Nyah and West had their first birthday today and we partied hard, one-year-old style. They pushed some presents around the floor. and then ate the wrapping. Some also chose to sit in the present box. The party really got going when we brought out the empty water jugs and continued when we headed upstairs to play on the spare mattress. A big hit was laying the office chair on its back. And things wound up with a round of cupcakes.
Some highlights of the fall so far include: When West fought a pumpkin (ended in a draw). When Nyah ate a pumpkin (the last bite of an 80 pounder). A cardboard tunnel (toy of the year). Our ongoing window washing project. And I’ll just finish with some gratuitous cute kid pics.
We decided to try our luck at prawning again yesterday. This time we dropped the trap just before lunch and went back out to pick it up just before dinner. We figured that the number of prawns caught would scale linearly with the time the trap was down, giving us 62.5 prawns for a 5 hour set. Actually, to be honest, we expected more like 100 prawns since we reckoned that for the first hour word was just getting around…
Today was gorgeous and sunny so we took the boat out and dropped the prawn trap. It was only down for 2 hours (the crew got restless sailing around to kill time), but we caught 25 prawns. Six were carrying roe so we threw them back, but it was still our best haul ever. Our old PB was 3 prawns, so this is a significant improvement and a much more substantial (ie noticeable) contribution to dinner.
This face cracks me up every time.
Looking over the Georgia Strait towards Vancouver on a calm autumn night.
Since I neglected to post anything all summer, I thought I’d do a quick summer summary. I think these pictures capture the gist of the season pretty well. We did quite a lot of swimming in tide pools (and in deeper spots for the adults). West discovered how tasty his thumb became in the ocean. and Nyah found new treasures of her own. We hiked a bit. We went to the park. and we even hit the playground. Notice how…
So, this mostly neglected blog was pretty much abandoned over the summer, but I have an excuse! We’ve relocated to Gabriola Island. Actually, I’m not sure that’s much of an excuse, but I need something to blame my laziness on. Anyways, we’ve rented a small cabin for the winter, so we’ll be living ashore for the first time in almost five years. The kids have been enjoying all the space and I’ve been appreciating all the luxuries of house-living (like…
Last weekend we headed over to East Bay on Gambier Island. We met up with Vince and Laura on Merganser and the kids spent their first night at anchor. Here they are hanging out in the cockpit with their dad. And waving (okay, not waving, but at least looking) goodbye as I paddle off in the kayak. Also, one nice feature of Sonrisa is that there’s a lip around the inside of the cockpit. A while ago we made boards…
We finally got out for our first actual sail of the year (with the sails up, rather than the motor running). We took some extra hands along to make things easier and our friend Cindy took some photos.