Part VII

As with all good things, our week was surely coming to an end. Rachel and I talked on Thursday night about possible activities for our last day. I told Rachel that I thought we should start packing our bags, so that Friday night and Saturday morning would go much smoother. Yeah, fun - I know, but at least we could get some laundry in and done. I mean real laundry, not Beth's kind of laundry. We found out that some of the family were going to do the aquarium that morning, so less of a chance for us to get behind on packing. Well, best laid plans sometimes go by the wayside on vacation. We did get most of our laundry done, but we ended up taking the girls out and flying our kites on the beach. Rachel got her's started in the front yard really nice, but we reeled it in and went to the beach. Well, the beach SUCKED on Friday - we thought the wind was being blocked by the house and the sand dunes because it was almost impossible to get the kites to stay up in the air for any amount of time. We moved back down the beach to the public walkway, and no more dunes equals KITE in the air.

Allison had to use the bathroom, and there just happened to be a port-a-pottie at the end of the walkway to the beach. Allison told me to wait outside, because she could do it all by herself. Ryleigh was allowed in, for reasons I still don't know. Allison is turning into a little woman more and more each day. I thought that by raising three girls, I may get an inside view of the confusion that women cause men, but I still haven't figured it out. So, I was flying my kite outside the pottie waiting for Allison to finish. Rachel was off with her kite getting it up high in the air, and she yells for me to come over. We walked over, and saw that the crabs on the beach were busy digging their holes into the sand. I thought it was pretty cool, so I snapped off some pictures. Allison and Ryleigh, however, responded with ear-splitting screams of terror. It didn't help that I told them if the crabs came too close, that Daddy would eat them. Gotta love it.

Oh, and about the time the girls were screaming, the wind died down and kite in water. We wrapped it up to take back to the house, and took the girls inside to take a nap, or at least have quiet time. Rachel came back out, and we got her kite up in the air - the whole 200 feet of string even. It was pretty cool, and was fun -- until just about everyone else in the house came out and it just got too crowded in the front yard for 6 people flying kites. I was frustrated, so we went inside to chill out. We started packing backs, and getting dinner ready. We were going to eat early, so that would leave the evening for everyone to pack and scramble to clean, etc.

That was the plan, but again, best laid plans. Allison wanted to go into the kiddie pool, since it was still pretty warm out that day. I threw on my suit, and went with her to hang out. It also had the added bonus of occupying the kids, so Rachel could pack easier. Just for fun, I jumped into the pool - it was so cold, there had to be shrinkage of seismic proportions. Well, it got much warmer in half the pool once Thad and Ben rigged the outside shower's hot water to run into the pool. The downside? Nobody could take showers for about an hour and change after we were chased from the pool by lightening and thunder. In any case, a large portion of the family ended up in the pool for about an hour, playing with water pistols, throwing a football, and such. Allison even came over to the big pool with me, and with assistance from a life-jacket and Daddy, she swam the length of the pool more than 10 times. Rachel and I were so proud, as she's been afraid of water for a long, long time.

We divyed up the leftover food to each family, and then retired to bed. Rachel and I had a relaxing day, ironically, because we didn't leave everything to the last minute. It was a sad night, because we knew it was our last in the house.