Aquarium

Mom and I got up pretty early again today. I worked on some projects while she had a cup of coffee and got caught up on some things. She and I each had several breakfasts this morning :) Cereal bar, english muffin, even fudge! Mom says that on vacation that's ok. When I woke up, I told mom "TGIF!" But then I realized that when you're on vacation and have to go home on Sunday, maybe Friday isn't as exciting as when you're home and get to spend the weekend at home instead of at work / school :(

We spent the morning on the beach. The tide had created it's very own water pipe and "swimming pool," so I had a ton of fun playing in that, rather than splashing in the ocean (which was significantly more choppy today). The wind was blowing pretty hard, so it didn't feel too terribly hot at least. Daddy took the cart down for us, but ran down the road to take some pictures before he joined us. Before he got back, I had a parade for mommy. I had another for daddy when he got back. As I was running around in the little water pipe, I noticed that there were some little fishies and tried to catch some with my bucket. The little guys were so fast there was no way I could catch them! But daddy came over to help me and was able to catch one :) There was only a little water in the bucket, so I ran back and forth from the ocean edge to the bucket to fill it up with more water so the fish could breathe.

I was pretty sad when it was time to let him go, but dad said maybe we could try to catch one more if we let this one go and had an empty bucket to use. I agreed and we gently dumped the first one out. It didn't take long before daddy was able to catch another one - I was pretty happy about that!



Trying to catch a fish (and see what mom means about me looking like the Coppertone kid??? I swear she has me completely covered in SPF 50 several times a day!!!)



When we went in for lunch, I took a real quick shower while mom got lunch ready. I had some leftover pizza and mom and dad had a sandwich so we could go out for an early dinner. After lunch, we headed over to the aquarium.

I loved climbing on the statues this year.



We watched the divers in the U-352 exhibit again. After the show, the divers swam in the front of the tank to wave hi to all of the kids. Instead of waving, I gave the divers the "OK" sign. Two out of three of them gave it back to me! I was SO excited! We didn't think they'd be able to see me through the thick glass.



After the diving show, we went back and watched the River Otters for a while. They are mom's absolute favorite (and I think mine too). They were so playful and were swimming so fast!



Crabby Sydney!



I got to pet a few butterfly rays and a stingray! I even got to touch a horseshoe crab. You have to be very gentle with them, though, because if their tail breaks, they die within a week!

There was a Hammerhead Shark in the Queen Anne's Revenge exhibit. It was pretty small, but a shark nonetheless.



Scuba diver Sydney!



Eel



Lionfish! Daddy saw some of these while diving, but was warned to not go near them. Apparently, they are not indigenous to the area and have somehow been brought in. Most fish will swim away if a diver gets near them, but not the Lionfish. They stand still and put their fins out. There are sharp spiny things on the end that contain toxins. What daddy was told was that if a hyperdermic needle can puncture something (a wetsuit, a glove, skin, etc.), the lionfish spike can also puncture it, so be careful!



Scorpion fish!



We left the aquarium and headed back to the condo briefly before heading to Amos Mosquitoes for dinner. They get *really* busy, so you kind of have to get there right when they open at 5.

We saw a pretty butterfly on the way back to the car (and I was upset I couldn't pick the flowers because they were so pretty).



There was also this incredible sand sculpture of turtles. The entire thing is made only of sand and water!



We went to Amos Mosquitoes for dinner and were seated right away. It really does pay to get there right when they open. I didn't like my dinner very much, but ended up eating a lot of daddy's fish, so that was ok! Mom had scallops that were baked in "cheesy goodness." Since I ended up eating a decent dinner, I got to have S'mores for dessert :) How special is that to have S'mores at a restaurant?





Our view from dinner was pretty funny. Doesn't that huge yacht look out of place? Seriously, it's as tall as the condo buildings. And if you have a boat that big, do you really need a condo???



Because we ate such an early dinner, it was pretty early when we got back to the condo. Mom let me put on my bathing suit and go to the pool for a bit! Because I've been swimming so well and can stand in the shallow end, she didn't put on her suit and sat on the bench beside the pool. We didn't stay too long - it wasn't as warm as during the day and it wasn't as much fun with no one else to play with :( But I did practice some breast stroke!



I'm kind of sad that tomorrow is our last full day here, but it's been a really fun filled week and the weather has been perfect, so I have absolutely nothing to complain about!

Pirates!

We decided to do something a little different today...we got up and drove out to Cape Lookout instead of going down to the beach. There's an awesome lighthouse there and we wanted to search for some special seashells. We went there two years ago, but it was pouring rain and we didn't get to see much. We forgot to take a bucket with us to collect shells today, but thankfully we passed a Dollar Store on the way, so stopped and picked one up. It was a pretty long drive to get there, then we had to take a ferry boat from where we parked our car out to the island where the lighthouse was. The boat there was a big ferry boat and there were lots of people on it. The boat ride was pretty awesome - it was a smooth ride, but apparently the water was really shallow, so they had to pile as much weight in the front of the boat as possible. Everyone had to pile their coolers, fishing gear, and bags in the front and they made as many adults sit in the front as possible (so the engine wouldn't hit when we got to the shallow part). Our captain did a great job and we didn't even hit the bottom :)

Along the way, we got to see the Wild Horses of Shackleford Banks. Daddy had told me about the horses, so I was excited to see them. He got some pictures on his camera, so maybe we'll be able to post some in a little while. The horses are pretty cool - they live entirely on the island which is about 9 miles long and are fully self sufficient. Humans do test the horses for diseases and remove the diseased ones from the population, but otherwise there is no interaction with people and the horses survive on their own. The boat even slowed down so we could get a closer look.

When we got to the island with the lighthouse, the boat docked and we were able to get off. We walked up the boardwalk and stopped for a bathroom break and to put some sunscreen on. Then we walked over to the ocean side of the island which is covered in beautiful shells and bright blue water. It was extremely hot today, so we didn't walk *too* far, but I did get a ton of beautiful shells - a lot were even purple, mom's favorite color! Even though I didn't have my bathing suit on, mom and dad let me walk along the edge of the water and get my feet wet. My shoes and skirt both ended up a little wet, but it was so warm out it didn't take too long to dry. Mom got a little too hot after a while, so she went to sit down on a bench while daddy and I played in the sand and water.

After we met back up with mom, we walked over to the lighthouse before heading back to the ferry boat. We stopped to read all of the educational signs along the way and I was full of questions for mom and dad. The lighthouse that's there isn't even the original lighthouse! The first one they built was too short and wasn't tall enough for ships to see, so they ended up taking it down and building the one that's standing now. We also got to view the lighthouse keeper's house, which is now a museum. The park ranger even let me choose a special shell from his private collection! I picked a nice big beautiful shell - we'll have to take a picture tomorrow :)



We made it back to the ferry boat pretty early, but they had room on an earlier boat for us, so we got on and headed back to the car. We were all pretty hot and hungry by that time. I told mom and dad I wasn't tired, but what do you think?



We drove to Beaufort for the afternoon and stopped for lunch once we got there. We ate at the Front Street Grill, which had phenomenal food! We sat inside, but got to see lots of boats driving by. We saw all sorts of boats - ferries, sail boats, fishing boats, big yachts, and even a PIRATE SHIP! I think that was my favorite. Mom and dad said that maybe some year we can take a cruise on one of those boats.

After lunch, we walked through the town of Beaufort. Not far from the restaurant, we saw a new store - it was FULL of special olive oils and balsamic vinegars. Yum! We went in and sampled a lot of them. Daddy's favorite was the Blackberry Ginger vinegar and mommy liked the Cranberry Pear vinegar. There were too many good ones to choose from that we ended up buying a wide variety :) Guess we'll have lots of salad dressings and marinades in our future!

Next we stopped at the Maritime Museum. They had a treasure map for me to follow, so I had fun doing that. It had pictures of things that could be found throughout the museum and I had to circle them as I found them. I did a great job of reading what I needed to find and then looking around until I found it. One of the things was the ships wheel!



This museum also has all of the artifacts that have been recovered from Blackbeard's ship, Queen Anne's Revenge. They even have a replica of the shipwreck and videos describing the process of recovering the artifacts.

Here's me and Blackbeard :)



And another pirate...



Because we had talked so much about pirates, we decided to stop at the gift shop on the way out to see if we could find a book about Pirates. We found a really neat one that talks about the history of pirates, the ships, the routes they took, and their flags! We got to read some of it tonight and I'm excited to read more tomorrow!

We walked around the town a little more and ducked into a few shops. We all got new beach shoes and mom got a hat (she's starting to get a little sunburned, despite the sunscreen...) and I got a shirt that says "Girls can be pirates too." Then my favorite part of Beaufort...we got to stop for FUDGE on the way out! Mom and dad said that since I had behaved SO well the last two days that we could stop for a treat. We each picked out a flavor: Chocolate Peanut Butter for me, Peanut Butter for daddy, and Maple Walnut for mommy. After the fudge shop, we stopped at our favorite little wine bar. Daddy had a Dark and Stormy, mommy had a rootbeer (she even let me try some), and I had a mango gelato. Fantastic way to end the trip to Beaufort!



Though we still weren't hungry (since we ate a late lunch), we decided to pick up a pizza from a place that was recommended by the dive shop. We figured we could heat it up later if we weren't hungry right away. On the way out, we had to stop because the drawbridge was open! In the many times that we've been there, we've never had to stop for the bridge, but it was pretty cool to see it open and see the big boats pass by.

While we were stopped for the bridge, we talked some more about pirates. Mom and dad said I didn't have to worry about pirates around here anymore. Daddy told me that the Coast Guard keeps our coast safe (we've also been talking a lot about the Coast Guard because their helicopters fly over the beach almost daily). My response to that: "Daddy, if a pirate ship tries to come close to the coast, the Coast Guard will go to them and say Nuh Uh!" They laughed, but it was pretty cute.

We picked up the pizza and surprisingly all ate a pretty decent dinner when we got back to the condo. The folks at the dive shop who recommended the pizza place (Luigi's) were right and it was excellent pizza. After dinner, daddy gave me two choices:
1. I could have a small piece of fudge and finish Ivy and Bean, or
2. I could go down to the pool for a few minutes.

I thought long and hard about it, but decided I wanted the fudge (are you surprised???)It was delicious and I'm glad we were able to finish the book. After I got my jammies on and got my teeth brushed, daddy had a surprise for me. He showed me part of one of his dive videos where I got to see him diving (his dive buddy was holding his camera) and I saw daddy pick up a starfish! And guess what he brought back for me...



We're leaving it outside tonight to air out a little (it was pretty stinky). I can't wait to go look at it again in the morning :) After that, mom even read a few chapters of the Pirate book to me before I climbed into bed. I decided to sleep in the big bed again tonight - last night was MUCH better. I only woke up twice, but at least slept until 8, which mom said felt like the middle of the day to her!

We have a few days left - can't wait to see what the next few days have in store! The weather is supposed to be beautiful - looks like we picked a really good week to be here :) We're even missing the terrible heatwave at home (it's hot here too, but at least there is lots of water to cool down in). Till tomorrow...

All day beach day :)

Today started out rough again (ok, well it really started last night or in the wee hours of this morning). I could not sleep last night, and as a consequence, neither did mom. I was up every half hour either to go to the bathroom, because I was too hot, because there was something wrong with my ladybug pillow, or because I fell out of bed (which I've only done one other time in the 3+ years I've been sleeping in a bed). I got up for the day at 6:30 and mom and I were both pretty tired and crabby :(

At least she had made the french toast last night, so we got to eat a yummy breakfast! While it was cooking, I worked on writing some words and even worked on the proper punctuation. Check it out - I did this without mom's help. I was writing with markers, so the writing is a little big, but I think you can tell what it is.



The french toast was yummy - I had mine with syrup and fresh berries!!!! When daddy got up, he and I got ready and went to the beach while mommy took a nap (she wasn't in a good mood, so I was glad to let her nap...). I got to play in the ocean a lot and daddy even taught me some signals that he uses in diving so we could communicate with each other when it was hard to hear each other over the waves. It was pretty cool and I had a ton of fun!

Mom came down for a little while before lunch and after her nap, but she wasn't there too long before we went back in to the condo for lunch. I ate a pretty good lunch and we got to go right back to the beach! That was pretty cool - we usually go to the pool after lunch because it gets so hot on the beach, but it was rather overcast today, so it wasn't too bad and the sand didn't burn our feet. After lunch, I played some more, built some more sand castles, and swam a lot.

I loved digging holes and sitting in them for some reason.



Daddy helped me build a water pipe and a castle. When the waves came in far enough, the pipe filled up with water and filled the water hold at the other end! I told mom and dad that I wanted to dig the water hole and make the pipe so that the ladies and gentlemen could let the water come through so it got clean and they could send it to the homes of all the people. They have no idea where I got that from, but thought it was a pretty good idea!





I also served mom and dad from my sand menu. I offered them lots of yummy food - I gave daddy a root beer and a lobster roll. We had run out of lobsters, so daddy had to wait for more to come in before I could give him his order. I made mom a rhubarb pie and she said it was delicious.

I got to swim a lot in the ocean today. My confidence is pretty high in the water and I'm able to go out a lot farther now without holding on to mom or dad (they're right there with me, don't worry). Mom tried to get some pictures of me farther out, but a wave knocked me down and I got yucky salt water in my mouth. That didn't taste too good, so I ran back to our chairs to get a sip of water. Swimming near the beach wasn't too bad, though :)



After a while, we decided to head up to the pool so we could swim a little before dinner. Mom and I got rinsed off and got in the pool while daddy put away the beach stuff and got my pool toys.

I love being able to stand in the entire shallow end!



Today, I practiced my flips, handstands, and diving for my rings. It's hard to get down to the bottom of the pool, but I'm getting better!



We went back to the condo, got changed, and headed out to dinner.

Love the view from the balcony!



Daddy let me sit on the railing (don't worry, he's holding on...).



We went to one of our favorite restaurants, McCurdy's. They have an awesome outdoor deck and live music on Wednesdays. And they have cornhole boards to play with while you wait for a table!







I ended up eating a halfway decent dinner (though it took me FOREVER), so mom and dad let me order a dessert - I got a Key Lime trifle and shared with mom and dad - it was delicious! Funny how I never have trouble finishing a dessert even when my tummy is too full to eat another single bite of my dinner...

I was SO tired when we got home that I didn't even want to brush my teeth (that's unusual for me). I got my jammies on, climbed into bed, and fell right asleep. Hopefully tonight is not a repeat of last night - mom let me move to the room with the double bed instead of the twin beds (which I had originally picked out). I think I'm used to a bigger bed and had trouble getting comfy! Anyway, fingers crossed that tonight is a little more restful for all of us!

Flips!

Today started out on a bit of a rough note, but it got better as the day went on. Daddy went diving again today, so he once again left before we got up. I woke up a little later this morning, it was almost 7:30! We ate breakfast inside this morning because it was already quite humid. 

Mom checked her email as we were about to get our sunscreen on and ended up discovering that there was some fraudulent activity on their bank account. Boo - she was pretty mad and ended up having to call the bank before we could go out. It took a long time, but she tells me it'll all be sorted out. 

We finally got moving around 10 and headed down to the beach. By that time, it was already *really* hot out and the sand was pretty hot while we dragged our stuff down. We even discovered that my sandcastle from yesterday was still there today! I don't think that's ever happened before. Usually the tide comes in and knocks it down or the wind (or someone) knocks it down. Since it was so hot, mom and I got in the water pretty early. Then we went for a walk to hunt for shells. I started out looking for tiny, pretty shells (that weren't broken) and ended up searching for big ones. We found a bunch that were spirals and some that looked like snail shells! 

The water was much calmer today and I once again enjoyed running back and forth between our chairs and the water to fill my bucket.

We went back in the water again before we went in for lunch. I ate a really slow lunch and didn't eat a whole lot, so lunch time took a while today, which ate into our afternoon pool time. While we were eating lunch, I think mom and I saw a dolphin through the windows. We saw the fin go in and out of the water several times before it disappeared. It was pretty awesome! 

We didn't get to the pool until about 3, but we were the only people there. It was really nice and a pleasant change from having a bunch of other screaming kids with parents not paying attention to them! I even got to play with my favorite squirty toy without fear of accidentally hitting someone else in the pool.

Since it was so quiet, I even got to float and relax.

Daddy got back not long after we got to the pool. He said he had a good day of diving and even got to see some dolphins and some sharks! Yikes!!!!! My newest trick of the day (and my FAVORITE part of today)??? I learned how to do a flip in the water! My confidence this year is a huge improvement over last year. 

I gave daddy a high five for doing so many good flips.

Daddy got to do two dives today and said the water was calm as can be and visibility was much better than yesterday. He had seen one of the wrecks before, but it looked really different this time - apparently when Hurricane Irene came through, it picked the shipwreck up off of the bottom of the ocean and moved it 200 feet and sat it back down tilted over. So even though he had seen the wreck before, it looked different this time. 

Before daddy's first dive, a pod of dolphins was swimming around the dive boat! How cool is that??? Since daddy had his camera, he was able to get some video - check it out - there are so many of them!

We had an uneventful evening - we saw a Cobra helicopter fly by and daddy read some more Ivy and Bean after dinner. Only two chapters left till we're done with the book! I was sad to have to wait until tomorrow to finish it, but I was super tired and went to bed without much of a fuss. More tomorrow!

Beach Day!

Today was an awesome day too! Daddy went diving today, so he had to leave long before mom and I woke up. I slept reasonably well last night and woke up around 7 this morning. I even made my bed before I got up to go get mom. She was already up and was sitting reading her book when I came down to the kitchen. We decided to have breakfast on the balcony - it was a beautiful morning, wasn't too sunny on the balcony, and wasn't too hot yet! Mom was going to make a french toast casserole yesterday, but we didn't have any saran wrap to keep it in the fridge, so she had to wait. That's the one problem with renting a condo - cooking in someone else's kitchen is hard sometimes! It was ok, though, we had English Muffins with peanut butter instead. Mom enjoyed her cup of (decaf) coffee and we sat and watched the waves. There was no one on the beach yet - I told mom that no one else was even up yet!



After breakfast, we got our sunscreen on and loaded up to go to the beach for the morning. Mom realized that her sunglasses were in the car, which unfortunately, daddy had at the dive shop :( The beach on a bright sunny day with no sunglasses (and no hat) was a bit hard on the eyes! Luckily, our condo has a garage, so we can keep all the sandy beach toys in there rather than lugging them upstairs. We loaded up the beach cart with my toys, beach chairs, some water, snacks, books, and some towels. The beach was still pretty empty when we got there, so we set up our chairs and just relaxed for a while. I made some sand castles while mom tried to read some more. It was hard for her to read while I was so excited about showing her all of the cool things I was seeing. That's ok - she helped me with my castles for a while and we tried to build a moat, but the water kept just sinking into the sand. I'd dig a bigger hole and get more water, but the water would just soak in again. It was still fun to run back and forth to the waters edge and fill up my bucket. I saw a lot of crab holes and mom even saw a crab walk out of one of them!



Before we went in for lunch, mom took me out into the water. The waves were pretty big, but I had a lot of fun jumping over them. I got knocked over a few times, but I hopped right back up again. We took our stuff in when it was lunch time - the sand was HOT by the time we went in! Mom and I had lunch (and I ate a good lunch today!) then got more sunscreen on and headed out to the pool. We grabbed my pool toys and walked over. The pools here are pretty cool - there's a shallow one with seats and tables, a regular pool, and a hot tub (which wasn't very hot at all).

Turns out that the pool here is PERFECT for me. The shallow end of the regular pool only goes up to 3.5 feet, so I can stand in the ENTIRE shallow end! I've been talking for days about wanting to swim in the big pool by myself, but mom and dad said they'd have to be comfortable with my swimming before they'd let me do that. Mom got in with me first and we practiced swimming and diving for my rings. I did a great job and was pretty confident. Mom thought I did a great job too - check it out!



We were there for a few hours, then daddy got back from diving and joined us at the pool. He got in and swam with me while mom went back to make dinner. Daddy said he had a good day diving, but the water was pretty choppy and visibility wasn't too great. He got to dive the same wreck twice because the visibility was so poor. But at least he got two decent dives in!

After dinner, I even got a popsicle (that made a mess EVERYWHERE). Needless to say, I got straight into the tub from there. The tub here even has jets, so I got to experience a jacuzzi tub for the first time. Mom scrubbed my hair for me (the chlorine makes my hair turn green!) and I got nice and squeaky clean and lathered up with lotion after my bath. Mom says I already look like the Coppertone kid, despite having Water Resistant SPF 50 put on me several times today! After bath, mom painted my toe nails with the new nail polish I picked out - it's NEON yellow and perfect for the beach :)

Then daddy read me several chapters of my new book, Ivy and Bean. When we were done, I cast a spell on daddy :)



Then I cast a spell on my baby brother to make him powerful :)



And with that, I brushed my teeth, climbed into bed, and said good night. G'night all! More tomorrow!

Beach Bound!

Today marks day one of our summer vacation. I was so excited last night that I could barely fall asleep. But mom and dad told me I had to if we were going to go to the beach. A big Thank You to Grandma and Grandpa for watching kitty for us! I know she's being well cared for and I'm so thankful she can spend some time there instead of in a kennel!

We packed everything yesterday, but waited till this morning to load the car. I was excited and woke up early and we got things packed earlier than we thought, so we headed out almost an hour early. The car was jam packed, even though mom's car is pretty big. Who knows what we're going to do next year when we'll have two carseats!!! Guess we'll either have to get a roof rack or pack lighter. Three guesses which of those it will be...

I was all comfy in my carseat and ready to go!



We got to the beach early and our condo wasn't ready yet, so we stopped for some lunch on the water. It was really pleasant outside and I loved watching the boats drive by. Too bad I didn't eat a very good lunch and didn't get to have any dessert :( I think I learned my lesson!



The realty company called while we were at the restaurant to say our condo was ready, so we went and picked up the keys and checked it out. The dining room is AWESOME and has a ton of windows overlooking the ocean and even some skylights - it'll be really nice to eat breakfast in there tomorrow.



I had to try on my sunglasses and do a little dance...



Then we checked out the balcony. Plenty of room for us all to hang out there and enjoy the view of the sand and waves.







Mom even let me try to take a picture with her phone. I don't think I did a bad job - what do you think???



After we got everything loaded in, mom ran to the grocery store while dad and I went and played on the beach. I think mom drew the short straw on that deal, what do you think? My clothes got wet while we were dipping our feet in the ocean, so I was getting dry clothes on when mom got back. We put the groceries away and headed over to the dive shop so daddy could drop off his gear and get ready for his first day of diving tomorrow. I was excited to see the Neptune statue again.



I was a little "gun shy" of the gun that was recovered from the U-352, but mom thought this was cute anyway.



This is daddy's dive boat - you can see him on the right hand side getting all of his gear set up.



The woman who worked in the dive shop came out and asked me if I wanted a tour of the boat! I was a little shy, but said that as long as mom went with me, I'd love to take a tour. That was the first time I'd ever been on such a big boat! I got to see where the divers store all their gear, the "Salon" where they sit and store all of their stuff that they want to stay dry, and I even got to see where the Captain sits to drive the boat! She even let me sit in the Captain's chair!!!!! How amazing is that???



When I got down, she showed me the Captain's quarters where he sometimes goes to sleep if he needs a nap. There were two small bunk beds down there and it was pretty cool to see.

When daddy was done, we went to dinner at a place right next to the dive shop. We didn't sit outside because it was getting late (and therefore almost dark), but we saw a TON of seagulls swoop down after some people got up and left their table. I told dad it was a "Flock of Seagulls" and he asked if they had long hair...I didn't get it, but mom laughed...

I'm excited for our day on the beach and at the pool tomorrow!!!