One of my favorite memories from being here 3 years ago was going out on a boat ride to see the dolphins and I definitely wanted to do that again. We attempted to do it on Wednesday, but it started raining, so we got all the way there and then turned around and came home. I was hoping we could do it yesterday, but it rained ALL day. It was supposed to rain again all day today. BUT, when I woke up, although it was in the 60's and overcast (ugh! - seriously, this is AUGUST at the BEACH!!), it wasn't raining. So, as fast as I could, I fed and dressed everyone and ran out the door, hoping we could see the dolphins before it inevitably started raining again.
It worked! Here we are getting ready to take off.
Ella's first boat ride
Do you ever read those blogs and wonder how everyone else's lives are so perfect and how their kids are always so well behaved, etc, etc? Sometimes I even think my blog comes across that way because I don't usually go out of my way talking about and showing pictures of all the melt downs, tantrums, fights, moments of complete exasperation, etc. But just as I was about to skip over this picture, I changed my mind and decided to put it in. I want to "keep it real." The "first mate" offered to take a picture of us. Tanner was sitting somewhere else on the boat. I asked him to come over and take a picture. He didn't want to. He ended up coming over, but refused to sit where I wanted him to (my lap) and refused to look at the camera or pose for the picture. I'm fighting him....
And then I give up and smile. Only Dave and I are looking at the camera.... gotta love it!
Dolphins!
I love to see animals in the wild, but dolphins are definitely among my favorite
And here's one of the reasons why we found so many.... a shrimp boat was nearby, so the dolphins gathered around.
A mommy and her calf
Dave pointing them out to Riley
We hurried home to make it back in time for the big car race! When we first got here, Tanner saw these cars in the Activity Room and wanted one..... bad. But they were cars you had to purchase for $25 and then put together yourself.... with directions in Japanese. Since I didn't want to spend $25 and Dave didn't want to put a car together and neither of us know Japanese, we resisted and hoped he would forget. But he didn't. And then we found out that there is a big race between all the cars every Thursday. I knew Tanner would LOVE that. So, by Tuesday afternoon, he had worn me down and I caved. Then handed off the box with the Japanese directions to Dave and wished him luck! It took him well over an hour to figure it out, but he did it and Tanner was THRILLED. He was seriously counting down the hours until the big race. BUT.... it rained (of course!) and got cancelled. I asked pleadingly if the race would be rescheduled. I think other parents must have too because next thing I knew, they rescheduled it for today at 1:00. It started raining again, but we dried off the race track and got a quick race in before the drizzle turned into a full on down pour.
On your marks, Get set..... GO!
Tanner didn't win. (And, side note, I have to say it was rather cute when we said our "High/Lows" at dinner tonight, Lacey said her low was Tanner not winning his race -- it's nice to know after all their fighting that in the end, they really are rooting for each other after all!) But thankfully he was still able to have this smile on his face. He had so much fun racing his car in the "official" race and staying after with the other kids to keep racing for run. I wanted to show you a picture of him with his car, but since it was raining, he was scared to take his hands off the car since he didn't want it to get wet.
As for my Highs of the day..... I loved seeing the dolphins and I loved seeing Tanner race his car. But a definite High for me was seeing my sister (after over a year!) and her two cute kids Parker (here with T) and Reagan. Lindsay's husband just accepted a job out here in South Carolina and, after 13 years in Naperville, they left yesterday to move to South Carolina. We're glad the timing worked out for us to see them if even for a day.
They arrived at dinner time and then everyone (except me who stayed home to get Ella and Riley to bed) raced outside. The torrential downpour had just stopped and it's supposed to rain again tomorrow, so they decided to get some swimming in tonight! I took this picture from our balcony - Lindsay, Parker and Dave relaxing in the hot tub....
And Becky, Reagan, Lacey and Tanner chilling in the pool. I think Becky is thrilled to finally have people older than 6 around :)
