July 5 – “That’s a holiday”

 

 

Now that's what I call a full holiday.  We have had this few days of family time planned for a long time, so we are making the most of it.  It has meant that I haven't been able to spend the week at Vacation Bible School, and I even missed a last minute block party put on over at Seaside.  But the time spent with Zak and Caleb and Cailyn has been great.  And Kel and his family should be over here today, so that will complete the group. 

 

Yesterday we started out by going on a ferry ride.  I was a little hesitant at first.  I figured the traffic would be abominable.  We did a little creative maneuvering down the one-way streets, though, so we managed to avoid most of the worst of it.  That would be anything anywhere near the new Pleasure Pier, by the way.  The ferry line wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated, though.  And we were going to walk on, so we zipped right through to the parking lot.  We just missed one ferry, but the other one arrived within ten minutes or so, and we were off. 

 

Zak and Caleb were pretty excited.  They have been playing battleship on their Dad's iphone, so they had all sorts of scenarios in their heads.  The submarine and ship at Seawolf Park definitely helped with their imagination.  We did see a dolphin or two come up for air, but they seemed more into the ships.  Nani sent along some frozen pancakes to feed the seagulls.  We dutifully moved to the back of the boat and pulled them out.  Almost instantly the birds began to swarm around us.  Christi pulled a great duck and cover move and hastily exited to a safer part of the deck, taking Caleb with her.  He had his hands over his ears to block out the unholy screeching.  Zak dove under Josh's legs.  That left DadDad to feed the birds.  Zak finally came out from his lair when he saw a few of them eat from my hand.  He joined me and started throwing pancake fastballs at the flock.  It was worth the trip to hear his squeals and laughter.  He and Josh both seemed to get a kick out of it when I got some of them to pick up a crumb from the top of my head.  I was wearing a hat, by the way.  Can't be too careful.

 

Josh and Christi took us all out to eat at Salsa's for lunch, and April and Cailyn joined us.  That was nice, too.  Our waitress' name was Cailin.  The afternoon was the duly appointed rest time, so we watched a movie.  Despicable Me.  I didn't make it through the whole thing.  After all, it was a cartoon, and they put me to sleep with little effort.  Josh didn't make it either.  Caleb and Zak did fine, though.  Just shows who needed it most. 

 

Maybe I'll tell a little more about the evening festivities later.  We went to the parade and watched the fireworks.  Now I think I'll make a quick trip to check in on the VBS group before I have to start frying fish for lunch.

 

Psalms 8:3-5 says, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor."

 

Father, thank you for ferry rides and dolphins and squeals of children's laughter.  Amen.