Ouray Hot Springs with the Girls

We spent the day today with Nikki and Emily at the Ouray Hot Springs. They have a whole pool complex of varying degrees of heat, along with a diving board and a couple cool slides.

Before we left, though, Katrina shared with the girls their memory books. See, when we found out that we might get them, she sat down and spent countless hours putting together three nearly identical little scrapbooks about their new lives in Washington: what their new house looks like, what their new dog looks like, their new school, etc. There were also two pages on the two of us, some pages on what we do for different holidays, and a few other things. They were brilliant and looked professionally done (as is everything Kat does that is craft-oriented). This is the girls seeing their books for the first time, at the outdoor patio of our hotel.

This is Nikki, Emily and Kat at the hot springs. Gotta love the froggy facemasks.

Me, doing my daddy duty to make sure my little redhead doesn't become a redface (SPF of not less than 45 is a must). On that, the girls had a small tussle in the backseat over exactly what "45 SPF" actually means. Nikki, ever the confident, outspoken one, declared that it must mean that you can wear it for 45 hours. Emmie set her straight on that one... "It means 45 minutes, Nikki!!! 45 hours would be like two and a half days!!!" I didn't even say a word.

Nikki, starting the first of her 45 hours of sun protection.

Life looks so much better through a froggy facemask, don'tcha know.

Do we really have to wait 30 minutes after we eat before we go in again?

Yup... I guess we do.

I don't have a caption for this one... I'm just so proud, it hurts. This is the big, purple sea monster floatie that Nikki got me to buy with but one batting of her lashes over those baby blue eyes. She immediately dubbed it "Angel," and spent most of the afternoon afraid of it after falling off headfirst.

She and Angel did make peace by the end of the day, just so long as I was holding Angel firmly by the front legs.

One additional blessing that came today - something we truly didn't anticipate for quite a while - happened just as I was coming off the slide for the first time. The girls had told us in our meeting with their counselor that they didn't want us to force them to call us mom and dad, that they would do so when they felt ready.

Well, I guess they're ready.

I had just come down the slide. Emmie bobbed over to me and said, "hey, I just asked Katrina if it was okay to call you guys mom and dad instead of Katrina and Scott, because Katrina and Scott are too hard to say, anyway."

Well, how 'bout dem apples!

From that point forward, Em sought every possible opportunity to use this new moniker:

Dad! Can you throw the rings for me to dive for?

Dad! My mask broke!

Dad! Can I go get the swim noodles?

Dad! Where's mom? I want to show her how I can dive!

etc.

Nikki, who appears to be the most physically brave (she took to the water like a fish, and, despite being younger by almost two years, is a better swimmer than Emily), didn't take to the "mom and dad" thing right away, which is all right. Emily, though a bit more cautious about the physical things around her (she avoided the dark, enclosed slide until I agreed to slide with her), seems to be much more willing to risk emotionally. The truth is, the girls will most likely bounce back and forth between "Scott and Katrina" and "mom and dad" for some time, which is just fine.

But, still, having someone call us "mom and dad" is truly the fulfillment of a longstanding dream of ours.

Here it is.