We started the day off by going horseback riding.  Chloe, Papa and me.  Chloe has great horseback riding posture.  I, on the other hand, was aching all over when the hour was done.  Really aching. However, my horse, China, was a pistol.  While everyone else on the trail meandered along on their horses, China treated me to some trotting along the way.  And I didn’t lose control.

While Chloe, Papa and I were exploring the nearby forest preserve, Sophie took a pony ride of her own.  She likes ponies because they’re small.  She also fed the cute animals in the petting zoo.  She enjoyed that very much.

Not so small, however, are the palmetto bugs that share the house with us.  Some call them water bugs. Don’t let those harmless sounding names deceive you.  These are essentially huge freakin’ cockroaches. My husband has become fairly adept at catching them.  You can appreciate their relative size compared to the miniature deck of cards and crayon in the photo.  Had you heard the screams when my mom and the girls saw one for the first time yesterday, you would have thought the house was being invaded by bloodsucking zombies.

And trust me, of all the wonderful memories we will have shared during this vacation, the cockroach will be the one that Chloe and Sophie will still be talking about when they have children of their own. Beautiful weather, whatever.  Beautiful ocean, whatever.  Dolphins, whatever.  Boogie boarding in the Atlantic, whatever.  Cockroaches, priceless.