West we did go. When we were planning this trip we referred to it as our trip “Out West”. Emily might not understand that west is a direction, but she does know that it is a place to go and see. If you asked her where we were going she would tell you “west”. The other thing we discussed about driving west is that going west is like chasing the sun. She commented on that a lot and every evening of driving we would see the sun going down and ending that day’s chase.

Enough about the direction, where did we go? We drove from our home to Arizona to visit the Grand Canyon for several days. To get there and back we stopped, visited, and enjoyed sights along the way.

Highlights:

• Family time (never overrated)
• Traveling with a friend for a while. Watching the girls relate with Mr. Pat was amazing.
• Having a daily view of the Grand Canyon for a week.
• Having all of our hikers return no-worse-for-wear out of the canyon.
• Seeing quite a variety of wild animals.
• Fun dinner at the Big Texan.
• Sitting in four states at the same time.
• Walking where ancient peoples once lived.
• Watching little people explore nature.
• Eating Mexican food and lovely sopapillas
• Playing among huge sand dunes
• Walking down the memory lane of childhood vacations for both Robby and Rachelle

When we drive to Miami we usually take the route through Georgia. It is the shortest of our options. This time I just couldn’t get excited about drive and decided to take the longer and more scenic route through North & South Carolina. We typically just drive and only stop for gas and food. This time we took it slow and made several stops including an extra hotel stay both going and coming.

On our way south we stopped in North Carolina at Mama’s favorite gift store, Day in a Country. The girls were thrilled to wander the store with all the pretty things. They got their own umbrella which we needed when we left the store. That was not planned, it just worked out to their delight.

Emily loves to stay at hotels. If you ask her she will tell you all about the hotel she is going to own when she grows up. She decided the name of the hotel will have the number 4 in it because that is her favorite number. Both girls were delighted to stop a little early and get some swim time in the pool at the hotel.

*A bit fuzzy, but Emily was proud of her bed all made up at the hotel

Our second day of driving was very long because of rain storms. We had wanted to stop and see something that day too, but outside of the Florida Welcome Center’s orange juice it was just a driving day.

On the way home the original plan was to drive home thru Georgia, but again the usual plan was uninspiring. Mama asked the girls if they wanted to drive straight home and see Daddy or go a different way and stay at a hotel. They jumped in the air and yelled “hotel”, poor Daddy.

The stops on the way home were a trip thru IKEA in Orlando, a drive down memory lane for Mama as we toured downtown Jacksonville, and a stop in St. Mary’s, Georgia. We had hoped to tour a old home in St. Mary’s, but it was closed by the time we got there. Instead we went to the river front and had dinner, played at a playground, and watched some boys fish for crabs off the pier. The boys were very kind to tell us all about what they were doing.

The other highlights were one more hotel stay, a scenic drive over highways of North Carolina while the girls napped, and a trip to a Farmer’s Market in Ashville. Overall our new route was a more interesting one, but took longer. We will see next time which route our mood leads us to.

One of our trip goals was to have the girls swim a lot. We succeeded! The girls were a lot of fun to be with in the water.

Emily has a good deal of fear still, but would find a comfort level in the pool and play her heart out. Sometimes she would swim with an innertube, a noodle, or a kickboard. She found her freedom in swimming in the pool by herself and jumping in with the innertube. When we were at Jolie’s she used a noodle to keep up with Natalie. We challenged Emily to jump into the pool where she could stand. Once she figured out it would be ok, she loved bouncing around the shallow section after jumping in herself. She will be a great swimmer when she figures out how to master her fear.

Julia has very little fear in the water. She has two favorite games to play at the pool. One is an elevator game. I will hold her out of the water and say “second floor”, then lower her into the water and say “first floor”, then let go and give her control. When I say “basement” she bobs herself into the water. Emily plays this game too. She plays it from the side of the pool and does it all by herself. Watching Emily play this game is what got Julia to enjoy bobbing her face into the water. 

Julia’s other favorite game is to jump into the pool. She will jump in holding my hands. While at Grandma and Grandpa’s we started pushing her toward the stairs to come out and she enjoyed putting her face into the water. By the time we left Jolie’s we would give her a push toward the stairs and she would float face down all the way to the steps. She could go three body lengths with gentle kicks.

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.

We visited the beach for some fun in the sun. It is amazing how entertaining sand and water can be. The weather was beautiful and we had a great breeze. The girls had a blast. Julia knew she was tired and almost took a nap under the palm trees. We tried to build a sand castle, but filling a hole with water was much more interesting. Another favorite of the girls was pretending we were on a pirate ship.

Baby Elizabeth enjoying the sun and attention. What a happy face!

Baby Mikayla not loving the camera so much, but enjoyed her beach time.