First Fairy

This has been an exciting year of many firsts, not just for Mermaid, but for all of us. Thankfully, we have traditions to anchor us periodically. One of the oldest and most famous traditions in our family is the Birthday Fairy. The BF helps us celebrate the glorious golden age of earth life. Today, Mermaid got her first visit from the BF. We are so grateful to have Mermaid in our family and she's pretty happy about it, too! Or, she may just be happy because, from her point of view, the decorations look like gigantic rainbow breasts, a nursing baby's dream come true! (Her Dad gets credit for the rainbow comment.)

The Oy! in Ahoy!

We had our first solo family sailing trip.  Yep! Everyone came.  All the kids including Mermaid. After a 3 hour drive to Tom's River, NJ (yeesh!) we finally got our boat and hit the water.  Torpedo hated the idea from the get go, Sparkle was inclined to be bored and Mermaid was just along for the ride.  The rest of us had at least done the classes previously.  

It was a new boat, new waters and 3 new sailors, so there was a bit of mayhem (and screaming from a very scared Torpedo).  We dropped one sail-tie in the water straight off, ran into one of the channel posts trying to recover it and then lost Angelfish's hat into the water.  It was a freebee from a conference, so we decided to let it sink to the bottom.  

After the initial turmoil, we regained our bearings, remembered some of what we had learned in our class and managed to make our way up and down the river without running into anyone/thing, not running aground and keeping all the O's in the boat.  BL (Bottom Line):  we ended successfully!

Post-sailing allowed time to throw rocks of various and sundry sizes into the water from the pier, a chance to use the bathroom and eat, then over to the ocean for an hour or two of watching the sun set behind us and watching the moon rise in front of us.  Truly glorious.  

Some bad traffic on the way home.  We arrived at 11:30pm (12 hours round-trip) but we did it! Gosh darn it.  And we're proud of it.

Outcome:  Sparkle changed her mind and decided sailing wasn't boring at all, but rather liked it.  Torpedo decided screaming his head off wasn't helping him or anyone else around him and settled into it gradually, and Mermaid managed to stay upright in the boat thanks to her "Bumbo" seat.  Star, Angelfish & Tangerine managed the sails beautifully and My Hero got some much needed skipper practice time.  (Tangerine even managed trimming the sails while nursing!  Amazing.)  We left with 2 adults, 5 kids and we returned with 2 adults, 5 kids.  Success!  Ahoy matey!