Bucket Time on Frye Island

I has a bucket!


Splash!



Splashsplashsplash!



So this is the mysterious "wet" of which they speak.



More wet!



My minions obey.



Blublublublub.



Tastes like duck.

Beach Bums

Gabe's first visit to a beach:

Clean, salt-free water; crystal sky.


Gabe handed 3,572 pebbles to Grampa, 374 of which he first tried to eat. . .


. . .and Gabe wondered why Grampa kept dribbling water on his foot. After this came much fun with a bucket, and then it was sitting-in-the-water time!

We shared the beach with a family that had a pair of toddlers (one of which was toted down to the sand under one arm, looking like a piece of luggage), and this family of ducks, who popped out from the shade of a rock just next to me, thereby making me jump two feet in the air. These are the scariest ducklings I've ever met!

Frye Island Portraits

Chris took some wonderful portraits of my family while we were up at Frye Island.

Gabe's Grampa. . .


Nana. . .

Great Great Uncle Phil. . .

Great Great Aunt Nancy!


They really are great people, it's true!

Frye Island Boat Trip

Off the coast of Frye Island, uncle Phil took us out for a ride in his boat, named "Tuition Free".



Don't believe that concerned look on my mother's face. She and Dad are born sailors. Somehow, over the years, I had forgotten this.

Before. . .




Off we go!




After!


Poor Gabe. In his oversized life-jacket, he could barely move. The noise and spray and bouncing overwhelmed him.


Safe in Daddy's arms, the boat rocked Gabe to sleep.

Birthday Fish

I already have a hard time remembering that six months ago, Gabe's Garden was just a patch of neglected lawn. Happy birthday little dood! Soon you will be old enough to *really* play here.

To celebrate, I hung up the Japanese Children's Day banner that used to be mine. Children's Day, formerly Boy's Day, is actually in May, but since few people here in the US know that, I can get away with flying the carp whenever I like.



Gabe absolutely loves the banner. He waves his arms and shouts "da!" whenever he sees it. By "da", he means "gimmie".