Dubai Day Two

This day I woke up to my son, who had crawled in bed next to me sometime in the middle of the night, saying "momma...look!" as he pointed to the light coming through the crack in the curtains, "It's daylight outside...that means I'm SEVEN!"

I mean, is there a sweeter way to wake up???

The twins were quick to remember that I'd promised they each had one present to open first thing in the morning (the rest were coming via our mules - David's parents - who were toting the things I'd had sent from Zulily and Amazon to their house) and popped outta bed requesting them.

Our daughter had spotted this dress once when we were in H&M  and declared her love for it. I mentally tucked that away, and snuck back to purchase it later that week. 
Exact same scenario with our son and that Rouge One shirt from Old Navy.
Both kids were pretty stoked...

Two SEVEN year olds!! 
I can hardly believe it. 

We got up and got ready to head downstairs for the breakfast buffet (another amenity included in our room!)
The buffet was HUGE and offered just about everything you could possibly want for breakfast...including PORK! Dubai does not have the same restrictions as Kuwait, and they allow pork products and alcohol. 
Hello, darkness my old friend...

And our son's favorite part of the buffet...the donut tree...

We were surprised - and thrilled! - that Dave's parents were up for joining us for breakfast! They'd flown across the globe and arrived at the hotel around midnight the night prior, and yet were up and ready for a day of adventuring...

After breakfast, we packed up for our birthday surprise! 

We'd planned to spend the day celebrating our seven year olds at Wild Wadi Waterpark.
(another amenity with our hotel - free admission to the waterpark!)

Getting ready to go in...

Ready for some fun!

It was a little chilly that day (upper 70's, but with cloud cover), and Sister warmed up in the shallow area of the Wave Pool while we claimed some chairs...

David and Brother did a little recon work...

The park was really big, and we did pretty much everything!

This was the only ride we didn't try...the Jumeirah Sceirah...

Some of us enjoyed birthday shave ice...

Daddy and Sister back from some rides...

For a good part of the day, Brother, David and his parents went on rides, and Sister and I did these various slides over and over and over and over and over and then over again...

Brother's FAVORITE ride at the park was Tantrum Alley. He was crazy brave and a total dare devil, which surprised me! 

Lucky for him, his Dad is pretty adventurous as well, and his grandparents were up for whatever wild and crazy he could throw their way...because his Momma was not =).

I got out the good camera and waited at the bottom to capture them at the bottom one of the many times they rode it. Check out the JOY on their faces...

Sister's cute little grin while waiting in line for her favorite water slide...

...and down she goes!

The park was located next to the Burj Al Arab, which is the fourth tallest hotel in the world...

And also next to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel...

The Fearsome Foursome at the bottom of the Burj Surj...

Brother asked me to try the Burj Surj with him, remembering that a similar ride had been my favorite back at Great Wolf Lodge, and since it *only* rated four out of five on the "Ride Thrill Rating", I figured I'd go for it. 

Well.

I don't know if it was because I was on antibiotics and rx decongestants from being sick right before we left, or if I'm just old now, but MAN I did not love being "hurtled into two spiraling spins and then dropped into the slide" as the description states.

 Like, did not love at all.

 A few times our raft went so far up the side of the open tunnel that I thought, okay, this is it. This is where we die. 

Meanwhile the other family members in my raft were laughing and hollering away. 

We made it to the bottom of the ride and I thanked Jesus we were alive, smiled for my boy and said "that was fun!" and told David I needed to go sit down for a bit because I was seriously nauseous.

Like I said, that boy is lucky his Dad and grandparents were game for anything, because if it were just me, we would have only gone once =). 

Sister did the Burj Surj once, and liked it, but much preferred playing on the Dhow with the Lagoon, and her favorite ride was the Master Blasters, which she and I did several times and although I nicknamed it "the enema" it was pretty fun and hearing her squeals of delight made my day. 

This is a picture of a picture (that's in a plastic frame and has a magnet on the back), but I bought it because it was a fun memory of the kids and I in the wave pool...

All over the waterpark (and all over Dubai, for that matter,) there were professional photographers snapping your picture and then slapping a paper bracelet around your wrist with a number on it, then at the end of your time at the park, you go to the photo station and turn in your eleventy billion bracelets and they plug the numbers into the computer and show you all the pics from your day.

I hadn't even thought to go look, let alone buy any, and so I'd tossed most my bracelets throughout the day, but when the photographer snapped the above photo, I knew I wanted to at least take a peak at it, and sure enough, I had to buy it. I didn't go for the large 8x10 or anything, but now we have a wallet-sized magnet on our fridge commemorating my time in the wave pool in Dubai on my babies seventh birthday...and that makes me happy =). 

David captured this shot of when the bucket dumped and splashed everyone underneath it...

Two tuckered out seven-year-olds...

...after about five hours of waterpark fun, we were ready to call it a day.

We had two sweet surprises waiting for us when we got back to our room...

...the hotel had these adorable cakes waiting for the kids!

We got showered and cleaned up for birthday dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants. 

Sister's first glance at her reflection in her new dress...

...precious.

She and David snapped a selfie on our way down to meet the grandparents...

Ready for dinner with our seven year olds!

Hard to believe that seven years ago they looked like this...

We ate a lovely dinner and then Gaga and I snuck back up to our room to put up a few birthday decorations and wrap presents. 

Soon after David and Papa brought up the kids, and we had ourselves a little celebration...

Brother pretty stoked to open Finn's Blaster...

He liked his new Superman costume too...even though Momma clearly should have gone with a smaller size...

Sister was thrilled to get the Heart of Te Fiti necklace...

...and also loved her Aquabeads...

Telling Gaga all about Moana...

Sweet boy loves his Papa...

It was a fantastic day, and we all crashed HARD that night.

Before I crawled into bed, I found myself hovering over each of the kids and just kinda staring at them. I'm not one to feel like time is flying usually...but that night as I took in their little features and brushed a hand across their cheeks, I thanked God for seven years of being their Momma, and asked Him if maybe the next seven wouldn't go by as fast.