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.

Panama City Beach - Day 2 - Phone

The Internet here is less than cooperative. So, I'm going to have to blog my phone photos separate from my good camera. The kids did lots of football and ocean playing the second day. They enjoyed being buried. 

Fall Break - Day 1 - On The Road

Our family is taking our first all beach vacation this week for fall break. One of the advantages of starting school so early and only having about a 7 week summer break is that we get a 2 week fall break so the first week we took off for Panama City Beach. So did hurricane Karen but she didn't keep us away! Reed and Millie have both seen the ocean on our California trip a few years back to visit family but there wasn't really any beach time involved. And Millie had some beach time in South Carolina twice visiting family but she was too young to remember.

We left our house at 4am Saturday morning to allow plenty of time to get to the condo. Millie was making bracelets the entire time and ran out of supplies around Huntsville Alabama. It was past time for breakfast and Rick remembered a space center was in Huntsville so we jumped off the interstate, hit the back roads and headed to Huntsville. Along the way we saw a bunch of cotton fields so we pulled over and let the kids check it out.

AL for Alabama - Millie's idea

We found the space center and walked around the outside because we knew we didn't have time to devote hours to going inside. It was still neat though and the kids enjoyed it.

Most importantly, we found breakfast which Millie declared "Alabama has the best food in the world!" She may have been a little hungry but it's still good to see her enjoy her food. And we found a Joann's so Millie got more rubber bands for her bracelets.

We made it to the condo around 6pm which wasn't bad at all considering our detour in Huntsville. The kids couldn't wait to get to the beach. They kept their clothes on but I told them they could only get their feet wet. Well, I think you can tell from the photos they didn't really listen. Rick wasn't much help in that department.

The only signs of hurricane Karen were rougher waves, which were fun, and some clouds which made for a beautiful sunset.