The tie dye portion of this all started with Annie making shirts for the girls a week before our trip. It later expanded to all of the family dying shirts while at Sea Ranch, just in time to wear them for the family talent show.
It was just like we were at Enrichment Night, with Annie as our leader.
Or, maybe it was like preschool because all of us were calling her name like little children asking for help.
Either way, she did a great job coaching us through the process.
Fast forward to the next night when we all sported our new shirts.
The talent show has become a family tradition when we're on vacation. It's a bit more of a show, than a display of talent -- at least for some of us. But it is always a good time.
Sammie and Abby started off the show with Irish dancing. It was hilarious and impressive. They are good little dancers!
K.C. showed a real display of talent by singing a song.
Noah's talent was a bit impromptu. I didn't know if he'd cooperate to say a few words and sounds that he knows, but he proved to be quite the showman.
Grandma read part of Frog and Toad, a Boyce family favorite when the kids were growing up.
After everyone had performed, Annie and Becky finished the show with a great duet. We can always count on them to give us some real talent.
Exploring in the tide pools was another 'must' during our time at Sea Ranch. The three of us went out one morning to a spot we'd been before. It was much more challenging to get to with a little one, super windy, and there wasn't much to see.
But we did track down a starfish and let Noah hold it for the first time. He didn't know quite what to think of it, but was curious nonetheless.
The next day, we headed to a much better spot with all of the family. I love that Grandma didn't hestitate to get into the water a bit to explore.
I taught the kids to gently touch the anemones and watch them close up.
Noah thought that was pretty fun and laughed every time he touched one.
Olivia wasn't super thrilled to be holding the starfish, but she held on long enough for a picture.
We had a great time exploring together and finding lots of creatures. Everything, even tide pooling, is better with family!
It's hard to take pictures when the camera is in a dry bag most of the time, but we captured a little bit of our kayaking adventure up the Gualala River.
It started out incredibly windy, but that improved quickly. Grandma, Joey and the girls jumped into a canoe and the rest of us had kayaks.
He looks happy, but this kid was a screamer a good portion of the time. That will happen when you wake up before 6 a.m. happy and ready to start the day. He was definitely tired and probably should have just gone down for an early nap instead of kayaking. But I'm glad we took him.
We stopped to eat lunch and play in the river a bit.
These uncles were more than happy to splash attack Olivia.
Paddling back the crankiness started up again, but Noah soon surrendered to sleep. With both of us wearing life jackets, it was tricky to find a comfortable sleeping spot, but he managed just fine.
One afternoon we left Noah napping with Uncle Joey and headed north to the Point Arena lighthouse.
These girls did great hiking up 115 feet of stairs to the top.
We're happy any time we get to do something with these guys since we don't see them often enough. They win a major prize for driving with us to and from Sea Ranch with a sometimes crabby Noah in the backseat with them.
It was a little tricky getting down those first stairs with Brennan, but Tyler and Brittany made it work.
There's not much of an agenda when we're at Sea Ranch. I love it. If you want to go down to the beach, it's super close. Sometimes we'd all go together, and other times we'd just go with our little family. It's so nearby that you don't feel bad staying only twenty or thirty minutes if you want, because there's always tomorrow. It really is the best.
Noah loves digging in the sand and making it fly in the wind.
And doing it with a cousin is even better.
Too bad we didn't realize he was being eaten alive by sand fleas until a few hours later. Poor guy was a mess that evening, but didn't seem too bothered.
How cute is cousin Brennan?
It was tradition when the Boyce kids were growing up to build a big sandcastle at the beach, with Grandpa Pebley leading the way (and probably doing most of the work). Now that some of these guys are dads, they seem to want to carry on the tradition. It was on our list of 'musts' for the trip.
They worked hard and for their first attempt without Grandpa, it turned out pretty good.
But they've already got all kinds of ideas for next time.
Our first full day at Sea Ranch was filled with celebrating Grandpa's 60th birthday.
It started with breakfast: 60 pancakes, 60 strawberries and 60 blueberries.
Grandpa was very willing to share.
His gifts were some of his favorite things; 60 of each, of course.
60 golf tees, pieces of black licorice, pistachios, salt water taffy, were just a few. He even got a CD of songs from the 60's.
After dinner we put candles on 60 cupcakes and worked fast to get them lit.
Grandpa's birthday seranade was memorable and pretty hilarious.
The gift giving wasn't over yet. Grandpa got 60 personalized golf balls with phrases that the family thought up. He was pretty excited about the new rangefinder that he can use for golfing too.
He liked the messages we came up with to put on the golf balls.
After that each of us took a turn reading from a list we composed of 60 things we love about Dave.
Some were funny, like he does an amazing Donald Duck impression, and has a love of jumping into cold water.
Others were sweet, such as when he was a kid, he cried when the Yankees lost the World Series, and he loves playing with grand kids and making them feel special.
And many were just very telling about what kind of a person his is. For example, he always knows who your friends are and asks about them when you call, and he cares unselfishly for his parents.
Celebrating Grandpa was a great way to start out a week full of fun and good times together as a family. We sure do love him.
+copy.jpg)
