Our last day at the beach (sniff, sniff) was as sunny and beautiful as each of the other days had been, and Sylvia kept herself busy with the sand and all of those buckets.
We finished off our last night with a walk on the boardwalk and Mack and Manco pizza (yum!) and when I saw a little girl with an Elmo balloon, I had to ask her mom where she got it and find one for Sylvie. We couldn't get the little manageable size. Ah, no. Only the humungo jumbo size for our little girl. It caused a lot of problems, because if she held on to it, we couldn't see to push the stroller. Oh well; she will love it when we get home and use if for decoration in her room. Gotta love Elmo :) 
Sylvia's highlight of the night, and maybe of the whole week, was a ride on the carousel. I was sitting behind her, so I wasn't sure if she was happy, scared, or ambivalent. Just as the ride ended and I pulled her off the horse, she started screaming "Neigh, neigh! Neigh, neigh!". I realized she had become very attached to her horse, and she continued screaming as we bought another ticket, waited in line again, until she got on her new horse. She was thrilled for two more minutes until the ride ended again. She kissed her horsey good-bye (twice, plus an extra kiss for a horse that we walked past), and we attempted to fix the screams with the above mentioned Elmo with limited success.
I can't help but think that next year she may have a new level of awareness and be afraid of the horses. And maybe the year after that the carousel ride will be the boring place to be. This year, in that moment, she wanted nothing more than to ride around in circles on her magical horse and she screamed at the top of her lungs to make sure everyone knew how much those moments meant to her. I wish she could keep a piece of that magic forever.
And....a grand finale of ice cream (of course). We're definitely going to miss this place.
