Vacation Part 3 – Bay Beach Tuesday!

This is the day we pulled out the boats, oars and life jackets and headed over to the bay to play the grandpa way! Grandpa has always enjoyed sailing and canoeing and so he brought his sailing canoe, rowboat raft and the Snark so we can all have a go at them. It’s pretty fun.

The sailboats have been growing on me. A few years ago Doug took me out in his sailing canoe and I don’t think it was rigged as well as it is now. It was tipsier and the boom was in the way threatening to knock anyone out cold who got in the way of it. So I have always been hesitant to get into it. Last year grandpa took some of the older grandchildren out in it but not without a lot of fear from me about the kids’ safety.

This year it was better for some reason. Maybe because the kids were older and already had taken a spin in the sailing canoe or maybe because I was feeling braver. Probably a combination of the two.

I even got brave enough to take the little Snark out and try to sail it for the first time by myself. That was interesting to say the least.

Anyway, we all went down to the bay beach. The kids had a lot of fun playing and swimming in the water.

The babies played in the sand.

Alan took Gabby for a sail in the Snark.

I took Katherine out in the rowboat.

We took lots of pictures:

Great Grandpa took in and enjoyed the whole scene:

  

I hope Grandpa Dick enjoyed it. I love these pictures of him watching us play and taking in the atmosphere. He looks kinda like he belongs here! :)

And we watched a butterfly flutter all around us as we played.

It always seemed to me that Grandma Taber – Susan  - enjoyed the times when her family all got together and, most specifically in this case, our time at the beach. It was a calm relaxing time and one chock full of picture opportunities. One of my memories of her was that she always had her camera nearby to take lots of grandkid photos. She loves them so much.

The butterfly reminded me of the story Doug shared before her passing of a butterfly struggling to free itself of it’s chrysalis. When it did it was strong, beautiful and free!

I watched that butterfly and felt like it was a sign that grandma was there watching her grandkids enjoy this time together. I don’t think she would have missed it. :)

Well, all was fun and calm, at least for the most part. We had a brief adrenaline pumping incident when a child had gotten too far into the water on the kick board and fell off of it. Thank goodness for an email sent before the beach week that brought it to our attention to watch the kids more closely.

And then we had another scary incident when another child had gotten too far out in the water. In a boat.

I had taken the Snark out for my first time. I was nervous because I didn’t know how to sail and I was hoping to control it enough to stay fairly close to shore in case I got knocked by the boom or something. That thing is hard to maneuver and the boom will smack you pretty good when the wind shifts if you’re not careful. The rudder is also hard to work because you have to reach behind you with one hand to steer it while directing the sail with the other. Well, that’s what I thought anyway. It wasn’t until later in the week when I saw Manahi operate it by sitting sideways. He looked much more comfortable that way! Why didn’t I think of that? haha!

So I was sailing around in the Snark. Gabby had decided she wanted to try out the rowboat herself with no adult help. It didn’t occur to anyone that she didn’t have the arm strength to row it all by herself but we did tell her to stay close to shore. That doesn’t make much sense now that I think about it.

So Gabby and I are both out there. I’m trying to stay near her but not too close because I didn’t want to collide with her. But after a few minutes she says “mommy, I can’t do this!” So from my boat I give her the best advice that I can but to no avail. Meanwhile, she’s drifting out into the bay away from shore. When I realized what was happening, I don’t think anyone else had yet. They hadn’t heard her say “I can’t do this.” So I maneuvered my little sailboat right up to her rowboat and did my best to try to grab the rope that was tied to the rowboat. Only, every time I released the rudder I’d lose control of my boat or if I released the sail it threatened to thwack me. I didn’t have any way to lower or tie the sail and I was getting water in my boat because the wind caught hold and spun me around fast enough to have water come in the back. Now a Snark can only take so much weight. I was worried about water in the boat weighing it down.

But I’m still trying to get hold of the rope and I did partially. I could have had it by that point. Unfortunately the rope on the rowboat was still wrapped up nice and tidy and tied up. We usually let that out so we can tug the boat behind us on shore and tug little kids in it. We hadn’t done that yet. I hate that I’d thought about doing that before Gabby got in the rowboat in the first place but I didn’t. I’d been distracted or something. But, if that rope had been un-tied I could have gotten it and tied it to my ankle and kept her near me while either I got us both back to shore or I kept her from drifting out further so someone can swim out and get her.

I couldn’t get the rope though! By then I think Alan noticed what was going on and relying on his scout lifesaving merit badge – reach, throw, row, go with support – he grabbed a kick board and sent off to get her. By that time, she’d started drifting out away from me. Worried about making things worse in that boat that was difficult to control, I set off to try to bring it back to shore. I knew Alan would get to her. The last thing I’d said to her was to stay IN the boat.

By the time he’d gotten to her he had to swim quite a distance. He was really worn out. He was glad to have brought the kick board because he wasn’t sure he would have gotten that far without it.

Grandpa and Aunt Christina at the same time grabbed the sailing canoe and sailed out to them and Uncle Manahi ran down the beach and onto the pier to get to where he could jump into the water to get her if there was danger of her drifting out to sea.

It was a great rescue. Poor Gabby was terrified but she handled it well. I could only stand on the beach and watch the group all clustered together way out by the pier, more than halfway down it (and it’s a really long pier). They huddled there for a while and I was worried about what could be causing them to be there for so long. I thought Gabby was fine but was worried about Alan and his marathon swim. Had something happened to him? There was a small crowd that I could see gathering on the pier where Manahi was standing watching over the side. The minutes went by too slowly and I was killing myself over not being able to grab the rope on Gabby’s boat and then leaving her there. But the group broke and I could see they were heading back to shore tugging the rowboat behind them. They had Alan and Gabby climb into the canoe with them. The reason it took them so long, besides moving Gabby to the canoe was to give Alan a rest too. He was pretty tired still when they got back.

The one reassuring thing in this story is that Gabby had a lifejacket on. And she knew to stay in the boat. That is one rule we always abide by – you MUST wear a life jacket if you’re going to take a boat out.

Lessons learned! Kids must take sailing and rowing tests before being allowed to be in a boat without an adult I think. Even if, which is I think what we thought, there are plenty of adults to catch her before she got too far out. I think also, while a child is learning to control the rowboat an adult needs to either be in it with them or holding onto that rope (that never got let out) and walking with it. Third, I think, that even if a child seems reasonably able to handle the boat, that rope should always be let out in case it is needed to rescue the boat and whoever is in it again. Had that just been done this wouldn’t be much of a story I think. Unless I couldn’t for some reason get that sailboat back to shore.

Which I heard later was a huge feat in and of itself! Doug said that I won the Captain Nemo award for sailing it back to shore against the wind and Grandpa Dick said I have some really good talent for sailing given that was my first time to sail it. REally? Cool! I thought I was just having a really hard time and when Gabby had drifted away from me so that there was nothing else I could do, I just prayed that I could get that thing back to shore so that I wouldn’t have to be rescued too!

Exciting times! yeah, um, this is vacation, it’s not supposed to be THAT kind of exciting. Thankfully that was it for the week for scary rescue moments. whew!

Later in the day Alan took some of the kids back to the bay beach during low tide to harvest some bait to go fishing. He thought maybe Grandpa Dick would like to do that with some of the kids later. We had fun picking up conch shells and razor clams, playing with hermit crabs that we found and humming to our snails so they’d come out and tickle our palms. Here are a couple pictures, not very good though because I’d gotten sunscreen or something on my lens but I think worth placing here.

 

They did find the grandfather of all Conch. The thing was massive, at least compared to the others they’d found. Unfortunately I’d put my camera away and didn’t take any of those pictures. Maybe next year. But they figured a Conch that survived long enough to get as big as it did deserved to be put back into the bay and that is what they did.

I am thankful that at the end of this day, everyone was back together all safe and sound. Oy! Let’s not do that again!

Vacation!! Monday-Monday…

I just had to start out with yet another cute picture of Joe-boy at the beach. :)

Monday the nice beach weather returned. We decided that we would do Ocean Beach on Monday and Bay Beach on Tuesday. Some of the family don’t like to stay on the beach all day. That’s okay. Personally, I would pack a lunch and stay long into the afternoon if my kids would cooperate but they do like to have time to play with their cousins. Plus as young as they are right now it is hard to stay out for that long. So we do one or the other beach each morning and then break for lunch at the house and then the kids do activities and play for a while before heading to the pool across the street to swim for a little bit before dinner and that’s the way it goes every day. Sometimes the afternoon activity before pool time would be to walk down to the bay beach for a little play time. As far as the pool, the kids love it but I would really rather go to the beach again in the afternoon! When in Rome after all…I’m hard pressed to convince my kids that that is better too. Oh well, maybe when they’re older and wiser. ;)

But Monday…

The ocean waves were a bit rough and the undertow strong so there wasn’t a lot of swimming. But the kids really enjoyed playing in the wake of the waves

 

and playing with their cousins.

This is Joseph and Derek the youngest of the cousins so far and who are only a week apart in age. They had fun looking at and playing near each other.

I love this picture of them:

Here is our little “campsite” for that day. I really love our big colorful umbrella. :)

We’ve learned a lot about going to the beach with young kids over the last 9 years of going to beach week.

One is that the huge red quilt we used to bring, while awesome and big enough to accommodate many of us eventually became too bulky to carry. So we traded it for a sheet that fit into the toy bucket or a backpack.

Two, we needed good shelter. We used a 10x10 canopy for a few years, which also was awesome, but it was too bulky and way too heavy to bring if you’re also toting young kids and toys and all their stuff. And as it turned out, my family was always left to be the ones to bring it back, with all our stuff too. Rarely we had other families want to deal with it even though they had all used it too. It could resurrect itself in a few years once we have teenagers to help carry stuff. I did like the shade it gave and a great place to hang your towels. But the big beach umbrella replaced that and has been a good thing for us right now. We were smart and bought one of those sand anchors to go with it and we haven’t had too much trouble with it blowing over. It gives good shade and it’s much easier to carry. Way better. Add a couple more umbrellas and we’d have great shade too!

Three, we learned that not all the kids like the waves. They’re scary, especially while they’re so young so a little blow up pool was perfect for the beach.

The one in the picture is only big enough for one child but the kids still love to play with it and it’s great for putting an overheated baby into to splash around for a while. We used to have a bigger one that would fit three or 4 kids but it had a puncture and I haven’t found one that size again yet. If I look harder I probably will but I’m always too busy getting other details taken care of.

The other thing with the kiddie pool is we bring our beach toys onto the beach in a large utility bucket which we then use to fill the pool. The kids like the pool to be filled up and then dad has to go back again and fill up the bucket so they have both things to play with. Then when we pack up we have a handy place for the toys.

It’s a lot of fun and we’re working it down to a science! We even learned this year how to get all 6 of us and our gear down to the beach without our beach cart. I was pretty impressed with us!

Here are some other cute pictures from Monday:

He has such a cute grin!

Down for the count!

 

After a fun day with lots of playing we had dinner, ice-cream and then bed. Putting the kids to bed was so easy this year! Either Alan or I put Joseph down…

Aunt Christina read to Samantha, Katherine, Samuel and Levi, who all but Samantha was sharing that room. Samantha and Katherine really loved having their aunt read to them. So cute!

And Gabby, who was sharing a room with Lucy and Samantha took care of putting herself to bed. She and Lucy read together and chatted before turning out the light. Samantha was usually pretty worn out and was out pretty quickly.

Vacation!! More Soggy Saturday

I forgot to include this very cute picture of a soggy Joseph on a soggy beach on that soggy Saturday. I think he’s not quite sure what to make of his situation - “why are we outside in the cold rain mommy?”. I don’t know if he remembers the beach from last year, he being only a few weeks old, but maybe he remembers our trip to the Jersey shore over spring break.

Notice the wet sheet and the rain on his face. He was happy for a while but when his lips turned purple, poor thing, it was time to go!

I just love this picture and had to include it!

Vacation!!

We had our Taber beach week in July this year instead of August due to a scheduling conflict with our family having another family reunion in August (which, sadly, is not happening after all.)

Like every year we went down early on Saturday so we can have some fun on the beach before checking into the beach house.

We checked the weather before we left and it said it was going to be nice for the beach.

Look at the picture. What say you?

THIS is what awaited us when we got there! It was drizzly and chilly! But we still went out and played for a little while.

Our little guppy Gabby still really enjoyed the water and it took a little enforcing to get her and Samantha out when it was time to go.

But Alan, who loves the waves, thought it was just too cold! Brrr!! His ankles is about as far in as he got.

Every year we have tried to meet up at the Lemon Tree for lunch with whatever families are already down there by then. The Lemon Tree is a little mom and pop sandwich and burger place in Lewes which has yummy sandwiches and great onion rings! It had become quite a tradition. This year due to different circumstances we decided that we weren’t going to do that. Well, we still had to feed our kids lunch and so we went there anyway. We ended up meeting up with Doug, Christine and Grandpa Dick who got there just a minute or two before we did. Funny how some traditions just keep going.

The rain came pretty steadily and strongly all the rest of that day. We were surprised by the weather for sure but the locals, while surprised, were very grateful for the heavy rain. They had been missing the rain at least as badly as we were in NJ. Our grass was so brown and crisp and I was hoping all that rain was making it up to our house too.

Thankfully it let up by dinnertime and I, really needing to get a training walk in, found a 5 mile long trail and got my first 10 miler done. It was a really pretty walk. I walked the Junction and Breakwater Trail which took me first through a neighborhood which I thought was a bit weird. The trail was a sidewalk right in the middle of the street, right down the middle of the neighborhood. But, once out of there, it became a nicely wooded, marshland trail complete with benches for resting at and interpretive signs so people can learn about the flora and fauna of the forest and marsh. It was really pretty and I recommend it to anyone who likes to hike and walk trails or take their families. There is a parking area down the trail so you don’t have to walk the whole trail and still get the benefits of it.

Of course I got back long after dinner – it was a 3 hour walk after all. I think I broke a cardinal rule missing a family dinner at beach week but there was no other time for me to go. I’m glad I did though. It set a precedent for me to keep getting my training walks in all week – although I did them in the morning before breakfast or after dinner. And I felt really good having gone and had all kinds of energy for playing that week.

Massachusetts Trip April 23

My brother and his wife Becka were being sealed with their daughter Reese in the Boston MA temple in April so we all gathered for their special occasion. We went early enough to do some sight seeing while we were there. There is a lot of American history in this area and we were excited to take it in. I wish I could remember all that I’d read on our drive up about Lexington and Concord because it is so interesting to me. Here is the Wikipedia write-up on the Battles of Lexington and Concord.  Battles of Lexington and Concord I printed it out and took it with us on our trip. It was very helpful to me to understand the place. I’ll try to write down what I can remember of our feelings there because there was a lot of spirit in the place.
Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon but if they mean to have a war let it begin here.
We had the opportunity to visit the Town Green in Lexington where the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired. It was a very hallowed place and the spirit could be felt strongly while we were there, even with all the people and traffic around us.
Here is a memorial to the first victims in the Revolutionary War listing their names. Then it says:
The Die was cast!!! The blood of these martyrs, in the cause of God and their country, was the cement of the union of these states, then colonies, and gave the spring in the spirit, firmness and resolution of their fellow citizens. They rose as one man to revenge their brethren’s blood and at the point of the sword to assert and defend their native rights. They nobly dar’d to be free. The contest was long, bloody and affecting. Righteous Heaven approved the solemn appeal. Victory crowned their arms and the Peace, Liberty and Independence of the United States of America was their glorious reward. – built in 1799

One thing I remember feeling at this place was this battle absolutely had to happen if we were going to wage the war that would give us our freedom. The British were marching through because they were on orders to remove the weapons and artillery from the colonists. The shot that was fired that morning, it is not known who fired it. It could have been a misfire or someone being overzealous but it did start that battle and with that battle and the ensuing battles along the way to Concord later in the day the war might have died out and taken longer to get going. A precedent may have been set where the colonists had to peacefully give up their weapons. Perhaps this battle could have taken place in another place, another town. But it started here. And with it the beginning of the freedom we celebrate.
And with our freedoms came the freedom to worship as we will. It ultimately helped bring about the restoration of the church. Only about 50 years separate this battle from the moment that Joseph Smith became confused by all the differing religious views and prayed about it. That is not a long time at all. Someone living during this battle could have been there when Joseph Smith received the plates. You can see the urgency in getting things set into motion here.
It is just amazing to me to have been able to, in my mind, witness that timeline as I stood there on the green. I was able to see how it was all meant to happen just as it did and everything fell in to place by the grace and according the the plan of our Father in Heaven. He definitely had a hand in this battle. On a lighter note, while the tour guide at the tavern we visited was telling us about the first shot fired and how nobody knows who actually fired it, I did think how funny it would be if we were to find out one day that an angel had actually made the gun go off and it wasn’t the fault of anyone in particular. Heavenly Father had a plan and He knew what had to happen to set it into motion.
I think that time we spent on the Green was the most humbling and spiritual closeness to the Revolution I had ever felt before. I know that Heavenly Father gave us this country and with it our freedom so that we can have the priesthood and the gospel restored and so we can more fully use the free agency we have been given. It really is a gift and those who fought for these rights I’m sure have a special place in Heaven for it.
There is more of our trip to follow, but as today is the 4th of July (so appropriate that I had time to blog about this today!) we are going to go find some fireworks and celebrate our freedom!

Blogging again – Gabby’s Birthday

I have so many pictures and things that I wanted to include in my blog but I haven’t had the time to write much over the last few months. I have some time today so I’ll go backwards until I run out of time again.

This one is of Joseph after a yummy meal. I can’t remember why I took the picture but it is cute!  It was taken on Gabby’s birthday which must be why I had the camera out.

Gabby wanted to have a friend’s birthday party but since her birthday fell on a Sunday we couldn’t do it then. I still like to celebrate their birthdays on their birthdays when we can so I made her an ice-cream on her request with a special pan for filled cakes that we’d gotten from someone at church.

I think the cake turned out cute but I didn’t take it out of the freezer early enough so it was still icy when we tried to eat it. But still tasty!!

  

Here’s Gabby, 9 years old, enjoying cake with her family and her grandma who came by to share her birthday with us.

I can’t believe she’s 9!

Later we had her friends birthday party. We had our first ever sleep-over! Oh my. It was quite, well, um, interesting. And fun too, especially for Gabby.

I made cupcakes, I think they turned out super cute!!

We got pizza, put out snacks, rented movies and set up the big screen (sheet) and projector and they watched movies, painted nails, put on skits, sang songs, teased each other, ran amok, and some of them even stayed up all night (because it was their first sleepover too and they thought that was the awesomest thing to do!) We were pretty exhausted the next day but it was fun.

We had a pancake breakfast in the morning complete with chocolate chip pancakes, fresh fruit, orange juice and whipped cream. What a party! Unfortunately I was too tired to think about getting the camera out to take a picture of all the sleepy girls eating their pancakes but that’s okay.