Selah June: Mommy, what kind of fish is Dory?

Me: I can look that up. Hold on…

Google: Dory is a royal blue tang.

Me: She is a royal blue tang.

Selah June: So she is the queen of the fishes?

Me: What?

Selah June: Is she the queen of the fishes? Why is she royal blue?

Me: OHHH! Why is royal blue called royal blue. I can look that up. Hold on.

Google: Royal blue is a rich blue worn by Queen Catherine and King William IV.

Me: It’s royal blue because it was the color worn by royalty – Kong’s and queens.

Selah June: So was I right? She’s the queen of the fishes….

I asked Selah Jean if she wanted to go to the beach with me while daddy had to work on July 5. We were both very excited for the adventure. She told me that it was for America’s party. Yesterday was Americas birthday, but it’s party was today!

The weather was beautiful, and there were tons of people at Casino Beach. It was really nice that Selah June was able to swim and play in the water without me worrying about her safety too much. I pulled my chair right to the water’s edge, and we enjoyed the waves wooshing up and rolling us around on the beach.

We capped off our beach time with a trip to McDonald’s for a happy meal, and Selah Jean was super excited that she got Jesse from Toy Story 4.

Daddy decked out Selah June with July 4 accessories. She had a huge flag hair bow headband. She had flag sunglasses in the shape of hearts. And she had a special necklace with a big blue star that lit up. Outfits don’t get much more Fourth of July than that!

But then Grammy have a special new church dress for Selah June that she found at Dillards. It was beautiful! She had to change into it immediately! And then Satie wore her dress that Grammy got her on the same shopping trip. They were pink and blue together!

We are in a phase where we like to show our tummy to anyone who will pay attention to us… Especially when we’re supposed to be serious and taking nice pictures. Here are the silly pictures that my little bug gave me…

Baby sis also had to have her picture made in front of her front door. She looks like a homeless baby left outside on the doorstep.

Jeremy went to Alabama to pick up fireworks. He brought him three bags full! He was very careful to make sure to get legal ones so that grandpa didn’t feel uncomfortable with him going off in his driveway.

All the kids had their own snap pop bags, and Jeremy got lots of special fireworks like tanks and chickens that farted balloons. He got my favorite fireworks which are the little UFOs that spin up in the air. And he got super long sparklers that were about 5 feet in length.

Selah June has always had very sensitive ears. When she was little, she really didn’t like fireworks because they were way too loud and hurt her ears. We just found out that a lot of the other half siblings also have sensitivity. So of course Selah June was the only one to have headphones for fireworks. Quite the fashion statement! Her daddy takes care of her…

I love these two images from the evening. The first is my lame attempt to capture a firework. It looks like some kind of apocalyptic nuclear holocaust. The second was captured by Jessica at the moment of a firework bomb.

Selah June, Grammy, and I traveled to South Florida with K Yoland and Robin Jones to accompany honor students on a creative, field-work expedition. It was truly an adventure, and I know I will look back on it and be so happy that I took Selah June with me on this experience even at such a young age. She was really good. She loves road trips! I don’t think I’ve ever met a child who is as content to be riding in the backseat of a car for miles and miles and miles.

It was hard to fit naptime into our schedule every day, but she was pretty good to catch a few hours of sleep whenever she was able. The days were long because K wanted to catch the best light which was normally at dawn or at dusk. The heat was truly awful, and it took everything out of the students, much less a four-year-old.

One of the most enlightening things was to truly see how blessed we are to have the most beautiful Florida beaches in our own backyard. No where else is the water as beautiful and the sand as powdery white. Key West was a real surprise because there were mounds and mounds of rotten seaweed along every shoreline we visited. The students were so disgusted by it that they often refused to get in the water.

I didn’t expect Selah June to be so mesmerized by Kay. I don’t know if it was her British accent or the amazing creative thing she was doing.