We are just home from our marathon family vacation out West. We did lots of great things and had great moments. One of these moments had to do with rainbows. Emily has been a fan of rainbows for a while – she loves the song ‘Over the Rainbow’ and has two rainbow nightgowns. While on our trip she found out that she can find rainbows in the sky. We found a double rainbow that reflected to the ground on both sides as we drove in Utah and another one in the Grand Canyon during a rainstorm. Both of these rainbows caused a lot of discussion about them. She announced to every person along the Grand Canyon rim that there was a rainbow.

There seems to be a lasting effect of this discovery. One is that she found a faint rainbow as we drove home. Another is that she also has started arranging colored things. The alphabet letters on the fridge were arranged in like colors and then arched in a rainbow shape. She also arranged her crayons in similar colors and all lined up. She put the yellow together next to the orange and so on. It is so much fun to see Emily grasp concepts and then apply them in her play.

While in Miami, we went to watch the sun go down over Miami from Biscayne Bay. We played in the sand and Emily got in the water for a few minutes. Emily’s legs were sensitive to the saltwater that evening so she wasn’t interested in staying for long. But after a quick wash in the restroom she was ready to explore the beach.

This beach didn’t have tons of great sea shells, but it did have enough that Emily had success in finding them herself. We gave her a cup to put them in as she collected them. She enjoyed her treasures. Luckily for us, she didn’t want to keep all of them. She allowed her collection to be cut down to three to take with us.

Julia enjoyed her second trip to the beach. Her first trip a couple of months ago was mostly spent wrapped up in a blanket because of a cool breeze. Summer doesn’t have very many cool breezes to worry about. She loved just sitting on the blanket trying to grab the sand. As soon as she had sand in her hands she would try to eat it. She didn’t understand why I didn’t like that game.

It’s great to have Grandparents who live at cool destinations like by the beach. Thanks for taking us out to see the ocean!

Julia is a huge mama’s girl. Her mom is very thankful that during this trip Julia was happy to spend more time than usual away from her mom. Grandma got lots of Julia time!

Grandma took Emily down to get her legs wet. The bay side beach got deep pretty quick for someone who is only three feet tall. Emily enjoyed just walking down the bike/walking path that followed the beach. I think she would have kept going if I hadn’t made her turn and come back. Perhaps she really enjoyed the absolute freedom I was giving her – we walked where she wanted to and at her pace.

I was privileged to introduce Emily to her first ice cream truck while we were out at the beach. What a cool concept for a kid – big truck that plays music and also gives out ice cream! I got a chocolate soft serve cone for us to share. I loved the mustache and beard that was left after the cone was gone. Classic!

While in Miami, Grandma took the girls and I to the Miami Seaquarium. Despite the hot day we enjoyed looking at the fish and mammals exhibits.

Each girl had sunscreen and hats to protect them from the sun, but nothing but the water misters could do anything about the heat. We let Emily play in every water mister that we walked by.

Julia took a ride for most of the day under her sunshade.

We watched several animal shows and feedings. The most fun was the whale and dolphin show. The show actually kept Emily’s attention more than I expected. We were sitting in the dry seats although it appears that we were plenty wet from the heat and misters.

The jumping was amazing, but it was also fun to watch the large white bird that hung out by the coolers of fish that the trainers were feeding the animals for rewards. Every once in a while the bird would snag himself a fish from the open cooler.

The Seaquarium has a beautiful view of downtown Miami.

The manatees were a lot of fun to watch swim and come up for oxygen. They had two manatees that were mated and had several little ones, but because of a ban on breeding of manatees Romeo and Juliet have been permanently separated. While this is sad story it prepared Juliet to foster orphaned manatees that are brought to the Seaquarium. She has now raised several new little ones.

The girls seem to have an endless supply of hats to shade them from the sun.

Sometimes the best toys are common and inexpensive. Julia will play with any drink bottle that I give her. This one kept her busy during the wait for another show to start.

We are enjoying a simple vacation to Miami with a little spoiling. Daddy didn’t get to come on the trip, so the girls are getting to enjoy all of the fun. Julia was just introduced to pool and loved it. It was fun to watch a little one who has no fears of the world when in safe arms.

Emily has been really cautious in the water. She wants to be held by an adult while she is in the water, even though she was wearing the floaties. Yesterday she allowed Uncle Doug to jump into the water while holding her. She loved the ‘safe’ fun. Today when we went out we introduced the circle float, Emily found that floating on her own was actually fun. She would kick her feet to move around the pool and even ventured into the deep end. She did so well. I was pleased that she was enjoying her freedom and the pool.

Tomorrow will bring little cousins. It will be busy and fun. Hopefully Julia will enjoy the extra arms to hold her and Emily will want to imitate the boldness of the big kids in the water.

Emily traveled really well on our trip. She was happy playing with her toys and books in the car. She was completely potty trained for the ride there and back. She took at least one nap and fell asleep after the sun went down each way. The only car issues we had with her was her desire to steal blankets and toys from Julia. Luckily at this point Julia doesn’t seem to care. Emily asked to hear her favorite song, Banana Phone (thanks Elena and Ashley for the introduction), a bizillion times. She didn’t get to hear it every time she asked for it, but we did indulge her a lot if she was willing to say please. I think the best part of the trip for Emily was that everytime she arrived someplace there was new to her toys to play with, fun people to play with, and some cousins to play with.

Julia was enjoying a swing while Grandma secured her to it, although you couldn’t tell it from the look on her face. She was swinging in a tandem swing with Emily, which Emily thought was pretty cool.

Julia has a pretty serious face most of the time. Sometimes she sports a super-serious look, if she is considering something. Then she will burst into a smile and a little laugh. Many of her smiles are given to Emily and the best time to see one is when you go to save her from her bed when she wakes up.