Fun Last Day!

We had a very busy day today! We all got to sleep in a little - I didn't even wake up until 8:30! Mom woke up before me again and was confused that I hadn't gotten up yet, but she was easily able to roll over and go back to sleep. When I finally did get up, we had breakfast - I asked for pretzels and mom actually let me have them - she said we were on vacation, so it was ok. I picked out a pretty dress to wear and we packed up to go to the aquarium. It was supposed to rain, so we had planned on doing the aquarium just in case. Fridays at the aquarium are Fin Fridays, so there was a focus on animals with fins - like SHARKS! We got there just in time for the dive exhibit - they still have the replica of the U-352 (the wreck that daddy got to dive on Tuesday) and they have a bunch of sharks in the exhibit, including some sand tiger sharks, sand bar sharks, and nurse sharks. They were all pretty big and one even swam really fast right in front of us - it was pretty cool to watch how powerful it was.


This whole sculpture was made out of sand - how cool???




There were three divers in the water and one had a full mask on with a microphone cord which allowed him to talk to us, even though he was underwater. There was a man standing in front of the exhibit with a microphone who was taking questions from the audience and relaying them to the divers. I got to learn a lot about the sharks - did you know that they only eat two times a week??? That's crazy talk! I was kind of bummed - when the divers were ready to get out of the water, they were swimming by the glass and giving kids a diver handshake. I tried to give all three of them the OK sign, but I don't think any of them could see it well enough through the glass.



There was one fish who just hung out in the conning tower of the U-352. It was pretty funny.



After the dive show, we went back to the beginning of the aquarium and walked the whole way through. They have a new penguin exhibit this year and there were four penguins - they were all hatched in California and were recently moved to the aquarium here. Their names were Suki (the only girl penguin), Sly, South, and Oswald. It was hard to distinguish them from each other because they all had bands on their arms, but you couldn't see them too easily.



We left the penguin exhibit and saw the river otters sleeping. Those are mom's favorite part of the aquarium - they're really playful creatures, but these two must have been taking a nap, so we continued on. We took a detour to one of the outside exhibits and saw some crabs in the water and a few birds. On the way back in, we stopped to see a turtle statue and then found the stingray petting pool. They were swimming a little too deep this year for me to pet them and I almost (accidentally) put my face in the water trying to reach them - yuck!!! A butterfly ray swam by close to the top of the pool and I did get to pet that one :) Daddy pet a sting ray and had one back up away from him when he tried to pet it. We left there and went to see the hermit crabs and horseshoe crabs. They were fun to watch, but the horseshoe crabs were buried under the sand, so we couldn't see much more than the tops of their shells.

Giant Catfish!



We finished walking through the rest of the aquarium and saw lots of cool fish, including a scorpion fish, an eel, and tons of jellyfish. Speaking of which, I think I forgot to mention that daddy actually got stung by a jellyfish - TWICE! Once on his arm when he went for a swim in the ocean (a half mile, can you believe it???) and once on his lip while he was scuba diving. He said that REALLY hurt and he had a hard time not spitting out his regulator. When we got to the end of the aquarium, mom said she wanted to look in the gift shop, so daddy took me back to see if the River Otters were awake. One of them was, but the other was still sleeping. We met mom back by the exit and she surprised me with a stuffed river otter! She said she was going to get me a penguin, but the otters were too cute. I asked what his name was, but his tag didn't have one, so dad told me I got to pick a name. I decided to use one of the penguins names, but couldn't decide between Sly and Suki. After quite the identity crisis, I decided on Suki. So I now am the proud owner of Suki, the cute and cuddly River Otter :)

We left the aquarium and drove to the historic town of Beaufort. It was lunch time and we were all starving, so we stopped at a BBQ place. I only wanted mac and cheese and hush puppies (what else is new), but mom and dad said the BBQ was pretty yummy. We walked around the town a little and got to go in the ship building shop. No one was actually working, but I got to see a man working on a model ship. He showed me the ship and even let me hold the little life boat. It was pretty cool. I looked at all of the sample pieces of wood on the wall and picked out which ones I wanted to use to make a boat. I'm pretty sure that will never happen, but you never know.

There is a maritime history museum across the street, so we walked over there. I enjoyed it more this year than I did last year and got to see a bunch of cool stuff and asked a lot of questions. I particularly enjoyed the big wheel :) You couldn't use a flash in the museum, so pardon the fuzzy picture. On the way out, dad bought me a book about otters! I couldn't wait to read it - it's called Oopsie Otter!



We left there and wandered through the town along the water. There are some HUGE yachts docked there and there was a fishing tournament going on. We stopped in a few shops and mom bought me what she says are the cutest shoes ever! I'll have to ask her to take a picture of them :) On the way back to the car, we ended up stopping at a wine store - mom and dad had a glass of wine and I got a strawberry cheesecake gelato - it was delicious!



It was a quick drive back to the condo and I decided I wanted to fly my kite before we left for the week. So we grabbed the kite and headed down to the beach. It was SUPER windy and the sand blowing on my legs really hurt. Dad got the kite up pretty easily, but the string burned his finger as it flew up high - don't worry - he's ok now.





Daddy and I went for a swim while mom ran out to pick up a pizza for dinner. Dad got cold because the sun wasn't over the pool anymore, so he got out and sat on a chair right next to the pool. He was only a few feet away from me and I was sitting on the steps (still had no desire to actually go swimming). I told him "Dad, if mom were to come back right now, she would be FRIGHTENED that I'm in here by myself." Mom actually said that she would have been ok with that too :)

The pizza was yummy and daddy taught me a trick to fold the pizza in half so it's not so floppy. I thought that was pretty cool. I decided to read Oopsie Otter at bedtime instead of finishing Ralph - we only have one more chapter, but I think I'd like to finish it at home. Tomorrow we have to pack up and are heading home, but we get to stop and see my cousin Christine on the way!!! I'm so excited - I haven't seen her since I was 9 months old!

Definitely an awesome vacation. I had a really good time with mom and dad!!!

Low Key Day...

As I said yesterday, more of the same today - beach, lunch, nap, pool, dinner. Daddy got up with me this morning and got me breakfast and took me out to the beach so mom could sleep :) She met us down at the beach and I played in the water for a while. The wind really picked up yesterday, so the waves were a little stronger than they had been. I still got to find some shells and fill my bucket up with water. Yesterday when I got my shells, I gave them a nice cozy home in one of my buckets (i.e. I covered them up with sand). Daddy was careful to pack them in the cart so their nice cozy homes didn't get disturbed when we brought the cart up last night. 

I had mac and cheese (with the emphasis on the "mac") for lunch and mom and I took a quick nap (are you sensing a theme, here? What can I say, the sun takes a lot out of you!). We just took a short nap and set an alarm so we could go to the pool. Once again, I had absolutely no desire to swim. I just wanted to stand on the steps. Hopefully one of these days I'll change my mind and want to swim again. I got to play with Dominick again and we had fun tossing toys in the kiddie pool for the other kid to find. In the big pool, mom bounced me off of her feet and Dominick and I played a game where we held up a certain number of fingers under water and the other kid had to go underwater and tell the other how many fingers were up. I had a little trouble with that one, but we had fun. We left a little early because the restaurant we went to gets REALLY crowded if you don't get there right when it opens at 5. 

We got showered and I picked out a pretty dress to wear. We ended up getting there a little after 5, but didn't have to wait too long, thankfully. We had a nice table outside right by the water and there was even a sign that said "Please don't feed the Alligators!" I told mom I didn't think there were really any alligators there, though. When they brought the menu, I asked dad "Dad, what are my options?" He got a kick out of that. 

I ended up getting buttered noodles with parmesan and green beans. Daddy had Scalloped Scallops that looked delicious and mom had a great filet with cabernet onion jam and brie (yum). We shared a cheesy lobster dip for an appetizer, but I really just wanted the bread.  I even got to have my very first Shirley Temple! It was so delicious and I got to eat 2 cherries out of it. The best part of the meal, though, was that they had SMORES on the dessert menu! Daddy had cheesecake and I had smores. I was very careful to not get any on my dress, but my face and hands were another story. We had to go to the bathroom to wash my hands before we left. I ate two whole smores and they were absolutely delicious. We'll definitely be adding this restaurant to our annual rotation while we're here! We didn't take too many pictures today, but here are a few from dinner. 

Holding the buzzer asking a million times "When will it buzz???"

Messy Face!

Night all!

A Walk to the "Experiment"

We did more of the same today - beach, pool, hunting for shells, naps, dinner, you get the picture. Mom and I got up pretty early and read another chapter in my Ralph book before breakfast. We just read chapter 11 at bedtime and I think there's one or two more before we finish the book. I've really been enjoying listening to chapter books and trying to remember what happened in the previous chapter and predict what will happen next!

Dad took me to the beach this morning so mom could try to run. Her foot hurt as soon as she put on her running shoes (which are essentially brand new after buying new ones after her half marathon in February, but only running a few miles in them). She decided to try a different pair of shoes that she brought and didn't even make it a quarter of a mile before turning around. Back to the orthopedist (a different one for a second opinion, probably). She met dad and I down at the beach and daddy went for a run on the beach. It rained a little this morning, but never ended up being more than a sprinkle, so we didn't even have to go inside.

While daddy was running, mom and I went for a walk to look for more shells. We went in a different direction today and walked a half mile to a pier (aka the "Experiment")! That means we walked an entire mile and boy were my legs tired by the time we got back! But we had so much fun - I sang some songs, we held hands, we saw a BIG sand castle (like as big as our living room, big), and saw a few people fishing. At one point, I was singing the Wheels on the Bus and as I did the motion for the children on the bus go up and down, I jumped and ALL of my shells fell out of my bucket :( I got pretty sad, but mom said it was ok and helped me pick them all back up. We found some nice ones today, including one that looked like a snail shell and one that looked like a foot.

We also saw 5 different helicopters flying over the beach today! I waved at them and *maybe* they waved back. At least two of them were Blackhawks, but I'm not sure what the others were. I also saw a few people on kite boards which was fun to watch. 

After lunch, we all laid down and took a nice nap. I didn't argue with mom at all when she told me it was time to put my book down and go to sleep. I slept in mom's room again (so did mom because her white noise machine is in there), so daddy had to nap in my room - how silly is that?  We went to the pool after our nap and I met a new friend, Dominick. He just learned to dunk his head under water today, so he and I had fun challenging each other to go underwater. I got a new squirty toy for the pool and had fun trying to squirt dad while he swam away from me. I managed to get him a few times, though :) I didn't want to get off of the steps in the big pool today, but I did sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" to mom and dad IN SPANISH! They had no idea that I knew the whole song! Ms. Carmen would be proud :)


We got showered and went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner - it's right on the water, has a nice outdoor deck, and live music on Wednesday nights. Daddy got his usual fried seafood (shrimp and scallops), I got more fried shrimp (mom can't bear to have me order chicken fingers or mac and cheese when there's fresh seafood on the menu), and mom had some grilled fish with shrimp and scallops. Yum! I even got a piece of lemon blueberry cheesecake for dessert. 


I got to play Corn Hole while we were waiting for dinner tonight.





I was sleepy after dinner. I asked the musician to play "City of New Orleans" and he did! I think he was singing Wonderful Tonight here, and I was cuddling with dad.





More later!

Daddy's Dive Photos

Check these out! Dad bought a new video camera that can go underwater with him while he dives and he was able to take some screen shots.

On his second day of diving, he got to go back to the U Boat! He said this was the best day of diving he's ever had! I can understand why after seeing the video and looking at these pictures :)

Deck Gun Mount and Conning Tower



Conning Tower



Aft Deck Hatches



Bow Torpedo Tubes



On the second dive of the day, he got to see the SPAR, which was a wreck covered in sand tiger sharks! On the video, I could even see his hand pick up a shell from the bottom of the ocean - he brought the shell back to me, so it was really cool to be able to see it on the video.

FABULOUS Day!!!

What can I say? I learned my lesson yesterday (hopefully) that it pays to listen to mom and dad - makes for a much more enjoyable day for all of us! Daddy went diving again today, so was already gone when I woke up and got mom up. We had a quick breakfast, I played a little, and we got sunscreen on and brushed our hair - I asked mom for a messy bun today, lol. I didn't want my hair to tickle the back of my neck while I played. Then we headed down to the beach. It was about 9am and there was NO one else there except one other family with a little kid. Pretty relaxing! It wasn't as windy today, so mom put up the umbrella and I played in the shade while mom got to relax and read her book for a while.

While I was sitting there playing, a gust of wind came by and our umbrella went FLYING half way up the beach! Mom dropped her book and ran after it. Guess she should have used the anchor today! We ended up just putting it away and putting more sunscreen on.

After about a half hour, mom saw something wash up on the shore. The other family was standing at the waters edge and backed away from it. From afar, it looked like a turtle shell or something. We got up and walked toward it only to realize that it was a live stingray! Two older boys who were walking by stopped and helped it get back out in the water. After that, mom didn't exactly want to take me in the water! She's a little bit of a nervous nelly in the ocean in terms of running into fish and what not, so she really didn't want to take a chance of running into a stingray :) So instead of getting in the ocean today, we went for a long walk with my bucket and collected sea shells. Mom showed me how to look and see if they were broken or not and we only picked up the ones that weren't broken. We even found some sea glass that mom says Grammy will like, so I'll be sure to give those pieces to her the next time I see her.

When we got back, I dug some rivers with my shovel and filled my bucket with water to fill the rivers. The water instantly soaked into the sand, so it wasn't exactly what I had expected. Mom suggested that we move a little closer to the water so I could play with the wet sand and she could sit and watch me. I had fun filling my bucket with water and dumping it on mom's feet :)

I even wrote a bunch of things in the sand! Hard to see it, but I wrote: SYDNEY   MOMMY   DADDY and CAT (can't forget Razzy, can we???)



We figured we wouldn't be back down at the beach, so we loaded up the cart and headed back up toward the house. Mom said that since I had listened so well all morning we could stop at the pool before we came up for lunch. We got in the big pool since all of our pool toys were upstairs, so I sat on the steps and did bobs, but I didn't want to swim to mom. I listened extremely well when mom told me it was time to go. We had some leftovers (fried shrimp for me, mahi mahi for mom) and then I took a rest in mom's room. I told her I wasn't tired, but I think I was wrong. What do you think?



Mom read her book while I slept and we put on more sunscreen when I woke up before heading to the pool. There was only one little girl in the kiddie pool, so I played in there until daddy got home and met us. I pretended that my swim ring was a hula hoop. Didn't work quite so well, but mom and dad got a kick out of it anyway.



We all got in the big pool for a while before we came home to change clothes for dinner. Since I had been so good all day, we went to a restaurant for dinner - I had a delicious and HUGE slice of cheese pizza. We even got to walk next door to the ice cream parlor and I got a scoop of peanut butter cup ice cream afterwards. I ate every last drop - couldn't bear to leave any behind!

Mom and I walked to the grocery store from there (it's in the same complex) so we could get more sunscreen and some snack foods, and dad moved the car. We were going to stop at a book store on the way, but they closed early (boo). I took a bath when we got home and was STILL listening really well, so mom and dad let me stay up and watch a video of dad's dives from today. It was pretty phenomenal - he saw lots of sharks and barracudas! I kept telling him I didn't want to swim in the water with sharks, but he assured me that these kind (sand tiger sharks) were ok for divers to swim with. It was really awesome to see.

Mom read me chapter 9 of Ralph and the Motorcycle and now I'm talking myself to sleep in bed. The daily naps while we're here inevitably delay my bedtime, but I'd never make it through the days here without them. And I think mom enjoys napping while on vacation, too :) I don't blame her!

Mommy and Sydney Day

Daddy had his first day of diving today, so mom and I were on our own till dinner time. Dad left long before either mom or I got up, even though I got up pretty early. Mom says I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but I don't really know what that means. She says it means that I didn't have my listening ears on today, but I don't understand the connection with getting up on the wrong side of the bed...

Anyway, we ate breakfast and headed down to the beach to play. We were the second people to get down there, so we had our choice of spots. It was really windy today and as we were setting up our chairs, a group of seagulls almost attacked us! OK, that's probably an overstatement, but that's what it felt like - mom's worst nightmare - she grabbed my hand and we ran towards the water just to get away from them. Turns out someone had left bits of food in the sand behind us - I will NEVER do that myself!

About a half hour later, a group of kids pretty rudely put their chairs about 3 feet from where we were sitting and proceeded to kick a soccer ball rather haphazardly in our general direction. Mom was pretty annoyed and I couldn't understand why they didn't take one of the empty spots on the beach. There was no parent with them which was also pretty annoying. We made the most of it and I played with my sand toys and made a castle around mom's feet so she couldn't get out. We ate a snack of frozen grapes (perfect beach snack!) and headed out to the water. I was really brave and even intentionally let a wave knock me over. I laughed like crazy as we were walking back to our chairs as the sand bar dropped off and the water got really deep all of the sudden. I was able to swim for a bit before it started to get shallow again.

We went in for lunch when I had to go potty and left our chairs and cart at the beach so we could go back later. I wasn't listening very well to mom, so she asked me to lay down and take a rest after lunch. I ended up climbing in the bed in mom and dad's room, climbed under the covers and fell asleep. PERFECT!!! Mom decided she'd take a nap with me. It wasn't a very long one, but I think it's just what I needed.

After putting more sunscreen on, we headed down to the pool. This time I didn't really want to go in the big pool. There were a lot more people there and I just wanted to sit in the kiddie pool and play. There was a little boy, Brock, around my age and he and I were playing pretty well. A few other kids came in and were a bit rough, so I stayed away from them. Once again, there weren't any parents around, which really irritated mom. Especially in the kiddie pool. One kid, who looked to be about 5 or 6, had a life jacket on and was running around, trying to push his cousins heads under water and literally no adult said anything to him. I even told mom that I didn't want to play near him. I think it was more crowded today than yesterday because most rentals here are Sunday to Sunday, where ours this year happened to be Saturday to Saturday.

Dad got home around 4:30 and met us at the pool. I was still playing in the kiddie pool (with some other kids toys) and *really* didn't want to leave. We decided we weren't going to go back to the beach today, so mom went to get the cart and dad gave me my five minute warning. Needless to say, a total meltdown ensued when mom came back and it was time to go - she had to pick me up out of the pool and carry me back to the elevator where I proceeded to shriek, cry, and carry on until I got to time out at the house. Mom told me I had to calm down or we wouldn't be able to go to the pool tomorrow, so I immediately stopped.

We had dinner (sloppy joes and corn on the cob, yum!) and I even got a popsicle for dessert - not sure that I actually deserved it after my awful behavior, but mom gave me one anyway (I think mostly because she wanted one too).

I was doing some work and sending mom and email while she got dinner ready the other day.



This is the view from the deck off of mom and dad's room. There's another deck off of the living room that's screened in, so pictures from there don't work so well.



I brought a fun "learning" book with me to practice writing letters. I finished my bath a little early, so dad helped me with a few pages. I'm working hard!



Swimming in the pool by myself with the swim ring. So much fun!



See how windy it was out there - my chair didn't even stay up!



I didn't really need my swim ring in the kiddie pool, but I was having fun with it anyway.



It was definitely a fun day, but I need to work on listening a little better - hopefully tomorrow will be better! Daddy's going diving again and hopefully he'll get to see the U-Boat like he did 2 years ago!

Beach Day 1

I had a pretty rough day yesterday - I never quite found my listening ears and refused to nap or even really rest for that matter. Thankfully we were able to check in to our house early (check in is supposed to be 4, but we got in before that) and daddy and I tried to take a rest while mom went to the grocery store. We ate dinner at home and then went to the beach for a quick walk before bedtime. Mom and dad let me dip my feet in the water, but we didn't have bathing suits on, so we couldn't go in too far. Here, daddy and I were waiting for the water to come tickle our toes :) The water came up and got me all wet - my dress got wet and even daddy's shorts got wet. But that's ok!

All of the other places we've stayed here had beach chairs that we could use, but this condo doesn't. There are plenty of pool noodles and boogie boards, but no chairs. I actually treated mom to a bit of a sleep in this morning and didn't wake up till 7:40! She woke up before me and contemplated getting up and having a cup of coffee on the deck watching the ocean, but in the end decided that sleeping a bit more was the way to go :) I ate breakfast after I got up and mom and I went to go buy some chairs. We found some good ones for mom and dad, and mom bought me a new sand toy (like I need any more - we don't even have a bag big enough for the ones I already have!) We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get a chair for me - mom had seen a lady bug chair for kids that she thought I would enjoy, so we got that.

We came home and gathered up our stuff to head to the beach. Thankfully, mom and dad got a beach cart this year - it's too hard to carry chairs, towels, toys, snacks, etc. when only one of them is going down with me. It made the trip down to the beach a little easier. We set up our chairs and I played in the sand for a while. I made sandcastles, sifted the sand, and made some pretend chocolate pudding for mom in one of my buckets. When mom and dad got too hot, they took me in the water. It's really shallow, then gets a little too deep for me to stand, then gets shallow again, so mom held me until we got out to the sand bar. I had so much fun and wasn't afraid at all - I jumped over the waves as they came in and even got knocked down by a few. I told mom that my lips tasted salty and she told me it was because the ocean had salt water in it.

We came in for lunch (and for a potty break) and then went down to the pool. It's a pretty nice pool and there's even a kiddie pool that I can splash around in all by myself. I had a blast with my swim ring for a while, then I told daddy I wanted to swim by myself. Check it out! Dad hadn't seen my last round of swim lessons (without a parent in the water with me), so he was really pleasantly surprised!

I took a little break from the pool and played in the kiddie pool while mom and dad got some reading in (don't worry - they were right there beside me). Then mom and I got back in the big pool and splashed around for a bit before coming back up to the house so she could change into running clothes. We met dad down on the beach and mom went for a quick run, but didn't go too far - her foot was really hurting her and the tide was too high, so she had to run on a slope, which wasn't good. We played for a bit and dad and I made a HUGE sandcastle that eventually got knocked over by the water.

We came home, showered, and took daddy's dive stuff over to the dive shop. Apparently, the past two days have been absolutely perfect dive conditions here, so dad's hoping that trend continues tomorrow and Tuesday when he's diving. Mom and I sat and watched a slideshow of some really awesome photos from some recent dives - lots of shark sightings and pretty neon fish - kind of like Nemo!

Mom and I went out to the docks while dad got his stuff for the dives ready - nitrox tanks, BC, regulator, fins, mask, etc. There's an awesome statue of Neptune there, so I sang a few songs for him. We got to watch a bunch of big boats drive by and I waved hi to all of them. After dad got his stuff settled on the boat, we drove to dinner. A few years ago, mom and dad found an awesome restaurant at the recommendation of the dive shop. It's in an old house and they never would have found it if it hadn't been recommended, but the food is AWESOME! We had fried oysters (mom and dad told me they were oyster nuggets and I *loved* them!) for an appetizer. Dad had shrimp and grits, mom had mahi mahi (I picked it for her since she couldn't decide what she wanted), and I had fried shrimp. This is the first year that we've come to the beach that I could have shell fish (mom wouldn't let me have it until I turned 3) *and* dairy, so that makes it MUCH easier to eat in restaurants! The food was amazing as always and we ended up bringing half of it home (plus a piece of key lime pie which mom doesn't want to share with me, hmmpf).

We came home and got ready for bed - I was pretty exhausted after not having a nap today, but all in all, I had a fabulous day. I found my listening ears and that made the day go SO much better.

Mom and I are on our own until the afternoon both tomorrow and Tuesday while daddy dives, but I think we'll have fun at the beach and pool anyway :) I know I'm going to miss my friends and teachers, but a week of this is going to be really, really nice!!!

Vacation Bound!

We left bright and early this morning to start our vacation - I can't wait! We left pretty early in hopes of missing the horrible traffic that seems inevitable on 95. We still hit some of it, but it was significantly better than in years past. Daddy packed the car in the rain and they got me up just in time to go potty and climb in the car. They hoped I would go back to sleep, but no such luck. I played with mom's iPod for a bit and finally I fell asleep. Mom did too and we both woke up in North Carolina! We still have a way to go, but we're making good time.

 Thought you might appreciate a conversation I had with mom and dad (after talking about our neighbors dog, Butters):

 Me: Mom and dad, I know how to make butter.
Mom: Oh yeah, how?
Me: You put milk and some ingredients in a bowl and mix it up lots and lots and put it in the fridge.
Mom (laughing): How did you know that?
Me (very matter of factly): I'm three years old.

 More later from the beach!