Volente Beach

Isaac and I were dreading Sunday aka: Volente Beach day. Volente Beach is a small water park that sits on Lake Travis, from what I had been told, it is smaller and geared for for younger kids, about 10 and younger but not bad. I guess in my mind I was expecting Schliterbahn with it zillions of people and hours of lines. However, we had told Carolina that we would go and we had some coupons that had come in a mail circular so the cost was going to be manageable. We did a little research and decided to get there early on Sunday and figured we could get everything in about 4 hours, so we prepped Carolina that we'd leave about 3 but had promised to roll sushi and watch movies that night as an end to the birthday festivities and she was fine with that. We were pleased to find out that you could bring in your own food as well so we packed up some sandwiches and a ton of bottled water, slathered on a ton of sunscreen and were on our way.

We arrived at Volente Beach just before 11:00 and were first in line. The heat was already at full blast and I couldn't help but look forward to taking a dip in the large pool. My hopes were lifted as I noticed by the time they opened there were still only about 3 families in line and we were able to snag a prime picnic tables under a large shaded pavilion. Carolina was ready to go before we even had everything stashed so we hurried off to hit the slides. There are only 4 slides and they all come off of one raised deck. There are 3 body slides and one tube ride. The tube ride was a large u shaped slide. You were pushed off on one slide in a big drop and then go back and forth until you slow down. Isaac thought it looked great, but Carolina and I weren't so sure so we headed for the body slides. We were the first ones up there and had the pick of whatever slide we wanted. So we began... this continued for awhile, very few people were there and we pretty much had no lines so we went over and over and got to know the lifeguard very well! After a little bit Carolina wanted to hit the pool and the little obstacle course for kids.

This is when I began to appreciate Volente Beach; due to it's small size and the super friendly lifegaurds we didn't all have to stay together the whole time. I could stand by the pool, look up and see Carolina in her bright yellow bathing suit anywhere on the slides. If I came down the slide and started to look around for her or Isaac, a lifegaurd would always point to one of them for me! We also all ended up trying to big tube ride, it scared me to death, but I did have fun and we finally talked Carolina on as well. She screamed bloody murder and got of proclaiming it the worst thing in her entire life, but given 5 minutes, she had decided everything but the first drop was really fun and she might go again, but not that day!
body slides

first drop off of tube slide


We headed out around three and Carolina passed out almost immediately!
After we all rested for a while at home we began sushi rolling and made some very yummy salmon, crab and California rolls! They didn't look very professional but they tasted so good! Carolina seemed to have a great weekend, the next day (Monday) when I picked her up from summer camp she asked me what big activity we were doing that day! I laughed and told her birthday weekend was over, sorry but we could have chicken nuggets for dinner so that made her happy. All in all, I think it was a very successful 8th birthday weekend!

Home made sushi rolls.