Salted Air

I am on vacation. Right now. But have had such a fantastic day I need to capture it.

I am going to start with the end though, with the ME. I  am sitting on the deck of our hotel room, listening to the ocean sounds and drinking Pedroncelli Mother Clone. (If you don't know Mama Clone as we like to call her, you are missing out.) Anyway, I am blissful.

This is my view.

This is my sea salt.

I love it.
It is crusted onto the balcony which is hosting my glass of Zinfandel.

Anyway, this isn't what I was supposed to be be writing about. I wanted to talk about this:

HOLY GUACAMOLE Y'ALL.

Grace is standing in a real pool all by herself. Sure, it is the shallow end, but that officially makes her 3ft and 1 entire head. Which is official BIG GIRL territory.

And while I blurred out her pretty little face so you can't really see it, you should have seen her smile. The realization that she has met some sort of metric milestone. That she could be in the water and still be in control.

The realization that she was BIG.

After that moment, she asked me to carry her to the fountain in the deep end.
As we swam, I told her that she would always be my Baby.....
And then brought her back to the shallow to tell her she would always be my Love, my Baby, even when when she was BIG.

Summer Thrills

Our town has a carnival that comes this time every year.

It is a week long extravaganza hosted by the fire department, with a firework conclusion. And really, how do you refuse that? Knowing that some portion of the vast amount of money you just bled into the summer night goes to help support the neighbors that protect you. How do you not to drop an extra $5 into the boot at the hot dog stand?
(I may or may not be a little biased on this one.)

So we marched into the sweltering heat to meet with the family of one of Gracie's besties, and bought the all-you-can-ride wrist band. Grace rode with abandon: carousel, train, dragon roller coaster, tilt-a-whirl.

Clare watched with eager eyes, but didn't get to join in on the fun. Until we got to the ferris wheel.
Me go? Mine Mama? Mine, me?

And we went. She and I tucked neatly into a capsule.
It was the beginning of the end.
Now she knew she was allowed to go to, and so she went on her first carnival  ride with Grace.

Quickly followed by a ride all by herself.

I don't think I've seen her that happy in quite awhile.
Well, except for when I make popcorn.

Days to Remember

We adventured today.
We tromped.
We smiled.
We laughed.
We hugged.
We had fun.

It was the first day in a long time that the yelling was limited and the melt downs were non-existent.

Happy Father's Day Matt. I'm glad you got the afternoon that you deserve.

Girls Night Out

So I told her we got a present* in the mail. Something just for her and me. Something special.

She was so excited, we went in the rain. Part of me wanted to cancel, but the allure of time alone with me, combined with the magic of baseball was too much for her. We have to go Mama, she told me, the Bird will be sooo sad not to see us.

And it was true.

The O's hosted a wonderful tour of the park, with behind the scenes perks that I had never dreamed of. Our tour guide showed us the playground, touting its child friendliness. But none of that mattered, because we were already fans. Already in love with the ballpark.

What we got that night that I will always keep with me is this.

Time alone with my girl, made possible by the love of baseball.

*Our tickets, tour and snacks were provided to us free of cost from the Baltimore Orioles, but my words and opinions are 100% my own.

Health & Happiness

Magic was in the air today again. I received my first real invitation, (read: I got my own) to a blog event.

I watched Mickey Mouse make smoothies,

and was in the midst of an inspiration to American women, Michelle Obama, as she told us "Disney is doing what no major media company has ever done before in the U.S. – and what I hope every company will do going forward. When it comes to the ads they show and the food they sell, they are asking themselves one simple question: ‘Is it good for our kids?"

But most of all, I went on an adventure with a new friend. And doesn't that embody the Spirit of Disney more than just about anything else?