Sunday, June 24, 2018

Happy Father's Day.....(a week late)!

On Father's Day weekend, CK and Sofia were making their trip in the Piper Cub from Lee Farms to Greenville, Mississippi, where it was left to be repaired and recovered. So, we'd agreed to celebrate Father's Day the Sunday after the "real" Father's Day. Months before Father's Day, the girls and I decided to make CK's Father's Day gift using the shells collected from our Spring Break trip to the Bahamas. I also had a few pictures from that week printed to include in the shadow box we made. Sofia helped me decide how to arrange the shells and we had to focus on it when CK was traveling, so he wouldn't know about it. It really turned out cute and was really easy to make! Of course, we then waited months to give it to him, which was hard, since we were so excited to show him.

To celebrate her Papa, Sofia wanted to make chocolate cupcakes from scratch. I told her we would find a good recipe and work on it together. We found one on Pinterest that sounded delicious and she did an excellent job making them. She made the frosting and frosted the cupcakes, which all looked awesome! She did frost one with very little frosting, since she knows CK is no longer eating sweets. She wanted him to be able to enjoy a cupcake with as little guilt as possible! Olivia made a really cute mermaid birthday card. She loves to make cards for birthdays and I love that they are homemade and original.

Finally, on the day we decided to celebrate Father's Day, we went to Meeting and hen went to lunch to celebrate the girl's Papa! After lunch, we returned home and the girls gave CK his present. I was just as excited as they were to give it to him! It was so much fun to make and I couldn't wait for him to see it. I could just see it hanging in our lake house! Olivia gave him the Father's Day card and Sofia gave the bag with his present! He loved it! It was awesome! After opening his present, Sofia brought out the cupcake dessert! They were awesome and CK ate the entire cupcake! We had so many cupcakes that Sofia ended up giving a four each to Marco and Stacy and Reggie and Karla. We had four left over, which was much better than having so many extras. CK had a great Father's Day and the girls are so lucky they have such a great Papa in their lives!

The delicious homemade cupcakes!

Olivia's mermaid Father's Day card

Lunch with their favorite Papa!


Olivia's birthday card

Happy Father's Day, Papa!

Opening his gift...








Papa, his girls, and his Father's Day gift!

Yummy cupcake!

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Horse Camp for Olivia!

This past week, Olivia and her best friend, Hannah, went to horse camp at Ride with Pride in Southlake. This is the third year Olivia has done horse camp and she loves it and looks forward to it so much. Sofia originally wanted to take horse camp too, but after she returned from Florida with her Papa, she didn't show a lot of interest. So, Olivia enjoyed her camp with her friend while Sofia was flying back with her Papa. She loves riding horses, petting chickens, feeding fish in their pond and being surrounded by all sorts of animals, but she equally loves the crafts that they do at camp each day. This week the campers painted a wooden picture frame, a wooden box with photos of Olivia glued to the outside, a box with a lid that also included pictures of Olivia riding a horse, and a small bird house. They also made a tie-died Ride With Pride shirt, as she's done every year.

During the week, Olivia rode several horses but loved Sunny and Dolly the most. She also loved having a snow cone every afternoon, just before picking up Olivia for the day. She had so much fun and especially loved having Hannah with her during the camp. Of course, none of her boots fit her anymore and I was reluctant to buy her new boots prior to camp, so she used a pair that they had at camp. They were too big, but worked just fine.

On Friday, Olivia and her fellow campers had their rodeo, which started at 7pm. Of course, it was unbearably hot, as it's been every single rodeo camp we've ever attended. Once we arrived Olivia showed us all of her great crafts, including a sleeve of photos taken of her during the camp. She has a huge smile on her face during every photo and looks like she's having a great time. I love how much she loves horse camp! After checking out all of her great crafts, we headed over to pet all the horses. After meeting all the horses, we then found a spot in the seating area of the arena. Meanwhile all the kids walked to the far side of the arena and the rodeo started!

Finally, it was Olivia's turn and she rode Sunny, one of her favorites! She did a great job and it was so fun to watch her. Once the rodeo was finished, all the kids lined up at the far end of the arena and ran across toward us as fast as they could. Olivia and Hannah ran together and were having a great time...until her boot fell off! She yanked it back on and continued running.

The kids enjoyed watermelon and lemonade while Doreen and the camp counselors passed out awards. Olivia was awarded the Horsemanship Award. Sofia loved her camp counselor, Katelyn, and I took some cute pictures of them together. After all the awards were handed out, all the campers gathered together for one last photo together. We said goodbye to Hannah and headed to CK's truck for a drive down to the lake! It was such a fun end of a great week at horse camp for Olivia!


Olivia with all of her crafts made during her week of horse camp!

Olivia's crafts

The four of us!

Olivia and her horse camp counselor, Katelyn!

Our little horse rider

Olivia and me

Olivia riding Sunny during her rodeo




Olivia's friend, Hannah

Running across the arena after the rodeo



It's all fun and games until you lose a boot!

Back on the run!


Olivia on the award stand with her counselor

Olivia and her counselor

Hannah was the fastest rider of the entire camp!

All the horse camp riders

Friday, June 15, 2018

Swimming with Dolphins!

On Friday we made plans to swim with dolphins at Marineland which is just south of St. Augustine, at 2:30pm! Connie suggested it a few days before and after looking into it, the girls were super excited and it seemed like a really great adventure to do together. Of course, it wasn't cheap so it was a big decision. Also, because of Olivia's age, I had to go as well. As I thought about it more, it sounded like such a fun thing to do and bought the tickets and were excited to go!

The girls woke up around 9am on Friday morning and Sofia and I headed to the beach for our "last" visit of the trip. We swam, played in the sand and built the last sand castle of our trip, while Olivia played with Grandma and then swam in the pool. She did come down to the beach briefly, but was back up at the pool within 20 minutes. She is just not a fan of the sand. Around 11:30am, we headed back to the condo so we could shower and start the drive to Marineland. On the way, we stopped for lunch which was really good. The girls both ordered the mac and cheese, which was homemade and delicious! After eating, we continued driving up the coast, which was a fun and beautiful drive right along the beach. We drove through Flagler Beach, which is super cute and looked like a really fun place to visit sometime. There were lots of cute restaurants and nice beaches and it wasn't over-crowded. We continued driving and arrived at Marineland about 45 minutes later. We parked, checked in with the dolphin program and then walked around to see some of the other marine animals. Marineland is pretty small, but they have a few sharks in tanks and ocean turtles. It was pretty interesting and it was fun to watch the sharks swim around so effortlessly in their tank.

Soon it was time to make our way to the dolphins and it was a good-sized set of tanks. Unfortunately, a storm threatened overhead, so we were led into a classroom to wait until the threat of lightening passed. The girls had fun poking around and checking out the turtle shells, live snakes (in aquariums), and other things. Before long, we were free to change into our swimsuits and make our way to the dolphins! I think I was just as excited as the girls! We had our picture taken together after each of us were fitted for a life jacket and then we made our way into the shallow area of the dolphin pool! We were placed in a group of the three of us and another girl who was maybe 12 and who has swam with dolphins several times before. Our dolphin trainer introduced herself and the dolphin we would be swimming with for the next 30 minutes. The dolphin had an unusual name that none of us could remember. The trainer told us that her name came from the Timucua Indian chief, who it is believed may have been the first American native to see the landing of Juan Ponce de León near St. Augustine in 1513.

For the next 30 minutes, the trainer let us rub the dolphin and learned how to give the hand signals to ask the dolphin do different things, including "waving," "singing," jumping and flipping out of the pool, and chasing and collecting a ball. After each of the commands, we were able to give the dolphin a small fish. The fish went down whole, without any chewing! The dolphin was so remarkable and seemed so much like a "human" in many ways. The trainer told us that dolphins are actually unable to hear our voices, so no amount of talking is understood by them. They use a dog whistle set at a certain frequency for the dolphins to hear. It really is amazing how well-trained the dolphins are and how much they respond, even to the group of us. It was super cool! A young girl took photos of us as we did different things with the dolphins, which we could then buy the photos separately. Connie was on the far side of the dolphin pool and took a bunch of pictures! The time really flew by and it seemed like we'd only had about 10 minutes with the dolphins when it was time to say goodbye. It was such an amazing and fun experience.

After saying goodbye to our dolphin, we changed back into our dry clothes and then headed to the gift shop, where the girls were excited to buy "something." Grandma had given each of the girls a few dollars, and we both thought they would buy a key chain. Instead, they both fell in love with stuffed animals - a huge long eel for Sofia and a pink dolphin in a purse for Olivia. I told them we wouldn't be spending that much and didn't need any more stuffed animals. That didn't go over so well, but they agreed to pick out key chains, we bought the photos of our experience and headed home. CK was scheduled to arrive back from his work trip to Boston around 3pm, but the flight from Charlotte got cancelled and he wasn't due until 9pm! We are bummed that he couldn't be there to meet the dolphins.

Olivia with her "puppy dog" face made at lunch.

We made it to Marineland! The girls with their Grandma!

The girls and me - LOVE Sofia's photobomb in the back!

The girls and me by one of the indoor aquariums

Olivia as an underwater explorer!

Me!

Sofia, the underwater explorer!

The girls and me walking to the dolphins

The dolphins watch us as we arrive! It was super cool!


Touching the dolphin for the first time! Super cool!

Olivia with the dolphin! Love how happy she is!

Olivia giving the dolphin a kiss! So sweet!

Waving to the dolphin!


Sofia with the dolphin! Love the look on her face!


Me and the dolphin!

Me giving the dolphin a kiss! Connie captured it, but the professional photographer missed it!

Some of the photos Connie took of us with the dolphin!

Rubbing the dolphin's belly!



Jumping! It was SO cool how high they get out of the water!

Checking out the dolphins 100-plus teeth!