Spending a week by myself with the kids in a small hotel room in Miami isn't all that's it's cracked up to be. In order to keep myself sane I've been spending the days taking the kids out to see the sights. All of them. And boy, are we tired! Here are a few pictures of our adventures.

The beach was probably one of my most intense days. Three non-swimmers who don't know that they can't swim is, to say the least, a challenge. I had all three in floating vests when we first ventured out. Those things are nice, but obviously no substitute for swimming abilities. I knew this going in and kept all three in arm's reach. Alaina spent the whole experience holding on to my neck with a death grip. Ethan would hop around around in front of me, but didn't dare move too far. Austin spent the first 1/2 trying to swim out to sea. About 15 min. in he escaped my hold on him and made a break for it. He only made it a couple steps away before the vest buoyed him up out of the water and on to his face. It only took me a few seconds to reach over and pull him back out, but I thought he would be scarred for life. The boy sputtered, wiping his face off and looked over to me. With this wild grin he proclaimed, "Mama! I was swimming!" Sure, if that is what you want to call it.

We went up to the beach, made a sand castle and before I knew it, the kids had become the darlings of the beach. They were adopted by 4 sweet Spanish girls (all pre-teens) and their mothers. The girls decided to give the kids swim lessons and took them up on the sand to practise the moves. They started with the butterfly...naturally. It was kind of funny watching the three keep their hands above their heads and wiggle their hips about. We all ended up a bit crisp, but it was a nice day over-all.

By the end of it all, I was definitely ready to have Robert for the weekend.