Beach Trip and more Emma B-Day

For Emma's actual birthday last Tuesday, we went over to our friends' place for dinner and games and Emma got to play with her friend Lilia. Emma and Lilia get along great and spend their time chasing each other around. As soon as Emma can walk, they will be an unstoppable duo. For her birthday dinner, Emma got to eat spaghetti. She made a nice mess, too. The following weekend, Krista, Emma, and I went to Wilmington, NC for a mini vacation. The big attraction for the trip was the opportunity to go to the beach. We were not sure how she would take it, but Emma LOVES the beach! She immediately started crawling all over the sand and even into the water as far as we would let her. She had no problems with the salt water splashing her in the face and she spent most of her time splashing around when the waves would come in. After spending the morning at the beach, we went to the hotel and gave Emma a nap (or tried to) and then set out for the aquarium. The first display at the aquarium was a giant alligator statue. Of course we had to take a picture. Unfortunately, Emma chose that moment to completely lose control. She was not scared of the gator, but was extremely tired. Over the next several minutes (and displays) she started laughing and talking again. She especially made friends with a soft shell turtle, a loggerhead turtle, a horseshoe crab, and some weird trunkfish-like fish. Eventually, she did lose it again about the time we tried to take her picture with the giant shark jaws. The other people there must have thought we were horrible parents by putting her near these scary things for pictures, but she was not scared at all, just very, very, very tired. After unsuccessfully trying to eat dinner on the way to the hotel we finally gave up and let her go to bed. The next morning we went for a stroll in downtown Wilmington and met some Percherons pulling a carriage. We came home shortly after and finally had a chance to get some rest. We had a good time, though it was mostly a learning experience. Next time we will plan better and have a better trip.