It was wonderful to get away to our favorite NC beach again this year. My mom, Nancy and Scott, Jenny, Sylvan and I spent a week enjoying the ocean and pool. We stayed in a different condo this year and we all agreed that we would stay there again. Sylvan met some other kids staying next door and made a lot of progress towards learning how to swim. By the end of the week she was holding her breath, blowing bubbles and jumping off the side of the pool. We found that swim goggles made her much more fun in the pool, since she hates getting water in her eyes. She was a lot more willing to splash around and try new things with the goggles on. This was all great practice for her new swimming class on Saturdays with Auntie.
Scott bought Sylvan her first kite, and taught her how to fly it. She was a bit bored once it was in the air, but she enjoyed seeing it fly all around. Jenny also bought Sylvan purple crocs and gave them to her when we left for the beach. Sylvan has been wearing them pretty much ever since. She has received many compliments on them from other kids.
Scott made his soon-to-be trademarked “teddy bear pancakes” and delighted all of us with the different shapes he made. He started by making teddy bear shapes like he did for Jenny when she was little, but quickly expanded his repertoire to a wide variety of sea creatures (shrimp, crab, hermit crab, fish, and turtle) and other shapes related to what we were doing each day (sand castles, kites, Pooh Bear, Cinderella) and other animals (elephant, giraffe).
Scott brought a small aquarium and caught sea critters to put in it each day. Sylvan got to see barnacles, crab, hermit crab, fish and shrimp up close in the aquarium this year. She really enjoyed helping Scott feed them all, as well as feeding our leftover food to the seagulls on the beach.
One day, we took the car ferry over to Ft. Fisher and visited the Aquarium, which was totally renovated since the last time I went, back in the early 90s. We all enjoyed the exhibits, especially the alligators, who came right up to the glass. Sylvan enjoyed the “touch and feel” pools with star fish, conch, hermit crabs and sea urchins. We stayed to watch the divers go into the large tank and feed the fish.
Tropical Storm Ernesto made land right where we were staying, but the storm wasn’t that bad. We stayed inside all day Thursday and played games (bingo, checkers, and Uno), but on Friday the rain had stopped and the flooding receded.
