Beach Vacation - Part 3

On Friday night, we took the girls to a fancy dinner.  We went to The Lazy Lobster. The girls got dressed up and knew they had to be on their best behavior because this wasn't your causal dinner place.

Mallory waiting patiently for her dinner. She enjoyed dining on the dinner rolls sans butter.  Her main course was pasta.  I enjoyed sea scallops that were divine!

 Maggie too waited patiently for her dinner. She enjoyed dining on the dinner rolls with lots of butter.  Her main course was fish and chips.  

Beach Vacation - Part 2

 Since the girls are a little bit older (especially Maggie) we decided to go on a few excursions when we were in Florida. The first one was to the South Florida Museum.  Mallory has been wanting to go to the planetarium and this museum had one.  The first thing we did was check out a production on the stars and the galaxies. It was a little too grown up for both girls, but they sat patiently and listened.

After the production, we went upstairs to see the manatee aquarium.  We learned about how the aquarium is also home to a rehab facility for manatees and they help them get ready to go back into the wild.  One thing we learned is manatees can live in fresh, salt, and brackish water.

On our last day, we headed out early so we could to two fun places before heading to the airport.  The first was the Sarasota Children's Garden.  This place was really neat - minus the nasty long snake that I saw going across part of it.  Thankfully not anywhere where the girls were.

There is a room with all sorts of costumes for kids to put on and wear in the garden.  I couldn't help think about all the nasty germs and cooties that had to be on them, but let the girls get dressed up anyway.  Mallory chose to be Dorothy and Maggie was a princess.

Mallory steering the pirate ship.

Mallory the queen of the tire pyramid.

Our second stop was to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to the "Winter," the dolphin, who was in the movie Dolphin Tale.  Both girls were so excited to go and see Winter.  We have seen both of the movies!

Here she is!  She is world famous because she has no tail fin and uses a prosthetic tale.

Beach Vacation - Part 1

We had so much fun in Longboat Key last year that we came back for round two.  Countless hours were spent at the beach playing in both the water and sand.  We even spent time in the swimming pool with the ocean was rough for a couple of days.

Maggie played so hard that she would fall asleep in the afternoon or early evening most days.  We took pictures of all the random places she fell asleep.  It was so funny!

Dish Washing Assistant

Maggie really enjoys washing dishes.  Today she the majority of the dishes herself.  One of us has to stay near by because she ends up getting water everywhere.  Love that she enjoys helping.

Swim Show Day - Mallory

I only have two pictures to show of Mallory because I mainly took videos.  I was flabergasted at all the things this kid can do.  Last year, she could barely swim and would basically dog paddle across the pool.  This year, the kid is a fish.

Mallory can do the following: tread water for at least 23 seconds, swim across the entire length of the pool with only having to stop once or twice, she can swim with her arms (the right way), she can do an assisted dive and assisted flip off the diving board, and more. I am so proud of her!!

That little head sticking out and the splash - that is Mallory swimming across the pool.

Swim Show Day - Maggie

Each day we pray for Maggie to have a good swim class and to be brave.  Last night and this morning we prayed a bunch for Maggie because of show day.  I had told her that she didn't have to participate, but I changed my mind. I let her know that she needed to at least give it a try and she said okay. 

Maggie was so brave!  She cried a little and refused to jump into the pool, but she would basically fall into the pool.  Maggie's fear is her head under the water. These first pictures she has her clothes on because Haw Haw teaches them how it feels to fall into the pool with clothes on and how to take off their shoes so they can swim to safety easier.

She would put her face under water for about 1-2 seconds, but that was it.

Mallory and me being goofy when Maggie was waiting in line to do the next task.

 Look at that smile.  Maggie did have fun with some of the tasks. She won't swim with her face in the water, but she will let them push her down to "dive" for stuff on the bottom of the pool.  Mallory and I were so proud of her.  I think the sweetest thing was quite a few of the parents would clap for Maggie and yell out her name when she did well. Everyone there knew she was scared and they were so sweet to her.  After lessons were over she got a swew (blue) Popsicle and I believe that was the best part in her mind.

Maggie's Newest Trip to the ER

Tonight when I was cleaning the kitchen, Mallory and Maggie were playing in the living room and some shenanigan's happened.  I am not sure exactly how it all went down because I never heard crying and they seemed to be playing fine.  All I know is that when it was time to brush teeth and go to bed Maggie said her arm was hurting and she couldn't.  Matt and I both assumed she was just stalling and we made her walk to the bathroom.  When it was time to brush teeth, she kept saying her arm hurt and she wouldn't move it. A little later she said it was still hurting and so we looked and noticed it was swelling up some.  We asked her what happened and she said she asked Mallory to grab her arm, knock her off the sofa, and drag her across the floor.  From there we decided we might need to go to the ER because she was in a lot of pain and she might have a hairline fracture.

Praise the Lord, everything was just fine. By the time we left swelling was gone and she was back to 100%. The belief is she may have had nursemaid's elbow.  Either way, she got this cool sling and she has no broken bones.  Could you image how awful that would have been with swim lessons going on and a beach vacation next week? AGHHH!!!