First Day of School

Fifth grade and Second grade!

It was a very short summer, and we're back to business, but very excited! Back to friends, back to structure, 

and back to morning jogs to get the wiggles out before school!

We forgot the part about getting shots.

Tay Tay

Are you ready for it? OMG. My first concert, Mom's first stadium concert.

It was AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME.

She sang all of my favorite songs.

The best was "Delicate", because she came out to the stage closest to us.

It was so fun,

 I didn't even mind being out until midnight on the night before my first day of middle school!

Red Tide

Come to Long Boat Key, they said. The beach is beautiful, they said.

Then the winds turned, and Red Tide came crashing toward our beach. Red Tide is a toxic algae bloom in the ocean that happens every year, but this one has been especially dangerous. 

On our last couple of days of vacation, we noticed a weird smell in the air that made us cough, that was the algae toxin. Then the dead fish smell hits you from the beach. It was crazy- thousands of dead fish and eels on the beach and floating in the now brown water.

It was a disgusting, fascinating science lesson for us.

And the end of our beach days here.

Golf

We're pretty sure Mom and Dad are grooming us to get golf scholarships for college.

Fine with us, it's fun to be outside on green grass, and they let us drive the carts.

Long Boat Key

Our summer family getaway this year was spent in Long Boat Key, doing mostly nothing for a week. It was perfect. 

The Sarasota Aquarium was our biggest day out.

There are hundreds of sea turtle nests along the beach. They hatch at night and follow the moonlight to scamper into the ocean.

But sometimes they follow the porch lights of beach houses, and end up in swimming pools instead. They get rescued and rehabilitated at the aquarium, so they can be released into the ocean. They are adorable!!

These were the biggest manatees we've ever seen- they are like elephants in the water.

And the sand sharks are so soft.

It was a fun week, capped off by a fire alarm evacuation in the middle of the night!

Sisters

I always wanted a little sister.

Isn't she glamorous?