And we we’re Splishin’ and a Splashin’!

 

 

My daughter’s Girl Scout Troop raised enough money from cookie sales (thanks to everyone that helped by buying cookies from my girl) to plan a fun event. Everyone decided they wanted to go to a water park, but didn’t want to drive too far due to the cost of gas. So it was agreed that we would all spend the night at The Radisson Hotel and Water Park in Albuquerque!

I’m sure all of you who are experiencing enough rain to float an ark, probably won’t be too impressed with all of our water play, but to us here in New Mexico, water is gold!

On Friday afternoon we checked in and immediately donned our swimsuits and spent a few hours splishin’ and splashin’ and just having a grand ol’ time!

Jax and Jem came along and had fun zooming down the two water slides, one which was a tube slide and one which was a body slide….and actually did most of it’s twists and turns *outside* of the building! And I really liked the Art Nouveau theme of the water park.

 

Jen’s favorite place was the kid’s play area, which was shallow and packed full of sprayers, squirters and big buckets that dumped water on us.

 

Jax and Jem also spent a lot of time in this toasty warm pool, shootin’ hoops and navigating the rope across the slippery floating shapes.

Jen became a happy fish and smiled the entire time we were there!

She and I really enjoyed the indoor/outdoor hot tub which had a fun little door to swim through to go in or out. But she spent most of her time sliding down the two slides in the kid’s pool.

I went down those two slides a few times, too and quickly understood why Jen couldn’t stop smiling. That was so much fun!

I have never seen her smile this much.

Jax, Jem and I took many trips around the Lazy River. I loved it! So relaxing!

I didn’t even mind these “flower Petals” dumping water on my head as I floated beneath. Although it did get a little annoying, and kind of funny, when my tube would get stuck in an eddy below them for a couple minutes. If only the water had been as warm as the river itself.

The blue slide is the tube slide and it also travels outside for the last half of the ride. I almost went down that one, but I couldn’t get my courage up. My left knee and my hips don’t always feel secure and I didn’t want to risk it.

This looks a whole lot easier than it really is. lol!

 

My twinlings were off having so much fun that I was quick to grab a photo when they did check in with me.

I was happy that they were interested in being my photography subjects so I could practice taking action shots in a dark environment. They took some fun surfing lessons on the Flow Rider. This is another ride that looks a lot easier than it really is. But the more often they did it, they did seem to get better at it, even in such a short time.

Go Jax!

 

I need a whole lot more practice taking action shots in an indoor, light-challenged environment and experimenting with different settings. Hubby thinks I just need a better camera. Hmmm….

Go Jem!

We played at the Water Park from 3pm until about 6pm. Then came back to the room for some snacks and drinks. I took a shower and got dressed, and then we all headed back over to the water park to play until it closed at 10pm.

I was glad I wasn’t swimming on Friday night because it was much more crowded then and there were a lot of teenagers and the vibes were rather rowdy and loud. My kidlets still had a great time while I took photos and tried to stay dry.

I really enjoyed seeing how the water park was all lit up at night, almost like a disco. They play music all the time, but at night it’s more exciting because of the dancing different colored lights.

I was also excited to take on the challenge of more action photography in low lighting.

Jem looked kind of sleepy in this photo. It was almost 10 pm and we had been swimming and playing for almost 6 hours by this time. The Lazy River could easily put a person to sleep, too.

But the noise level kind of prevented the ability to fall asleep…..

I like how, in this picture, everyone is blurry, except Jax.

I was easily entertained with photographing all the sculpturally interesting water works.

I was mesmerized with the way the light shone through the bright colors and sparkling, flowing water.

And the spinning water squirters were even more fun and challenging to photograph.

These leaves drip water onto those floating on the Lazy River……very cold water. I avoided them, or at least tried to.

I enjoyed them much more as a photography subject.

 

After we closed down the water park, we drove down the road and had dinner at Sonic, came back to the hotel, took showers and went to bed. Did I mention the Radisson had Sleep Number Beds? Mmmm…..nice.

And then the next morning, we had a little breakfast and then threw on our swimsuits again and headed over to the water park around 9:30am. I didn’t take any photos because I spent the entire time either soaking in the hot tubs or floating in the Lazy River.

We jumped out about 11:30am, went back to our hotel room, took showers, packed up the van, and then checked out at 12pm(the check-out time the hotel gives to water park guests. Nice!)

What is extra awesome about all of that, is that it only took us 30 minutes to drive back home. Don’t ya just love those quick, little, relaxing and fun vacations?

It’s just what we all need sometimes.