey caught on quick

as did Maddie...

Thankfully our next Dubai adventure was more up Naomi's alley...

The next day we headed to the Children's Museum (can't actually remember what it was called), and, like I said, it was much more to Naomi's liking...

Life sized bubble making..

Driving your own car..

Video games with Dad (this was very educational, people... )

And what Middle Eastern children's museum would be complete without simulated camel rides??...

and magic carpet rides...

AJ and Maddie had fun too.  Maddie quickly found a rope swing that was right up her alley.. (I'm telling you this was an educational place, it's just that the non-educational stuff is so much more fun to take pictures of...)

And Abbey entertained herself with this life-sized... (what do you call these things, anyway?)

For our last evening in Dubai, we just couldn't resist the ferris wheel. (spell check is not happy about that- how do you spell ferris wheel anyway? I'm trying to do better for all of you who can't help but edit while you read...).   Anyway, check out this ferris wheel...

For one thing, it was massive which thrilled the girls...

Pretty high up there...

But what Jason and I marveled at, was the fact that each individual compartment had AC!

only in Dubai...