Florida

For the past several summers, Noah has gone to spend a week with my mom during the summer.  He enjoys visiting with her, working on a project or two with Poppa, hanging out with his friend Jesse and generally being away from his immediate family, I think.

This year Eiley, Armand, Elio and I tagged along.  We planned to spend a few days all together, then Armand, Elio and I would scoot over to the other coast to meet up with Amelia, Elio's Guatemalan cousin, whom we've only met once before when the kids were 3 years old.

We went to the Ponce de Leon Springs where we had all-you-can eat, make-at-the-table pancakes in a very hot and crowded restaurant.  This is a tradition for Noah's summer visit, always bringing Jesse with him, but this year I decided I think I'd prefer to save the $80 that breakfast costs for 7 people, make all-you-can eat pancakes at home and go to a less crowded, more spring-y spring next time.  Mom said you can't break with tradition, and maybe she's right, but I think I'll try to start a new one the next time we visit.

We went to Sandestin Resort in Destin, FL to meet Amelia's family who was coming from Louisiana. It was a perfect location that Amelia's mom suggested.  They have luxurious apartments, activities to entertain the whole family, great restaurants that were surprisingly reasonably priced, beautiful pools, and paths to walk or bike along.

Elio, as soon as he saw Amelia, because incredibly shy and ran into the bushes.  He had not mentioned feeling shy at all so his behavior came as a surprise to me.  He took a long time to come out of the bushes and when he did, he was aloof and wild acting.  Dear Amelia clearly wanted to talk with him but all he could do was run and hope she'd chase him.  (Luckily she did.)  He seemed like he truly didn't know what to do with himself and all his emotions.



Elio with too much energy for a photo shoot
 

feeding fish
 

Elio and Amelia tried bungee jumping
 

 

 

 

 

I think Armand felt a bit of a third wheel.  While we always call Amelia the 'boys' cousin', it is well known that she is Elio's cousin really.  And Amelia had definite eyes for Elio.  I love the photo series below from our breakfast the morning after meeting. 

 



Elio stealing a look at Amelia

Amelia glancing back at Elio

Elio getting nervous because Amelia is talking to him

'What??' 

Soon after these photos were taken we wanted to give Amelia a little gift and Elio was so nervous he left the table and didn't return until the food was served.

After breakfast we went swimming in the pool. Amelia brought water squirters for the three of them so Elio and Amelia were on one team and Armand the other. After a long time Armand asked if he and Amelia could be on one team against Elio.  Amelia said no.  He asked if he and Elio could be against her and she said no again.  She said 'I won't shoot my cousin' to which Elio replied 'I will!'  So much of their interaction seemed classic boy-girl.  I felt like I was getting some clues about what they'll be like with their first crushes. 

driving boats
 

waiting to bungee jump again
 

Elio finally feeling a little more comfortable
at the end of the second day
 

Amelia and Elio gearing up to ride a zip line

Amelia is very brave.  She had no hesitation about riding a zip line high above the lake.  Elio initially didn't want to do it but Amelia convinced him to try.  They climbed to the top of the launch tower but after Amelia went, Elio decided to come back down instead.  He tried to be brave!

The goodbye was hard for Elio also; he just didn't know how to handle it.  He even left at one point and watched us from the outside through the window.  Amelia wanted to give Elio a goodbye hug but Elio just couldn't do it.  He hugs other friends easily, but he couldn't hug her.  He kept his hands up behind his head and Amelia did the best she could.

Elio, Armand, Amelia and Julia
 

 

 

We have talked about making it a yearly tradition to meet Amelia and her family at Sandestin.  I think it would be great for the children to maintain their relationship and I look forward to bringing the whole family next time.

 

 

The boys and I returned to my mom's house for a few more day where we swam in the pool, played Mexican Train, ate a special dinner to celebrated Eiley's birthday and visited with friends.  And once we got the van jumped and bought a new battery, we were on the road home once again!

Eiley the Great

When Eiley was 3 I thought she was a perfect 3 year old and I could never imagine her being any older. And now that she is 13 I'll say she is a perfect 13 year old also.  Some of those years in the middle I spent not looking forward to her teen years but now that they are here we get along better than ever.  In fact, I love having teenagers.  Love it! 



Eiley at 3, sneaking nibbles of a sugar skull in front of our Day of the Dead ofrenda.
Noah, 6, is offended because Eiley is being irreverent. 
His arms were crossed because he thought that was more respectful of the dead.
 

And 10 years later, still being silly!

This year we went to the mountains of Virginia to celebrate Eiley's birthday.  We rented an historic cabin-turned-bed & breakfast. 

Eiley had asked for the Guess Who? game she remembered liking as a child.  We played a few rounds and Eiley was like 'Isn't this a fun game??' and I was like 'Yeah!!' but about 15 minutes later we were done with the thrill.  'Do you think we should return it to Target?' 'Yeahhh'. 

playing Guess Who?

The next day we went tubing down the Shenandoah River.  We had a great time just drifting along talking about our dreams; Eiley wants to be a movie star and I want to write books.

That night we went to see a local production of The Importance of Being Earnest.  With Eiley's interest in acting she was as excited as I was.  It went very late and we were very tired, but we made it though and it was great.  They even had delicious tiny cucumber sandwiches at the concession stand. 

this is Eiley's new favorite photo

 

Every year we get a picture of us together in front of the sign of the place we stayed.  This year the sign didn't give the name of the cabin, only the address... Jiggady Road.  Made us giggle, that name.

 

 

Horseshoe Crab Adventures

Back in May I took the children back to Delaware Bay to see the natural phenomenon of the mating horseshoe crabs. From all my research on the topic I've learned the best time to see the crabs is at the high tide of the full or new moons from late May to early June, with Delaware Bay having the most populous beaches on the whole East coast.  Last year we were there at the new moon and while we saw several horseshoe crabs, we didn't see the thousands that come ashore at once.  This year we went on the full moon and so I hoped for a better turnout.

We were disappointed.  The first night on the beach we saw nothing but a small dead shark.  It was windy and drizzling and I felt very discouraged for having driven so far for nothing. 

The next morning we went to the hotel pool where I met a man who said he remembered seeing horseshoe crabs at Assateague Island when he was a kid.  Assateague Island was a little over an hour away so I hurried the kids out of the pool and we headed south.  I figured even if we didn't see the crabs, at least we'd find some sort of adventure - certainly a better option than hanging out in the hotel room all day watching SpongeBob while it rained outside.

On the way to Assateague we passed a used car lot that had the most incredible old cars so we stopped to day dream.

 

On the island we decided to hike a few trails, one on the beach and the other on a boardwalk in the marsh.

 

at the beginning of our beach trail hike

 

 



the water was so cold!

wild horses on the side of the road

We left Assateague because we were starving and happened upon the cutest little downtown I've ever seen.  The storefronts were beautiful and old-fashioned, the roads a little narrow and windy.  I noticed a burger joint so we went in for a delicious dinner.  I asked the waitress where we were and she said Berlin, MA, where Tuck Everlasting and another well known movie were filmed.

We went back to Assateague to the bay side to see if there were any signs of the horseshoe crabs.  Nope.  We did see a seagull drop a clam in the parking lot and then swoop down to eat it.

broken clam shell

The sun was setting so we played around the water.  Eiley experimented taking photos of the setting sun.  She has gotten really interested in photography lately.

Noah teaching Elio how to skip stones



mama and her four adventurers

The time was quickly approaching for high tide and we had not seen any signs of the horseshoe crabs so we decided to quickly head back to Slaughter Beach, the location we had tried the night before in Delaware.  This time it was a success! 

Elio had gotten a plastic horseshoe crab at the welcome center on Assateague and spent much of his time on the island and on Slaughter Beach crouched down playing with it.  The toy was a girl model but Elio was sure they just made it wrong and really it was a boy.

with headlamps so we can see on the beach, Elio playing with his of course

We ended up seeing a lot more horseshoe crabs this night than any prior.  What was different about this year was there were very few females and most of the females had several mates.  I wonder why this was.  I love the colors of the horseshoe crabs.  You'll see mottled brown and green and grayish blue.  In the image below the female is the dark brown crab partially buried in the sand.  She is laying hundreds of eggs deep in the sand, after which the males will fertilize them.

I was amazed at how deeply buried this female was.

After a male selects a female and attaches to her with his boxing glove claws, he tries his best to not let go until they are back in the ocean.  If they get flipped over by the waves and can't right themselves, he will still cling to her.  The following morning the beach is littered with dying horseshoe crabs, pointy tails sticking up in the air as if raising their hand to ask for help.  Last year we were able to walk the beach and help dozens of crabs back into the ocean.  This year we had to leave early to return home so we didn't get to do that fun part.  I guess there's always next year. 

a female, male and satellite male overturned in the surf, trying to right themselves