Pirates!

We were slow moving this morning. The sun is wearing all of us out, and yesterday I got my first sunburn in years. 

Lyla is the family Uno champ this trip. She loves playing and says that her new ring brings her lots of luck. Today, however, she was given a real run for her money by daddy, who beat her 3 times:

We spent a little time on the beach before retiring to the safety of the pool as there were numerous jelly fish in the water today. Supposedly they don't have tentacles, but it seemed a little uncertain to me.

The biggest event of the day was the boarding the Buccaneer Pirate Ship in Destin. It was a two hour cruise, and the kids loved it. Cade dressed himself in all green: 

"I'm wearing green because pirates have green teeth."

We walked through Harbor Walk Village to get to the Pirate Ship:

The Pirate Boat was a great experience all in all...it was hot, though, so there were a few not so great moments here and there. 

Lyla & Cade "trained" with RoseMarie the Pirate to become real pirates:

When the pirate cannon went off:

Cade cleaned the deck with a mop while Lyla got her face painted. The girls got to go first when the girl pirates beat the boy pirates in a shouting contest. Lyla confided in me that she felt "sorry for Cade" because she got to go first. I think he was pretty happy pretending to be a "cleaning man", one of his favorite games.

And here's what this girl did while Cade got his face painted. She's so good at it that I had people stopping me on the boat to tell me what a great hula hooper she is:

Cade chose an anchor too:

The day did end in near disaster when Cade broke down about a watch he wanted at the gift shop. Cade is really mimicking Lyla this trip, and after she bought her watch, he wanted one too - despite the fact that the compass he chose was the most important thing in the world to him just minutes prior. This became more and more of an issue to him as the boat ride ended and, suffice to say, it was one of those painful times when you have to say no and stick to your guns, which we did. Subsequently, everyone in Destin got to see (and hear) how Cade felt about it. 

We were laughing by the time we got back to the condo...well, sort of. 

And, we had to resolve this before nightswimming - Lyla apparently decided to put Cade on lockdown. Lance had to get him out of this scrape, but I'm wondering if it might be a really effective way of getting things done at home...

Another evening of swimming in the dark before bed. Great times here.