Water, water, everywhere

taking a break
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

Our holidays were near the seaside. In fact I don't think we've ever spent so much time near and in the water. When we walked around the town - strolling looking for places to eat and nice things to buy, we could see the sea and the boats.

At the apartment there were 2 pools, one big one for the adults and one little one for the smaller children. I love the swimming pool. Specially with as many floating devices around me as humanly possible.

Ríodhna didn't like the pool as much as she likes the swimming pools at home. At home we have chilly and wet weather but our swimming pools are inside and warm. In Portugal, they have lovely warm weather but their swimming pools are outside and cooler than the air. When you're big like me, that's fine. You can swim and swim until your lips turn blue and Daddy decides it's time to go in. But when you're little like Ríodhna, you prefer to sit at the side of the pool or in your floating boat and splash and play with toys without getting your whole body wet. I think there was an inside pool too and it might have been warm but we never went it to it.

Of course we loved going to the beach too. The water there was quite rough. There were big, strong waves and the water got deep fast and every time we were there the tide seemed to be coming in so I had to make sure that Mammy or Daddy was holding my hand before I went to get water for our sandcastles.

We made proper sandcastles with our buckets and spades but I think it was more fun when we got loads of water and filled the trenches. Once we were wet enough for the sand to really stick, Ríodhna decided to use the head first approach to digging in the sand. Because the tide kept coming in, we had to keep moving back from the water before the waves could get us.

So where else could we find water? What about a water slide park? That's a really fun place - so much fun that we went two different days. That has some very high, very steep slides for adults but Mammy and Daddy preferred to play with us. We all loved the lazy river. We went loads and loads of times. That had a whole special area for children.

Mammy wasn't quite organised enough to bring packed lunches but she brought some snacks and bought us some unhealthy foods so we forgave her for it. Ríodhna liked walking up and down the steps and sitting on them and splashing but she wasn't so keen on getting properly wet. I loved all the slides. I used them all lots and lots of times. There's video. I'd better get it uploaded!