Ami's fourth birthday wish list:
- Shopping for Clothing (check)
- Little Mermaid Cake and Girl's Fingernail Party (check)
- Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum Pirate Birthday Family Party (check)
- "Go to a hotel and go swimming like Ariel" (check)
Melissa made the Little Mermaid cake. This is after Ariel had reconstructive surgery.
Susanna made the surgery possible (it was not a selective surgery for those questioning the cake's doctrinal stability).
Ami's and her best friend went to Walmart with Melissa and Lori to purchase lip balm and fingernail polish. They then came home to do full manicures. (Please ignore Susanna mooning the camera, in her clothed butt, upset that she did not get her nails painted.)
Melissa had not enjoyed a Mother-son date with Tim recently, and he was losing his "gentlemen skills" so they went off to see "Cars 2" while David took the girls to Thanksgiving Point's Pirate Birthday Party.
Carriage Ride - this was the only moment Susanna was not trying to jump out.
Face Painting.
Meeting Captain Blackwater.
Decorations for the pirate party.
For the final wish, David bought tickets to take Maggie and Ami to the Tuacahn Amphitheater.
We felt no guilt leaving Tim with his uncle and aunt since he went on multiple man-hikes and night hikes with David already this summer. (Mom wanted to go swimming also! Maybe we won't mention she forgot her swimsuit...)
He didn't buy it. He still felt a bit left out.
He commented to his uncle, "The next time my family decides to go on vacation without me can we buy more Legos?"
Ingrate. Oh well. He's six.
When we arrived at the hotel in Saint George, we put our things down and headed straight for the pool. Ami was in full-life vest support so she would not have any trouble or near-death experiences (we thought). David started walking her around the pool. She held on to his back. Then he heard gurgling. Turning around he saw that Maggie swam to the center of the pool, tried to put her foot down, could not touch, and panicked.
David quickly put Ami two inches from the side of the pool to grab on and wait, and swam to grab Maggie. She spat up about a half gallon of water, but ended up fine. Then he heard gurgling. Turning around he saw that Ami panicked and leaned sideways (still within reaching distance of the side) and was side-floating, with a little water going in her mouth. So he threw Maggie into the shallow end and swam back to Ami. Who came up just fine (maybe one gulp of water total) with the comment, "thanks Dad for saving my life".
After the other pool guests stopped staring at him, and the girls figured out how to swim again, they enjoyed themselves.
Dinner tasted great to all those over the age of 9.
After a short failed nap, the three headed off to the Tuacahn.
At the entry.
The quarter-mile-waterfall's fountain.
The background, stage, special effects, and transitions exceeded David's expectations for even a professional performance. Unfortunately, a couple mic problems lowered the quality a bit. If you have not been, this performance is definitely worth the trip. David wanted to take Melissa back in a few months for the final showing, but that does not look like it fits in the old budget.
Ami enjoyed the first fifteen minutes. She then required food for the next three hours to keep her from interrupting the show. Mamba's, runts, candy, slushy... good night!
Speaking of good night, that location is really impressive. Really impressive.
After the show (midnight) were fireworks celebrating the 24th of July. The opportunity to meet the cast got Maggie really excited.
Flounder, who also sang the national anthem, did amazing.
Maggie loved Sabastian.
David rooted for the chef, who doesn't like sweet little succulent crab?
Maggie enjoyed gull-ability.
Ami really wanted to meet Ariel. So did every other girl at the show. The line was long. They had it down to a science for pictures, but... Ami would not turn around, she kept saying something to Ariel. David gave Maggie the "what in the world???" look, and she turned Ami around for the picture.
Once they got a bit away from the crowd, David asked Maggie what happened. Ami was expressing gratitude, in Maggie's words Ami said:
"I am really grateful you saved Eric. He would have died. I know because earlier today I nearly drowned, and my dad saved me. It is scary to drown. So thank you. That makes you a hero like my dad. That's him right there."
Ariel was a consummate professional in kindness and listened with real intent to Ami, but once Ami turned around and pointed to me, she nearly lost it laughing.
They were asleep even before the a/c cooled off the car.
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