Zante Day 4 & 5 - Sand Castles and Beer

On Day 4 of our holiday to Zante we spent more time in the pool and Brandon was getting very confident with his diving and jumping skills.

 

Bomber Brandon.

Then Brandon was practising some very impressive leaps. This was probably the deepest pool he has been in with the deep end being 1.6m. So he was fearless and very confident that he could pull off his tricks without clumping his head on the bottom of the pool. He did keep challenging himself to touch the bottom of the pool and successfully managed it up to the 1.4m marker.

Ready to leap....

Going.....

Going........

Arms stretched out........

What an action shot.

After the pool we had our usual lunch break to get out of the midday peak sun and then ended up back in the water park. By now the boys were getting very familiar with the water park and the slides so I had to come up with other interesting ways to keep them entertained whilst Tina was relaxing. At first we played a pirates game where one of us would take it in turns being the bad pirate who had stolen the treasure  and the other two were the good pirates who had to catch the bad pirate and lock them up on the pirate ship. Then the bad pirate would escape and the game started all over again. We also played hide-n-seek in the kids pool area which at first sounds a really bad game to play with toddlers in a foreign country, but it actually worked very well and was good fun.

At times it was lovely just sitting back and watching Joshua and Brandon playing in the water together.

Brandon and Joshua coming down the pirate ship wide slide.

Joshua coming down the snake slide just as the bucket drops a power shower.

A very cheeky Brandon.

Brandon's skin texture takes after Tina and on holiday he is a little solar panel that just gets darker and darker without any burning. One coat of factor 50 in the morning and he can go all day. Generally we would let him wear a top for half a day and then go topless for the other half. Joshua was more of a concern in the Greek heat as he is fair skinned like me and on a few occasions had some red soreness from burning. With him we are constantly putting on sun cream and making sure he keeps his hat and shirt on most of the time. 

Brandon and Tina are both dark skinned solar panels whilst me and Joshua just get burnt!

Two smart boys all dressed up in new shirts ready to hit he town.

Brandon drink of choice for the holiday was apple juice which he could get from the juice machines on his own. Where the apple juice poured it almost had a had and looked like my beers. So we had a standing joke all holiday where Brandon called his apple juice a beer. It was pretty funny to see the look on some parents faces when they would see me call Brandon over and say to him lets go and get another beer! Maybe another 14 years time and this might be a reality. Joshua drank some juices, but he preferred the fizzy drinks and was also helping himself to kids cocktails (non alcoholic) from the bar.

Brandon sipping on a beer.

Brandon seemed to eat better in the restaurant when he took his Innotab and earphones with him. Maybe it was a distraction.

A sunset picture of the boys (both with their headphones on!).

Day 5 was again pretty repetitive with the water park and the beach on the agenda. But there are a lot worse ways of spending your days than having fun with the kids in 33 degree weather, be it on the beach or the water park again and again. 

Me, Joshua and Brandon with the 3 squirting dolphins.

Joshua enjoying an ice cream to help cool down.

 

And the little sod learnt to bite the bottom of the cone off subsequently dripping chocolate ice cream all down his nice yellow top.

Brandon eats so slow that the ice cream just melts all over his face with every lick.

One the beach I started to get creative with the sand castles. My first attempt of a ship and a car were not bad. But I produced some much better ones later in the holiday as you will see later in the blog.

My attempt at a sand castle of the Panagiotis from Smugglers cover.

But the ship wasn't good enough and Brandon wanted and racing car.

Brandon just liked me building the sand castles so that he could destroy them. My objective became to try and prevent him from jumping on them as long as possible as I kind of enjoyed the admiration from other beach users and passers by. However my sand castles also inspired some of the other kids on the beach to try and get more creative with the sand.

A Baywatch moment as Joshua poses on the life guard tower at Alexander Beach.

And finally Joshua is now fully participating in the kids mini disco. 

Joshua and Brandon join a train of kids dancing through the pool side bar area as part of the mini disco.

Day 6 has some absolutely stunning pictures of Smugglers Cove as we all get a well earned break from the water park and beach.