CSS hold parent horizontal menu background - html

Question

I am designing simple horizontal menu with html/css, see jsfiddle.net. The problem is that after hovering on li childrens i can not hold parent li background. See print screens below:
in this state, after hover on menu childrens, such as Settings or Applications, i can't hold background of parent block, such as Options :

Answer 1

You had added :hover effect for a tag and when you leave the a tag :hover is lost you can just add :hover to li tag and the :hover by using this you will not loose the :hover effect of the parent
.nav {
background: #C2E2EC;
height: 50px;
display: inline-block;
width: 100%;
margin: 0 0 10px 0;
padding: 0;
}
.nav li {
float: right;
list-style-type: none;
position: relative;
}
.nav li a {
font-size: 11px;
color: #000;
display: block;
line-height: 50px;
padding: 0 26px;
text-decoration: none;
font-family: Tahoma;
text-shadow: 0 0 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5);
}
/* changed :hover to li:hover */
.nav li:hover {
background-color: #2e2e2e;
}
#settings img {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
#settings a {
height: 50px;
font-size: 11px;
}
#settings img {
width: 48px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
font-size: 11px;
}
#search {
width: 338px;
margin: 4px;
}
#search_text {
width: 297px;
padding: 12px;
font-size: 11px;
font-family: tahoma;
border: 0 none;
height: 34px;
direction: rtl;
text-align: right;
margin-right: 0;
color: white;
outline: none;
background: #1f7f5c;
float: right;
box-sizing: border-box;
transition: all 0.15s;
}
#search_text:focus {
background: rgb(64, 151, 119);
}
#search_button {
border: 0 none;
cursor: pointer;
float: left;
height: 34px;
margin-left: 5px;
margin-top: 5px;
padding: 0;
text-align: center;
width: 34px;
}
#options a {
border-left: 0 none;
}
#options > a {
background-position: 85% center;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
padding-right: 42px;
color: #fff;
}
.subnav {
visibility: hidden;
position: absolute;
top: 110%;
right: 0;
width: 200px;
height: auto;
opacity: 0;
transition: all 0.1s;
background: #232323;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
.subnav li {
float: none;
}
.subnav li a {
border-bottom: 1px solid #2e2e2e;
color: #fff;
}
#options:hover .subnav {
visibility: visible;
top: 100%;
opacity: 1;
}
<ul class="nav">
<li id="options">Options
<ul class="subnav">
<li>Settings
</li>
<li>Application
</li>
<li>Board
</li>
<li>Options
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>