Family Fiesta

Note: I haven't asked parental permission to use children's names on this blog, so I'm going to refer to them by first initials only. I don't think they'd say not to use names, but it's more exciting this way anyway. They do it in books sometimes, and it makes me SO curious.

I am sitting here, hunched over my computer screen, while Kimberly is downstairs playing a beautiful Chopin piece on the piano. Wow do I feel like the uncultured sheep of the family. But I feel better knowing that she is playing the piano while she waits for me to get off the computer. That does not diminish the fact that she blows me out of the water when it comes to Chopin pieces. Not to mention her throwing arm. Oh well, she has to be compensated somehow for being the youngest (and therefore slave) of the family.

Speaking of families, ours had a wonderful outing to the Seashore today. (Have you ever noticed how Victorian children's books talk about the seashore a lot? Or enough for me to realize it just now, anyway.) We haven't taken an outing all together since our family started rapidly expanding, and it turned out to be such a success that we might actually make an annual pilgrimage of it! I think Kimberly will have a more detailed report (outdoing me yet again), so I will leave that to her and just describe a few highlights of the day.

As I headed toward the rendezvous point (the van, of course) I saw T___ riding about on a little plastic riding device (can you call it a tricycle if it is made out of plastic?) and was suddenly filled with this incredibly warm and fuzzy feeling to think that now all of my nephews are getting the chance to grow up in the idyllic circumstances and surroundings that I did. I had the same reaction when I saw a picture of M___ looking in awe at some Bible School students during some function or other. I remember that feeling. And my childhood was so incredibly happy that I rejoice at their opportunities.

Another highlight came when I decided to teach M___ how to play 20 questions on the trip. He is a little young for it still, but I simplified it down a bit, and he understood right away. And it was so much fun to see his absolute delight when he would guess mine, or I his. It was really an exciting little triumph every time. Ah the joys of seeing things through fresh eyes. G___, however, had a harder time with things. The first time he was “it” we started guessing and it quickly became apparent that he had nobody in mind at all, but was relishing being able to say “yeeeees,” and “nooooo” in an authoritative and mysterious manner. The second time it was his turn Gretchen told him to make sure he was thinking of an actual person. “Are you thinking of a person?” she asked. “No I want to think about a statue!” he responded.

The joys of sharing happiness with a new generation increased when we actually arrived at the ocean. They have very rarely seen the ocean, and they all loved it. I__ especially enjoyed the waves, and having Dad hold him with his feet in the way of the spray. We were in an area that was rocky, not a beach, and we climbed all over the place finding new breath-taking vistas and seaweed treasures and even feathers and shells.

These are just a few snapshots of what was a wonderful day - a definite highlight moment in family history. I took (speaking of snapshots) a bazillion pictures, and now that Blogger lets you put them up so easily, some of them might actually end up here! But not being the digital type, I'll have to wait until I get the pictures developed next week.