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Fiona on the move!

Hi Everyone, Well, Fiona has lost all fear of walking and is now giving it her best effort. She is doing pretty well and can even stop and remain standing! I have put on a short video of stumblings! Other then that, we are getting excited to head out to Sask for Christmas. Not to long until we get back into the promise land. I just hope that the West doesn't separate before we get there! Cheers, Clayton

Fiona and Preston: 10-month Photo

Well, our baby is becoming less and less of a baby every day. She is now ten months old as of Sunday the 9th. It's hard to believe that the time has flown by so fast. She seems to be growing well and is big for her age. We will find out more when she has her doctor appointment on the 19th of November.

She is a very active baby and quite is independant for number four...as long as someone is still in the room. She generally plays really nicely with the toys around her unless she is teething and then nothing makes her happy short of being held. She also prefers that the someone around her is one of her siblings. Sometimes Mom and Dad just don't cut it as she is greatly amused by the big kids. She hasn't started full on walking yet...but sometimes she either gets brave or just thinks she can walk, lets go and takes a few steps. She can take up to four steps on her own and stand on her own really well now.

She is easily migrating from baby food to table food. We pretty much try to feed her everything that we eat from the table. Some of her latest food feats have been BBQed pork tenderloin, pizza casserole, and peas. She and Mommy are also transitioning from breastfeeding to bottle feeding. She is down to 3 feedings per day and will soon be cut down to two. Honestly, she is very ready for this because some days she is not interested in nursing at all and would rather smile at Mom before giving her a nasty bite. If that isn't enough to cut her off, she will be heading to Saskatchewan with Daddy and her brothers and sister on December 9th for Christmas holidays and has to be done nursing by then. No worries, because finally after 5 months, she takes a bottle well.

So, that is our sweet, long-lashes, blond haired Fiona for this month. We'll keep you posted with her progress next month.

Happy Halloween!

The weather here turned out great and it has gotten warmer all day! We got in an hour and a half a trick or treating and it was great! We had two pirates, a squirrel and a nut with us. Full bags of candy that are presently getting sampled by the three hard workers. Hope everyone had a great night,

Clayton

From Kit to Eager Beaver

Riley is moving up in the colony! Last night was his investiture night, were the kits move up to eager beavers and get there handkerchiefs. To do this, they have to know the Beaver motto, creed and handshake. Riley did great and knew his stuff cold!! Here are some pics of the proud little guy. Cheers,

Clayton

Grandpa's 60th (well just about!!)

I had the lucky chance to seek home this weekend for a pre-60th birthday party for Dad. It was great and I got to spend some wonderful time with family. While the haircut is pretty short, I think Dad is beating the 60's already!! Cheers,

Clayton

Fall Fun with a Friend

Our friend Jacob is here for the day. We had lots of fun this morning, playing in the leaves!!!!

As you know, the blog posts have not be as frequent as usual, so, I hope these four posts in a row give you all who pay attention to our blog a bit of a fix for awhile.

 
 
 
 

Gone Hiking

Yesterday, we went for a hike. We started at the base of Fort Henry Hill and made our way to the park at the CFB Kingston Yacht Club. Yesterday was about 20 degrees, no wind. A beautiful day for boating but it has been winterized so we went hiking instead.

Thanksgiving! Gobble Gobble

We did Thanksgiving on Saturday at Jamie and Kevin's house. It was great fun with a huge guest list: 10 adults and 4 kids and 3 babies!!! Jamie and Kev have hosted us and their families for several years now. Jamie is the pregnant one who is due in less than two weeks and although the turkey in her belly wasn't ready, neither was the one in the oven. Broiling a turkey for 6 hours just doesn't work!!! Looks good on the outside, deathly pink on the inside. Kev's Dad had great fun with the kids, chasing them around the house and scaring the crap out of them, which they LOVE!!! Any other questions about the photos, let me know but posting a question.

Fiona and Preston: 9-Month Photos

Hi All,

Here is quick update on Fiona. I apologize that it took so long to get photos of her on the blog. The first photo is of her on the 9th, the actual day she turned 9-months old. The others were taken yesterday as she was all dressed up and the weather was stunning.

Fiona is doing great. She is not walking yet, but she loves to crawl up to the chairs and push them around the living room and kitchen. She cruises really fast around things and walks along the furniture with one arm. She is starting to get braver and take the odd step, but really prefers crawling. She is also becoming very independent and plays really well on her own...as long as everybody else is around her. Otherwise, she hates being left alone in a room. A real social butterfly.





Fiona has been having good days and bad days, the bad days which I attribute to her teething. She pushed out 3 new teeth in five days a couple weeks ago, so, her total is up to 8 teeth. Of all my babies, she has been the worst teether. A good indicator that she is teething is her lack of appetite. Normally, she is a super big eater. Yesterday, she ate 1 1/2 pancakes. The pancakes were a diameter of 6 inches. No syrop, just pancakes, but she just loved them. She is still nursing really well and I haven't started weaning her yet, even though I work full time and have gone away on two work trips. She thankfully takes a bottle way better than she used to.

It's hard to tell in pictures, but her hair is growing well. She has a really nice head of hair but it is still quite so blond. Her hair is also poker straight, just like her Daddy's hair. Her eyelashes are beautifully long which she gets many compliments for. She is a real doll. We are not sure how much she weighs or how long she is; however, she is big for her age. She doesn't have her next appointment until she is one year old. That's about it on Fiona for this month.

Fall In Kingston

As Ev is away, my blogs are short and sweet. Here is a large slide show of the kids, what can I say, the new camera doesn't take any bad pictures. (and I really love that clicking sound of the SLR!!). Enjoy the pictures, talk to you soon,

Clayton

Birthday and New Camera

Hi Everyone!,
Just a quick note before I go to bed. Had a great birthday and got a terrific new camera! The pics are really good, it's hard to screw them up!!! Hope you like the first shots.
Mark, Laura and Fam, thanks a lot for the Hukka (??), it works great and arrived in tack! Good night,

Clayton

Fiona Crawling

Here's a quick video of Fiona starting to crawl.

Our Boys Go To School

Well, school has started!!! In Ontario, kids start school at age 4 or 3 depending on when they have their birthday. So, Riley is in Senior Kindergarten and Brodie is in Junior Kindergarten. The boys did not start on the same day. Riley's first day was September 4th. I drove him to school that day and gave him a big hug. He came home on the bus just like last year. His teacher's name is Mrs. Rutherford.
Brodie started school this past week on September 11th. He has the same teacher that Riley had last year, Mrs. Murphy. For the juniors, they start slowly, so there were only four other kids in his class that day. But, nonetheless, he spent the whole day there. We all drove him to school for his first day, but, he was a super big boy and came home on the bus, with his big brother. Brodie is a lot more shy than Riley, so we thought he would be a lot more anxious. He surprized us greatly and loved it. He even has a new friend from his first day named Alex. Brodie's next day of school is September 23 and his full class will be there that day.
The boys are in different, but adjoining classrooms. So, they don't see eachother that much during the day. However, they do get to spend recess together. Of course, they are joined at the hip and play together, which became evident as we received a phone call from the school on Brodie's first day. The boys had an incident. Riley was chasing Brodie and Brodie ran under a tree. Riley didn't. He cracked his forhead into the limb of the tree and scraped it up a bit. No big cuts or stitches required but maybe a bit of bruised ego.
So, here is Brodie coming of the bus. Yes, his book bag is almost bigger than he is. At least he remembered it. Riley almost forgot his on the bus. I wonder who keeps who in line with those two boys. Anyways, the first day's of school were great.

Fiona and Preston: 8-Months Old

Here are the photos of Fiona and Preston at 8 months old. Finally, our doctor is back from England so she had an appointment with him. She was 19 lbs 11oz and 28 1/2 inches. She is big for her age. Our chubby little cherub has done a lot of new things in the last month. She started crawling on her hands and knees, crawling up to things and pulling herself up and now cruises around everything. She still has her moments where she forgets where she is or the fact that she can't walk yet and crashes.

Our feeding nightmare has pretty much come to an end. She actually is willing to take a bottle now, which is a good thing because I went away on a two day conference to Gagetown. She's not great at the bottle, but she's getting there. She also likes straw cups and sippy cups better too now. Even though I went away, she is still nursing full time when I am around and I manage to work it into my work schedule.

This past month, we also moved Fiona out of the crib in our room and into her own crib in her own room. This move was not so much about breaking the bond and striving for independence as it was about getting some good sleep. Fiona is also getting way easier to put to sleep. She used to require lots of motion, walking and rocking to get her to sleep. Now, when she's tired, we just lay her down and rub her back a bit and she's good to go.

Other than that, she is generally a pretty happy baby until she gets tired. Teething has been alright but has been pretty painful at times. She now has 5 teeth, two on the bottom and three on the top. She eats everything we feed her and still likes meat. Yeah!!! That's it for another month. All the best to all of you. Evelyn

Awesome Long Weekend

Just a quick blog to let everyone know what we're up to. We are headed off to Ottawa tomorrow for a house warming party and visit some friends. We had a great long weekend. It all kicked off with a visit from Derek and Misty Niles and their two boys, Joshua and Cameron. The kids got along great and this was the first time that they met eachother. We hadn't seen them in 7 years so it was great to catch up. We went boating Sunday and Monday to Seeley's Bay . It's a great spot with nice scenery. We were joined by our friends Dom and Mireille Dupuis and their little girl Claira and Derek Gilchrist, who was just aching to get his boat out on the water. Here are the photos from last weekend.



Also, I had a mess dinner last week. Here is me all Mess Kitted up with my boys and girls.

Brodie's Birthday Party

Hi Everyone,

Here are a few photos of Brodie's birthday party done up in a Smilebox. We had a really great day. The weather was nice so the kids played in the water, soaked their Dads and then everyone went hottubbing before supper. We thank everyone for all the wonderful gifts, cards and phone calls for Brodie's birthday. He is a very happy and very blessed 4 year old boy. Evelyn

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Brodie's Special Day

Today is Brodie's 4th Birthday. Here is a quick run down of his day:

After breakfast, Daddy made chocolate cupcakes and iced them. Then the gang headed out to the park and shared the chocolate cupcakes with their park friends in honour of Brodie's Birthday.

Brodie was given the option to have whatever he wanted for supper: he wanted hambergers, so that's what Daddy prepared with dollar chips on the side. Mommy made a special little cake in honour of his birthday and we had it after super. He did a great job blowing out the candles. After supper, he unwrapped his gifts from Mommy and Daddy and his brother and sisters and also a super cool gift from Uncle Greg and Auntie Connie. He got an airplane lego set from us and Daddy and Riley helped him set it up. Our Birthday celebration for him was really great and personal.

He will have a big birthday party on Saturday with all of his friends and a super cool Spider Man Cake. Here are the photos throughout the day of Brodie's special day. I have also included a video of Fiona eating applesauce and raspberries while everyone else was eating cake and ice cream. Super cute. Evelyn

Fiona and Preston: 7-Month Photo

Our Fabulous Fiona is 7-months old today!!! Fiona is very active, which I give credit to her brothers and sister for that inspiration. She loves to move...a lot. She started crawling on her belly around 6 1/2 months and now she is really fast. We have to keep a good eye on her as she goes everywhere and touches everything. She also loves to stand. So, we prop her up by the coffee table and let her stand there. She has to be supervised because she is still has a few accidents. But for the most part, she is quite stable and even cruises slowly around the coffee table.
Fiona is a good eater too. So far, she eats types of cereals, all meats and almost all vegies and we don't even have to trick her by front loading the spoons. She has only tried peaches and bananas for fruit so far. She hates the peaches and likes the bananas. She even eats cubed up sweet potato!!!

I measured her this morning and she is 28 inches long and weighs between 19 and 20 lbs. She is growing really well and is bigger than Grace was at this age. So, most of the clothes that Grace wore last summer, Fiona is wearing now, even though Grace was a year old and Fiona is only 7 months. Her legs are so chubby, you just want to chew on them.

As for the rest of us, Clay is keeping busy at home with the kids. For some reason, his bosses at work think he is sitting around with nothing to do and drinking beer all day. So, even though he is on parental leave, they are expecting him to come in and do work for them this fall and even write a new course for the Aerospace Engineering equipment. These are obviously the ideas of men whose wives raised their kids because four kids is very busy...even for Super dad Clay.

Grace is all over the place as usual and it's very hard to get a decent photo of her. She is getting better at talking, but still isn't very proficient for her age. but, she manages to get her point across. It's so cute to watch her play with the boys and other times it's just frustrating because she creates chaos.

We are all looking forward to the upcoming week as I am on leave and we are off to the lake to go camping. It should be super fun. Can't wait.

Anyways, lots to do, but I'll leave you with the photos over the last few weeks. Evelyn

Sleeping Angels

I think we are all familiar with the expression, "Sleeping like a baby." After having all of my children, I realize I really don't care for that expression. I much prefer, "Sleeping like an angel", because my babies were never really good sleepers. Not one of them has slept through the night before the age of one year. But, when they do sleep, they are angels...beauties from heaven that I thank God for every day.
When Riley was about six and a half months old, I took a really cool (I think) black and white photo of him in the dark with light cascading over his face, while he slept like an angel. I liked the photo so much that I made a plan to do the same thing for the three other children I was planning on having.
So, when I went out searching for a frame, I bought not one, but four of the same frame so that I would have for the other three. This plan was put into action a little more than four and a half years ago. It's hard to believe how time flies, because I took the final photo of the series last week.

These photos are of my sleeping angels in order from oldest to youngest.

The Week or So

It's time for a little update on the last week or so. Ok, maybe two weeks. Here goes. Two weeks ago, my sister Connie and her hubby Greg arrived. Our first adventure together was a camping trip to Charleston lake, but not before heading to Belleville for the baptism of our special little friend, Oliver Eberts. Clay is his proud Godfather so it was a very special day for all of us. After that we headed to the lake.

camping at charleston lake
The Lake was great and I think Connie and Greg really enjoyed the beautiful scenery. A few of our adventures were teaching Uncle Greg to ski, hiking and seeing a rare Black Rat Snake, and teaching Uncle Greg to fish (didn't do so good at that as no one caught anything that was worthy of a pan). All in all, it was a great four days.

happy birthday grace "all over the place"

We returned home on Thursday just in time to prepare for Grace's second birthday. We had a simple party for her with some of our friends, but kept it pretty small considering how much time we didn't have to prepare for it. The big event was playing in the kiddy pool in the back yard. It's hard to believe our amazing Grace is two. If you ask her, though, she will tell you she is thirteen.

summer fun

Well work has been really busy for me and Clay has his work cut out for him at home. He has reallized that he will not be getting as many tasks completed as he did when he was on parental leave with Riley and Brodie. That being said, we manage to find a little bit of time to get out, enjoy the weather and have some fun. Here are the photos of us throughout the last two weeks. A few points to note:
1. The pic of Connie in the boat with a beaming is smile is actually her reaction to Greg thundering in on the waterskis;
2. We attempted a "Weekend at Bernie's" Photoshoot with Connie, Greg and the kids with Grace starring as Bernie; and
3. A little warning: there are almost a hundred photos in the slide show below. Take a seat and get some popcorn.



Now that you are done the slide show or skipped right over it, we hope to update the blog a little more often. Take care all, Evelyn and the gang

Fiona and Preston: 6-Month Photo

Can you believe it? I can't. Fiona is 6 months old. My baby is 6 months old!!! Fiona has been such an awesome baby, mind you, she still comes with a few difficulties. She is generally super crazy happy all the time unless she gets hungry. We haven't had her weighed an measured in quite some time. But, I did the comparison between my weight and her weight on the bathroom scale and she was somewhere between 18 and 19 lbs. That was two weeks ago. As for height, she is getting pretty tall. It will be her Daddy's mission next week to get some exact measurements on her next week.
So, what can she do now? Well she can squirm pretty good to get places and things. She wasn't quite rolling over but really close until Wednesday when she turned 6 months old. That was the first official day she rolled over on her own. She still likes the jolly jumper, but loves when we put the Leap Frog Learning table before for extra amusement. She also loves her exersaucer and plays there quite contently. The thing she seems to like the most, though, is standing up on her own. She loves standing beside the coffee table and just hanging out like the other 3 kids.

So, as I said, Fiona comes with a few difficulties. Actually, just one major difficulty. She refused to drink from a bottle. As most of you know, I am back to work and Clay is taking care of the kids. The milk does not floweth from his bossom. This problem becomes quite challenging when I get stuck at work and can't make it home to feed her. Like today, I didn't get home from work until almost 7 pm. Clay had to spoon feed her formula with a little pablum in it to cut down her hunger until I got home. She was pretty squawky by the time I got there. But, she absolutely refuses the bottle. We have tried to offer her the sippy cup with little to no success. We are hoping she will get the hang of it before Sep, when I have to go away to a conference.

And finally, Fiona's great new thing that happened to her over the last month was her first tooth. She got her bottom right tooth last Friday and her bottom left yesterday. She made it through them quite well as we werent' even expecting them. And finally, finally, she likes to say DDADAAADADADAD.

That's it for now. We are getting ready for Graces birthday tomorrow. So more to follow soon. Evelyn

Grandma Stajniak's Visit

Well, it's hard to believe how time flies. Back in March, an awesome seat sale came on and my Mom and Grandparent's took advantage of it and bought tickets. So, did Clay's parents and Grandma K. We had lots to look forward too: a trip to England, and visits from both sides of the family. Well, we still have a visit from Auntie Connie and Uncle Greg to look forward to, but all the Grandmas and Grandpas are gone. Over the week when my family was visiting, we toured a few places, went to a Teddy Bear Picnic and a few jobs around the house and yard got done. I came home from work one day to find that my windows were being washed!!! They are ALL clean now. Anyway, we had a great visit with my Mom and Grandparents and they really enjoyed the kids, the weather and Kingston. Grandpa named Grace "The Tornado" and often commented on how nice the boys played together until the Tornado blew in and tore everything up. So, here are a few pictures from their visit. We really missed Grandpa Stajniak and wished that he could have come too.

Grandma and Grandpa Kotzer's Visit

Over the last week, we have had visitors from Saskatchewan. Clay's parents came to visit us along with his Grandma Kotzer. We had a great week with them. We toured around Kingston, had great visits with the neighbours and went to Old Fort Henry for a Sunset Ceremony, which featured the Snowbirds. It's amazing how great they are no matter how many times you see them. As mentioned, Clay's Grandma was here, which was a special treat to see her. I think she really enjoyed the kids and was amazed by our Amazing Grace. All good things must come to an end so, Clay took them to Toronto yesterday to catch their flight and conveniently picked up my Mom and Grandparents. Here are some pictures of the visit here.

Fiona and Preston: 5-Month Photo

Fiona and Preston are five months old today. Coincidently, Mommy goes back to work today and leave Daddy holding onto the ropes: all four of them. Fiona is doing really well. She can sit up on her own for a bit, at least long enough to get a photo or two. She loves playing on her tummy and is starting to creep forward and pivote a bit; however, she does not roll yet. No, she is much to chubby for that. She has huge chubby legs. We are going to try to get her weighed and measured this week. My best guess is that she is about 17-18 lbs and about 26 inches long.
Fiona also started her first bit of solids this week and has taken really well to it. She loves it infact and gulps it down. Otherwise, she is still a happy smiley baby and likes to perform for the camera. I rarely get bad photos of her.

As for the rest of us, we had a good week all together last week. Clay and I were both on leave so we got lots of work done around the yard, went waterskiing on Thursday afternoon and swam in Nana Kat and Grampy Mike's pool a couple of times. Here are some more photos over the last week. We are now looking forward to a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Kotzer and Great Grandma Kotzer this Thursday.

The Conclusion

So, our trip is over and we are officially back in Kingston. Here are the highlights of our trip to Britain. It seems like it was over in a flash and now we are back to our normal life in Kingston. We have already had a soccer game, went grocery shopping, went garden plant shopping and switched around the girls wardrobes. This is my last week at home before going back to work and we are trying to make every minute count.

The Big Voyage - It was a 24 hour trip from our door to Mark and Laura's door, which rolled out like this: drive to TO, train from parking lot to Pearson, 7 hour flight to Heathrow, 15 min Heathrow Express train to Paddington station, 6 hour train from Paddington to Penzance and then drive to Mark and Laura's in Helson. And in the slideshow, Riley is really sleeping like that.


Together - The last time we saw Mark and Laura and family was at the end of July last summer. Everyone has grown and changed so much. It was wonderful to have all these young cousins together. It did not go without incident though as there was a lot of diaper cream, tooth paste and more diaper cream being spread around in all the wrong places. Grace pretty much refused to go to bed every night, and when Mark and Laura thought their kids were silently off to sleep, they weren't. All in all, they had so much fun together and the bonding between Grace and Miah was very great and special, while the boys played together like old times.


The Baby Girls - This trip gave us the opportunity to introduce our new additions to each family. The girls mostly gooed and gawed at each other like babies do but it was really special to have them together for the first time.


The Many Views of Cornwall - From rolling waves on the beeches to to rocky cliffs, rides at Flambards to the Seal Sanctuary, there was so much to see and do in Cornwall. The little towns were so picturesqe and the trees shrubs and vines were so exquisite. You can tell that the climate is not that cold here by the enourmous size of the plants: Rhododendron bushes as opposed to shrubs, Fuschia bushes as opposed to hanging baskets and ivy laced everywhere.


Burmaster's and Beyond - There were a lot of things to do north of London too. While visiting Mark Burmaster, we toured Warwick Castle and a Safari. Both were really cool but I think the Safari topped this portion of the trip. The animals were so awesome and close to us and the bird shows were awesome. The highlight of Riley's safari experience was having a common vulture land on his hand. We had a lot of fun at Burm's palace, maybe too much fun, so we apologize to anyone who received calls on Saturday evening from Revenue Canada or the Canadian Bar Association or whatever.

Our flights home went well inspite of the long delay in taking off and a crusty Grace. Otherwise the hospitality of Air Transat was outstanding and we recommend travel with them to everyone, especially if you have children.

Our Final Day In England

Wow, it's hard to believe that today is our last day in England. We are going to make good use of it. Today, we are going to a Safari to check out a whole bunch cool animals that we have really only read about in books. It's one of those drive through places where you hope the animals don't attack your car. Should be fun.

Yesterday, we visited Warwick Castle. It was great. The big highlight, the boys loved climbing the narrow, dark, spiral staircase to the top of one of the castle's towers. We also saw a jousting match and an awesome collection of armour and weapons.

We have been having a great time with Mark. We are really impressed with the place that he lives. It's a sprawling 3-bdrm bungalow with awesome high ceilings, a large kitchen with large island, huge dining room encased with windows on two sides, which reveal the beautiful country setting. Cool, Mark actually lives in the country here and it's awesome. Pretty sweet bachelor pad, awesome cook too.

Our trip here went really well except my purse got stolen at Paddington Station in London, sometime upon our arrival there, Thursday. Everything was in my purse except my passport, thankfully. We checked rail car over several times but came up with nothing. Our only other hope was to check out the lost and found/forgotten baggage claim. I got lucky as it was brought there; however, the thief obviously rifled through it. Everything was there except the British pounds.

So, our trip to England has been wonderful, but it did not go without incident. The boys are missing a lot of stuff from home and are ready to fly out tomorrow.

Cornwall Chronicles: The Final Days

Well, it's been a 11 full wonderful days here in Cornwall, England. For those who don't understand England, Cornwall is a county much like Saskatchewan is a province. Cornish folk will therefore say they are from Cornwall as opposed to the actual town they are from much like I say that I am from Saskatchewan as opposed to just saying Glenavon. Where the heck is Glenavon anyway? Get the point?

The time here has been awesome. We toured the countryside, had great visits with Mark and Laura and the kids. Since our last blog post, the weather went a little down hill with lots of rain; however, we did manage to visit the town of Lizard yesterday. It was another beautiful spot with jagged cliffs and rocks reaching into the ocean. Yesterday afternoon, Clay and I and the kids walked into town and picked up a few things from the local tourist and butcher shops. Yesterday was also a special day because we got to try a local favourite called Pasties. Pasties are pastries filled with stewed meat and vegies. They are actually awesome. We were very impressed by the Pasties.

Anyways, we have been received and treated very well by Mark and Laura. They gave us a wonderful vacation so far and our time with them was well spent. What an awesome way for Clay to kick off into parental leave and me to return to work. Tomorrow, we head back to London and then an hour north to Milton Keyes to visit Mark Burmaster. As exciting as it is to see Burm, we will leave Helston with a tear or two in our eyes knowing that we will not see Mark and Laura and family for a long while and the kids will be so grown up the next time we see them. We recommend and encourage anyone who has made the slightest of promise to come to visit Mark and Laura to do just that. Their hospitality was great and the area is spectacular.

That's about it for now. I haven't posted any photos this time because Laura, just updated their blog. So, you can't check out the photos on their blog.

Cornwall Chronicles: Surfs Up

Yesterday started as a very ugly, rainy day. Who knew that by the end of it, we would be would be at the beech? Sunday morning, we went to church. Everyone behaved rather well except Grace.
Riley and Brodie sat with Mark and Laura and were complete angels. After church, we head out for lunch at the mess at the base where Mark works. That was neat to see. By the end of it, everyone was so tired from trying to be on their best behaviour that all the kids went for naps. Great.

Nap time for the kids and Moms, but not for the Dads. Clay and Mark decided to head out to Gwithian beach for a little surf action. Clay, who was running a fever and couldn't regulate his body temperature, pumped himself full of something and made a go of it. The two men came back a little more educated in the difficuties of surfing and Clay got a little prize for his efforts. The marks above and below his right eye should be gone in about a week. Apparently, surfing isn't easy and it can hurt.

Upon returning from their surfing paradise, the weather had sharply improved. So much so, Mark and Clay both suggested that we head back to the beech after supper. That's exactly what we did. It was absolutely beautiful. The drury sky turned to rays of sun as the
swells of wave rolled in continuously. The beech was beautiful fine sand speckled with stones polished by the ocean water. It stretched for miles. The ocean was framed by rocky cliffs to the right and the town of St. Ives in the distance to the left. Wonderfully impressive and super fun for all of us.