We try to go to the beach once per trip to Miami. It takes a little while to get to the beach so we try to make the most of it when we go. This trip it was just the girls, Grandma, and Mama at the beach. We set up our shade, got some photos, and then played in the water.

Julia kept trying to swim in the ocean like she did in the pool and she ended up with pretty red eyes. She just kept trying though. One game the girls played was to carry wet sand into the ocean and rub Grandma and Mama’s arms with the sand. It was like our own trip to the spa. Emily asked several times to go out in the deeper water with Grandma. For having simple cups to dig in the sand the girls just stayed busy and happy for a long time. Everyone seemed to enjoy the sunny, fun day tremendously.

Two flowers that Mama would pick!

Enjoying the sun and surf!

Our Ju Ju girl!

Sun-kissed water and girl.

Digging in the sand. The ocean was destroying as fast as they were building, but that didn’t deter them.

Our shady spot, but we didn’t spend much time there. While the day was hot, the water felt great!

Playing with Grandma in the ocean.

The girls wanted to do lots of swimming while we were on vacation. And we did a lot of swimming. For a Mama it was a lot of hard work to watch two little swimmers.

Emily is doing marvelously in the pool. She has confidence to jump into the pool at any depth, increasing confidence in swimming “under water”, and loving just the fun of swimming. She loved doing cannonball jumps. We made a new game of riding the elevator down game. This game originally served to encourage the girls to get their faces underwater. Our new variation involved Mama holding her far out of the water and slowly lowering her as the elevator rides down and then at the basement level, instead of dropping her under the waterline, Mama would throw her across the top of the water into deeper water. She loved it!

Julia started off by not being able to pop herself back up to the surface after jumping into the pool. Somewhere in the first couple of days she figured it out and she was fearless. We would think she was on the steps of the pool and getting out to find that she turned around and tried to swim back into the pool. She just wouldn’t stop trying to swim. It paid off and she showed the biggest improvement. There was nothing that she wouldn’t try. She mimicked Emily in trying cannonballs, jumping into the pool, swimming long distances, and putting her face in the water. She even figured out how to do a back flip off of Mama’s shoulders which Emily then scrambled to learn to be like Julia.

Enjoy the smiles and fun memories –

Swimming with Daddy! It is wonderful to show Daddy all our new tricks.

Uncle Doug and Elizabeth playing.

Water soaked grins

Grandma being silly with the girls

Pool smile- really she is just saying, “get the photo done so I can go back to swimming”.

The first stop on our vacation was at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Robby got to spend a little time with Elizabeth, the girls got to play with Grandparents, the girls were fascinated with Elizabeth and her toys, and there was lots of swimming.

Some of the sweet or fun things that happened while we visited:

LOVE THIS! What is better than an eye-squeezing hug!

Emily is in-love with Midnight. This poor cat got more attention than he could probably handle, but he kept coming back for more. Emily would carry Midnight from room to room covering him up with blankets and treating him like a baby. Emily is asking for a cat of her own. At five she is already coming up with rational arguments of how we could work a cat into our home and promising to keep up with cat responsibilities. Please, no kind gifts of a cat for our house.

Elizabeth seemed to enjoy having other little people to play with. She crawled into the Lego cart and Emily happily pulled her around the house. What we didn’t catch with this photo was the tumble that Elizabeth took a few minutes later that ended the game. They enjoyed it while it lasted.

All the kids were taking turns wearing Uncle Doug’s hat. Julia had stolen it and was running around the house with it. She was proud of herself.

Julia has her favorite friends that she sleeps with. This trip she brought three and got a bear from Grandma. She seemed to have a firm hold on Nina the Mermaid this particular afternoon. Not to mention a sleeping kid is a perfect kid – Cute!

The girls love to borrow their Grandparents tablet and draw things. Julia was quite proud of her drawing

We heard stories that Lizzy thought she could sit on any flat surface that she could get to. Sure enough we watched her move the toys and then climb up on this shelf and try to sit. She did successfully sit, but it didn’t look too comfortable. The girls were trying to stop her and sticking with her to make sure she was safe until Sabah could get her down. Emily and Julia were surprised by this climbing thing because neither of them are climbers.

What a sweet face sitting next to Aunt Rachelle on the couch wearing a Julia dress. Aunt Rachelle was pretty lucky!

We took our summer trip to Florida at the end of July. This year Daddy drove down with us. Unfortunately he didn’t get to stay long, but we were thrilled to have him for the time we did. The girls traveled well on this trip with the exception of Emily coming down with something on the way home which gave her carsickness-like symptoms. We did get lucky and get them to sleep at the same time on the way down. On the way home they alternated naps.

Emily’s "almost" home photo and smile. These were the photos we sent Daddy to tell him we were almost home. Everyone was excited to see Daddy.

Julia was all comfy watching a movie as the sun went down. We tried to race the sun and get home before it went to bed, but as we were counting the red lights through town the sun beat us.

This is the summer to learn to swim at our house. To this end the girls have just completed four of six weeks of swim classes for the summer. They are doing so well and loving it. A mix that makes Mama very happy!

For the first two week session Julia was in Level 1 with Ms. Kate and Emily in Level 2 with Ms. Lauren. By the end of the class Julia was ready to advance to Level 2. Emily was one skill away from advancing to Level 3. When the second session started the mix of kids and Emily’s skill level allowed her to go ahead and move to Level 3 with Ms. Lynn. Both girls have enjoyed the other kids in the class and loved their teachers. They have been willing to try new things and be challenged to improve on what is hard. The biggest improvement is just their confidence in the water is increasing!

Emily –

• can swim the pool length with her kickboard confidently,
• is swimming about eight feet without assistance,
• is able to jump in the pool and swim back to the edge without assistance,
• is learning to dive,
• is practice her strokes and breathing,
• was brave enough to jump into the pool from the diving board.

Julia –

• is learning to float on her back and can do it when she has assistance to get started, 
• can kick laying on a board the length of the pool,
• loves to jump into the water,
• is gliding thru the water

For our third session the girls should remain in their respective levels. Mama is SO proud of them and their new skills.

The girls are taking swim class every morning, but they don’t seem to have their fill of water yet. Today we spent the evening out in our plastic yard pool playing in more water. Both girls took their turns at "cleaning" with the sprayer. Emily was proud that it was her turn to clean

Two very happy girls in their small water world!

Julia loved playing with the little duck. There is something about this photo that shows what a pre-teen Julia is going to look like. Both girls have a tell to predict when they are about to grow – they get dimples in their cheeks. Check out what Julia has . . .