Last Day in Florida

We went to the beach for breakfast on our last day.  The had yummy pancakes.

 Brett took pictures of us. I thought he got a great candid shot of Gram.

 Anna found sand to play in while she waited for the rest of us to finish eating.

 We played in the sand for a little bit.

Gram had these little nets at her house.  I was hoping to get the girls in the water to try to catch some little fish, but the tide was high and there was a shelly drop off right at the edge of the surf.   I got Emma in the water with me for a little bit, but Anna wouldn't go in at all.  They had fun "catching" sand and tiny shells in the surf though.  I put a video of Anna running from the waves, but since I didn't have my camera, I only had time to load this day's pics/videos onto Snapfish before I left.  I couldn't download the videos onto my computer from Snapfish, but I was able to put them on my facebook if you are interested.

 There's Brett in the background hanging out on a boogie board.

 Some cuddle time with Gram.

We had a quick lunch at home and headed downtown to meet Preston and Carolyn at the pier to feed pelicans.  We stopped at the little aquarium too.

Anna loved the little touch tank.   She got to touch all kids of inhabited shells and some starfish.

 Emma liked touching the decorative starfish.

 There's the pelicans!  I love them a lot.  I love to watch them fly and dive in the water.  They look prehistoric but they are so very graceful in the air.

Here's part of the family.

 Emma wouldn't get in the picture. 

 They have a little stoop to feed the pelicans.  The lady called them and they all came flying in.

 She had to assure Brett that they usually hunt for fish on their own, and this is like getting a treat.  I thought they were cute all gathered around the stoop.

 The kids and the pelicans all enjoyed the experience!

 I think Emma got some fish juice on her because she smelled like fish for a few hours after that.

 We got to have a yummy ice cream treat before we headed to the airport.

It was a wonderful trip!  I praise God for a great mother and family and the beauty of His creation!

Winter the Dolphin!

On Tuesday we went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  They have vets that help sick/hurt sea creatures - mainly dolphins and sea turtles.  They usually help them and then release them back into the wild, but they have a handful of dophins who can't return to the wild for one reason or another.  They also help river otters and have tanks with typical aquarium type fish and stingrays.  We watched a little show with a dolphin named Nicholas. 

The girls just wanted to look at the fish tank more than anything.

I think Anna took this picture.

Here's Carolyn and Anna watching a show with Winter the dolphin.  She lost her tail as a baby, and they even made a movie about her that will come out in September starring Harry Conick Jr., Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman.  I managed NOT to get a picture of Winter!  You can see her on the website though... http://www.seewinter.com/explore-cma/animals/dolphins/winter.  Winter is pretty special.  You should check her out.  We are looking forward to seeing the movie!

Cousins are so fun!

This is a prosthetic tail that was made for Winter.  She is a special creature for sure.

Brett decided to come back to Gram's with us, and we stopped to play at a playground on the way home.

She made it to the top, but immediately wanted to get back down.  I was so proud of her for trying!

We went swimming again the next morning.

It started to rain about lunchtime and stayed yucky all day.  I did manage to take the kids down to a big fishing pier as the sun was going down.

We walked on the beach for aabout 10 yards.

I guess they do this to protect the sea turtles.

Brett wanted to go look at an old historic fort by the pier.  I thought it was cute that Emma wanted to hold his hand. :)

We didn't really look at the fort too much because it was dark by the time we got over there, but there are a few cannons that I didn't think to take pictures of because I was eager to get them back to the car.  I think a 10 year old boy is much more excited about that kind of thing than a 3 or 4 or 41 year old girl, but 3 and 4 year old girls are always very excited to be shown around by a "big" 10 year old cousin!

Florida!! The first 3 days...

On Friday night, my mom and the girls and I fly down to Florida from South Carolina.  We got in pretty late and went straight to bed, but this is what the girls wanted to do as soon as we got up - swim in Gram's pool!  We were soon joined by Leslie, one of my best friends who lives in Gainesville, FL, and drove down to spend the day with.  Then my stepsister Carolyn, her husband Scott and two boys, Preston and Brett came over too.  I think we spent about 4 hours in the pool!

My girls loved playing with Leslie.

Gram has lots of fun stuff to dress up with!

 On Sunday we went to church and headed over to Carolyn and Scott's house after naps.  They took us for a little ride on their boat. 

The girls enjoyed their first boat ride!  Anna wanted to be right next to me with me holding onto her.  She was a little nervous but still liked it alot.  I would have made her sit right next to me and held onto her anyway. :)  Emma was too fascinated watching Brett in the tube dragging behind us to look at the camera.  The camera belongs to my mother, by the way, or I probably wouldn't be motivated to get the pictures downloaded and on the blog while I'm still on vacation! I forgot my camera and I don't know how to make a disk on my mom's computer, so I need to get them on the internet while I'm still here. It is nice to be caught up!!

 

 We anchored at a little cove and waded out to a sandbar with water about 12" deep.  It was nice and cool and the girls loved playing in the sand.  It would have been nearly impossible to take the camera since it wasn't waterproof, but here we are getting started.  There were several stingrays around but we avoided them with only a few screams from Anna.  I was screaming on the inside when I saw them but I remained calm. :)

We saw this guy paddling by.  I was amazed at a dog doing this.  Junior wouldn't have any part of that!

 Back at the house we took another swim.  Anna has really gained a lot of confidence in the water since she has wanted to keep up with her big cousins.  She's swimming all over the place, even the deep end, and jumping in with a running start.  Emma is swimming a lot better too. 

 On Monday we headed to the beach for a couple of hours.  Anna really liked playing in the sand.  Emma liked being in the water more, but she played in the sand a lot too.

 I forgot to bring their hats, so we improvised with Gram's stash for as long as we could keep the hats on the girls.

We swam in Gram's pool again after dinner Monday night.  I got Emma to swim across the narrow part of Gram's pool.  It's so fun to get them swimming!