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”.

A vacation can be measured many ways. This trip was about little people and fun play times. It will be measured by the messages found in faces. Our trip via silly faces, sticking tongues out, messy hair, being wet, laughter, thinking, sleeping, being together, wind blown, sun baked, toy chewing and sandy.

Uncle Doug and Aunt Sabah took us all to the Miami Zoo for a couple of hours of fun play. We rented a bicycle to ride around the park and I decided that it was the best way to see it. The girls were up high so they could see the animals over fences and bushes without having to get out at each stop. The bicycle also offered wonderful shade for us all.

We rode to the ‘kids’ section and Emily got to ride a Camel with Uncle Doug. She was so excited and loved it. The girls rode the carousel and Julia demanded that both Grandma and I ride our own animals next to hers. Emily got to press her first penny into a souvenir coin. We saw tigers, crocodiles, otters, elephants, rhinos, a bear, flamingos, and a few more unusual animals that I don’t remember the names of.  By the time we needed to return our bike rental we were all hot and ready to go. It will be fun to go back and explore some sections that we didn’t get to see this trip. Both girls had a blast!

Just some photos of the hugs and play that we shared while we visited Florida. The girls really enjoyed themselves. Emily was absolutely in love with Natalie. She called her ‘my Natalie’. They just played and played together. It was a good time just to spend with family although it seemed to be really short.