Bracelets, Reading, and Shells in Panama City

If you've never heard of a Rainbow Loom, then you don't have a little girl. I discovered this just before we left so I asked Rick to pick one up so Millie could work on it on our trip. She loves crafty things. I think I underestimated how much she would love this, though. Millie drove us so crazy when we first left (4am) about wanting to start making them that I hooked my book light to the back of my chair so she could see to make one. For 10 hours straight on the way down, she made bracelets. The really odd thing is, for 10 hours straight, Reed watched her make bracelets. I had so many activities for them to work on and do and they didn't even open their boxes I packed for the car ride. We had to search out a craft store in Huntsville so she could buy more supplies and again in Panama City because she needed more colors.

Reed even got in on the fun and can make them too.

Every afternoon we'd come in and Reed would take a nap and Millie would work in her journal and read. Reed usually worked in his journal a little bit every day as well.

In the mornings they loved to collect shells.

We all had a great time and the kids are already driving me nuts wanting to know when we are going back. I haven't told them yet that I'm going back to FL in January but not them. It won't go over well now that they know what they are missing out on.

Panama City Beach Sunsets

We had beautiful sunsets every evening. Hurricane Karen sure didn't spoil our trip.

Dolphins!

When I heard there was a facility nearby where you could swim with the dolphins, I decided to let Millie do it. It was not cheap so I asked Millie how much she really wanted to do it. I had her tell me how much she should pay out of her spend money to contribute. She was a little low at first but we compromised and she agreed to pay $40 toward it. I think it's important for kids to realize that things cost money and when they have to pay for part of it out of their money, you start to see what they find to actually be important to them.

Millie was in a group of girls where everyone else in the group was together. So she was kind of the odd one out but it didn't bother her. She only had her eyes on her dolphin, Brennen. It was neat that before they got in the water, they sat through a 1/2 hour class where they learned a little about dolphins and specifically about the kind they would be swimming with. Brennen was a bottle nose dolphin.

It was freezing!

Say Hi to Brennen

Sing Brennen, sing

Shake

Dolphin Kisses

Dancing

Splashing

Hitching a Ride

Bye Bye, Brennen

This was such a wonderful experience for her, I'm sure she'll never forget it. There was lots of other great stuff at the park so when she was finished and changed, we saw a sea lion show with dolphins, a different dolphin show, a small animal show with dogs, cats and birds, stingray feeding and shark feeding.

Panama City Beach Days

I finally got the photos off Rick's computer so I can share them. We had several all beach days. The kids really liked it but Rick was getting stir crazy. One day he took Millie on a 2 hour wave runner outing to Shell Island. She loved it and it turned into over 3 hours because their guide just didn't want to go back. I think she drove most of the time and was full speed...big surprise.