My Girls

 

 

Trading Spaces

 

  

  

  

Go Fly a Kite

 

 

Seaside at Night

 

  

Cannonballs

You longtime ChockleyBlog readers (all 5 of you) know that when we go to Florida, I wear you down like an Ali jab with pics for days.  And away we go...

 

  

 

Vacation, Had To Get Away

The Chockleys spent last week along idyllic highway 30-A. This was our first family beach trip smack in the middle of official beach season, and we found it was much hotter and more crowded than it is in October. However, it was still less hot and crowded than Memphis was last week, so we were happy to be there.

We stayed in the newish Old Florida Village, across the street from Goatfeathers and about six miles east of Seaside. The location was nice because it wasn't very congested on that end, and also because it was across the street from Goatfeathers. Not only did we spend our life savings on fresh seafood from their market, but we also got two meals to go from their restaurant.





A controversial feature of our lodgings was the pool located directly behind our house. Before we left, several people had advice along the lines of, "I'd never stay in a place with a pool, I'd never get my kids out of it and onto the beach." It proved to be a mixed blessing. Yes, I had trouble getting my kids out of the pool and onto the beach. That's hard for me to understand, because I would rather be on a beach than just about anywhere. I would happily pitch a tent in the sand and spend my nights there if the Walton County authorities would let me. So I did end up alone on the beach a good bit, wistfully watching the other families build sand castles together. But don't cry for me, I was able to finish five books while I was there so the childless beach time was well spent.




The plus side to the pool situation is that Connor loves the pool the way I love the beach, so he was in heaven. Despite the fact that the pool water was around 95 degrees, he wanted to be in it as much as possible. His swimming skills improved, he learned to do a cannonball and other fancy non-diving jumps, and got good at diving for sunken toys even in the "deep" end (5 ft). Chloe's swimming improved over the week too, and by our last night she was ready to swim underwater with no one holding her. It was an impressive developmental leap.





We celebrated Father's Day and Connor's (and Carrie's and Marshall's and Abraham's) birthday while we were there. On Connor's big day, we spent the hot part of the afternoon eating lunch out and going to see "Up," which made me cry like a baby and spawned endless "SQUIRREL!" shouts over the remainder of the vacation. What a great movie! We also did a bit of shopping, from the boutiques around the corner to the giant Goodwill to the Silver Sands outlet mall. (And several trips to Publix, of course.)





Then Saturday morning, we loaded up the cars to head back to reality. I started crying by the time we made it off 30-A and onto 98. This morning, Connor crawled in my bed crying. "I don't want to go back to school yet!" Thankfully, we've got one more day.

Six

What's Connor up to as he turns six? As the pictures can attest, he's turning into a professional athlete. He definitely inherited my competitivenees- as the t-ball season progressed, so did Connor's desire to make outs. (I'd say his desire to win, except that we don't keep score in t-ball. Whatever!) He was occasionally hard on teammates who didn't make plays, but was especially hard on himself when he let a ball get by him in the field. I tried to point out that, say, the third baseman was sitting on the ground filling his glove with dirt, but that didn't make Connor feel any better. And I appreciate that.


Connor's very favorite thing to do is swim. He has become really confident in the water this year, and can jump in and swim with no problem. He can hold his breath underwater and count to 29. We recently spent an evening at a pool together, him in a swimsuit in the water and me in normal clothes watching from a chair on the side. We were both comfortable with this arrangement- I knew I could jump in and save him if necessary, but I also knew it probably wouldn't come to that. As we walked in, I said, "Dude- don't drown, okay?" He rolled his eyes and jumped in. Then I managed to teach him how to do a cannonball from my perch on the chair! He's also working on swimming freestyle and taking a breath mid-stroke. I think that right now he's only gotten as far as taking his face out of the water, but I'm sure someday soon he'll actually take a breath. I'm hoping that next summer he can join a swim team- I've been told that works better than lessons for improving his skill.



Other things he loves these days: reading comic books with his dad, building Lego sets and Bionicles, and did I mention swimming?


I love you, Connor! The first six years have been a lot of fun. Thanks for turning me into a mama and making my life so special!