So glad to hear Brooklyn is doing well!
Hmm - that is some interesting entertainment. Not exactly what I would call dinner music, but I suspect they were decent musicians. At least you know you are going to get good musicians in Florida.
I think manatee are such amazing creatures.
The lady in the band was nice. She came around to the tables and gave the kids little goodies and said hello to everyone.
Jill went through an 'Everything Manatee' stage when she was a teenager. She may still have manatee stickers, books, cards, etc. tucked away in her hidden treasures somewhere in the attic. I feel sorry for manatees who are just floating along doing no one any harm and then along comes a boat getting too close.
I didn't make it here to add my prayers before Brooklyn's surgery, but I am saying them now. I am glad she came through with no problems and hopefully she will do better with walking each day as she feels more comfortable with the cast on there. I probably won't make it by tomorrow so I will go ahead and say
Happy Birthday Brooklyn!!
Glad to see you here!
Jill said she is walking even better today. When she gets the casts off, then she's going to have to learn to walk in a whole new way, too.
Glad to see/hear Brooklyn is doing well and walking!! I was wondering if she would be able to walk with the casts on!!
Hope Brooklyn has a great 7th b'day!!!
The party was simple and successful.
She has the walking boots over the casts.
Off to bed (have to be up in 5-1/2 hours to get ready for the airport), but wanted to say Happy Birthday, Brooklyn.
I enjoyed some of your FB pictures earlier.
A bit early but I have a feeling I may be a bit late if I wait.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKLYNN
Better early than to forget, right? I do the same thing.
Isn't that so nerve-wracking?? I'm a decent swimmer but Seth being near any water always makes me so nervous. We were swimming with my dad when we were in town the other day. Seth would get out of the pool, and ruuuuuun down to the deep end. I was in the pool so I would be swimming as fast as I could down there to him in case he jumped in (he never did). I knew I'd be there very quickly if he jumped in, but it still scared me. I'm horrible at thinking of the very worse thing that could happen and then I freak out.
Sorry for your cruddy service.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!!!
The railing was inadequate for little kids to be out there. When Bella or Gavin leaned down, their heads were under the rail, and they easily could have tumbled in. We did not stay long.
I'm still glad we ate at Squid Lips, just because it was something different.
You don't go to Squid Lips for the food, it's for what comes after on the back dock. What you don't have any pictures of.
AND yes, they do need a better railing.
My food was just okay this time, a little better the time before, we didn't have any music last year and our service was great.
This year I couldn't believe how poorly we were treated.
Our group was not that big... Just a little big.
That musical group? Oh my goodness......
So glad Brook is on the mend!
Happy Birthday to a very sweet girl!!
How did I not even get one picture of the fish???
I really must have been completely focused on Bella's safety. I thought I did snap a couple, though.
Our experience may have been completely different had the server not had her friends there. Not that what she did was right, but I wonder if our Squid Lips review would be different had we been there at a different time.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKLYNN!!!
I hope you have a wonderful birthday!! I'll be thinking of you while I'm in Alaska with Mickey - I'll have to tell him about your surgery - he might have a get well wish for you!
I would really love to do an Alaska cruise someday. It will never happen, so will enjoy your adventures.
Happy happy birthday Brooklynn!! I hope she has a great day.
Good to hear she's on the mend. What a trooper!
Sorry to hear you have an issue with your student - that's frustrating.
My student was sent home again on Friday for threatening another student in the cafeteria. He is in great need of extreme help.
Happy Birthday Brooklynn!
Here's hoping today is, in fact, a good day with your new student.
We go to meet our 2nd graders teacher a little later this morning. Then Monday will be the first day of school and the first day the little one goes to daycare. I will have to do my best to be a brave mommy on Monday.
I think a Vero Beach stay may be in our future. I'm wondering if you think it's the kind of place where you could just spend your whole trip at the resort? It seems like there's plenty to do (plus, I hear people actually relax on vacation?), I wonder about the food on property. Is there enough variety for a few days? I don't know if I'd want to do too much cooking in the room. How long of a Vero trip do you think is just right?
Personally, we would not care to do a Vero only full vacation. We were very glad we had WDW property time on both ends of Vero. We are not lay around the beach/pool people. We like that in small doses, and then we want to be off doing things. It was great the way it was, in the middle, and it would be great to end a trip, too. I know we would really enjoy going over there for 2-3 nights at the end of a Disney World trip. The girls would enjoy doing more of the activities, I know, and we would like to go out into the town a bit more. If you are the type who likes to lay out on the beach or spend hours at the pool, Vero would be a wonderful stay for you. It is lovely, as you saw, and it is a safe, family-friendly environment. That's huge for us.
We did have some sandwiches, mac and cheese, nuggets, pizza, snacks, and fruit. We didn't cook any full meals, although I could picture all of us gathered around a huge pan of lasagna and some salad at that big table. That would have been a nice evening in. Of course, we would enjoy trying more of the local restaurants, too. You would probably want a little more variety or have some food in your room to go along with the resort dining options. The Pirate Night dinner was good.
Take your ziplock bags. It's served family style, so they'll throw out what is left. We saw a family take away a box full (I guess they brought their own box), and I may or may not have left with a bag full of meat. 
We didn't ask for a brand new plate or anything - it was just what was leftover in the natural order of the meal, and it would have been wasteful to toss it.
I would definitely like to go again, and I want to explore all of the sea turtle activities further. I don't think our dates are lining up very well to overlap next summer, but if
Anita and
Marc are over there while we are at WDW, I feel sure we will drive over at least for a day. We'd love to see some hatchlings, if we could be that lucky!
Sorry about the trouble with your student. Hopefully he will settle down.
Aw I thought of you MeMom when Brooklynn was having her surgery & I figured you wanted to be there with her. So glad to hear she is up & about.
Happy Birthday Brooklynn!!
You know I did! It was one of those things though - it was major to us, but it wasn't a major surgery. She was in and out that day, the little girls were covered at school, and meals were covered by church. What also made it worse that this is one of those rare three weeks spans where we don't see each other. Usually we just go two weeks, but this fell in the middle of one of the longer stretches. If Brooklynn hadn't been having her birthday celebration with her friends, I probably would have driven down to spend the night last night and come home today, but she was very busy having fun.
I will be very happy to see them at the end of next week when they come for us to celebrate Sophie's big day!
Happy Birthday!
Jill in CO
Glad to hear Brooklynn is doing so well after her surgery.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKLYNN!!!
Happy Birthday Brooklynn!
To a very sweet 
So hope you are feeling better and will be back to normal very, very soon!!!
I hate to go out to eat and get bad service. It looks like Bella and Brooklynn had a great view though.
Happy Birthday Brooklynn! So, no Disney party this year?
Happy Birthday Brooklynn!!
Happy Birthday Brooklynn! Hope you are feeling better soon!
Happy birthday Brooklynn!
Thank you for taking the time to post this for me - I'm certain this will help with the trip planning
(and thanks MeMom for letting me interrupt your report to ask the question)
Sorry I hadn't responded sooner - we've had a few last minute days away staying by the beach where my sister-in-law lives
I'm a few minutes late on this one but...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKLYNN!
I'm sure Jill will be showing Brooklynn all of her sweet birthday wishes this weekend. I sang a crazy version of
Happy Birthday to her yesterday morning on the phone, and she cracked up. Bella told Jill about a week ago that she was crazy, but not as crazy as MeMom.
Happy Birthday to Brooklynn! I hope she enjoys her party tonight.
She's very lucky that she made you a MeMom.
I know that torn feeling of wanting to be there for your kids but also knowing they can do it on there own. I don't have grand kids but I know that must make it even harder.
I'm very glad that none of the kids ended up as fish food. Sorry you had such crappy service. That really can make or break a meal.
Grandkids make everything doubly nice. You love them so much, and you love watching your own child have such fun with them, as well.
Next time we go to Vero, we'll have to try another unique restaurant. We like going places that we don't have here at home.
So glad to hear she is up & about.
)
I used to be a pretty darn good swimmer in my younger days, but I have not gotten in a pool in years because of my flabbiness. I long to take early morning/late night swims when we are in Disney World when there is no one around. Maybe we could have some 2 a.m. swim lessons one of these days. 
We really wanted to see your precious kids in person.
