Vacation in Hindsight.

FINALLY! Something she LOVES to do!

Ok. I guess it's not surprising it took me a while to post again( considering my previous post.)
But that was Sunday morning. The rest of vacation was a little less dramatic but not what could be called FUN by any stretch of the imagination.

Monday, we were able to spend time at the pool. Joy spent alot of time with Grace in the outdoor pool so I was able to get alot of pictures of them together- which is a rare thing.
Joy was really good with her- she even got her to mimick her floating and Gracie actually made her own attempt at floating and was very pleased when she received applause for it!

We could not do much in the evenings because her sleep schedule was so off. She'd be up at 4 AM and we had to be up with her or she would have been out on the second floor balcony all the time. Then by 5 PM she was DONE and cranky so we had to stretch to get her to stay up till 7.
By the end of the week we finally had security locks on the two outdoor deck doors AND the front door- but by then it was time to go home.
TUESDAY:

Cousin Rachel came to stay to keep Joy Lin occupied. We spent Tuesday with Aunt Susan, waiting for the storm to come. Rachel is a great help with Gracie and she gives Joy a playmate.  So Wednesday we went to the pool and all the girls were having good time, when something that sounded like thunder happened; once. 15 minutes later they kicked everyone off the pool area due to IMPENDING THUNDER STORMS!! You must understand- our pool has 117 rules that you must follow- they did away with 10 minute adult swim every hour on the hour but now they have a Nazi guard lady that chases you away at the sign of a grey cloud. SO it was sunny the rest of they day but we couldn't go to the pool. 
SO we tried to go fly a kite at the beach. It was a beautiful day but we are really beginners when it comes to kite flying. The good part was that Grace sat with me on the beach while Chris, Joy and Rae attempted to keep the kite in the air. She just sat and played with her stickers- which was a new step for her. Last time she HATED the beach. 

They did manage to get the kite in the air. But they also bonked two people on the head with it.So overall, it was a good thing. 

 

 WEDNESDAY:
THis was the one day we had that was a success. We started at the pool and managed to stay the whole day. The girls were in the pool for 4 hours! THen we went to an early dinner at Fish Tails. THey have a outside sand yard- well the whole place is a sand box for kids and adults- which makes it Gracie-friendly.
So they were pretty much done after dinner. So we went for Kohr's up in Fenwick- Have to have Kohr's at least once each vacay. Then we went home and drove by the fountains. THey were up and running for the first time in a while. So we parked the car and walked back.
Finally, we found something that the child loved. She didn't care that she had her clothes and her shoes on. She plunged right in.  Finally, her diaper started to drag so we had to finish for the day. She went to bed happy... but with her shoes on.

 

THURSDAY: They were calling for thunderstorms all day so, SURPRISE ! they closed the outside pool.
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY>  Anyway it was time to pack up in earnest. Since the pool was closed, we took the girls to the fountain. Gracie could have stayed there all day, I think.  Later, Chris took them to the pool(the indoor one) while I cleaned up. We finally got a storm that night but it didn't last long. We stayed in a watched movies. Chris and I started to watch the incomprehensible "Cloud Atlas" and the girls were playing on their devices. AND then HELL broke loose. The girls accidentally dropped Joy's Ipod and it cracked (for the second time) because it wasn't in its case. Chris exploded and I had two sobbing 10 year olds to try to get to sleep. It was the perfect end to the perfect vacation.

So Friday we went home. When we got home Grace was happy as a clam. So was I. Vacation was finally over. I used to hate when vacation ended. Life changes.