picnic at piper's--dad's favourite spot
yesterday we had a picnic at pipers. mom made tasty chunks of dijon chicken breasts, and brought all the left over salads from sunday's potluck. sarah and adriel brought croissants and tracy and maria brought a huge barrel of water.
i picked the location of pipers and dad was against it. it'll be too windy there, he said. there will be gale force winds. it's always windy at the beach i said. gale force winds he repeated. i said nothing, just continued on with what i was doing.
karey and i picked up tracy and maria and maria and i had a little chat while karey was in helping tracy with the barrel of water. i asked her if she was still a princess and she looked down doing her version of the demure princess and said yes. i said are you called princess maria or something else. princess maria she said. we talked about some other things and then tracy and karey came back and we started towards the beach. "see that's your aunty laura." tracy said to maria. "i know. i like her." maria confessed. then tracy told us that maria had been saying that she didn't like me. "well that's obviously because she needs to get to know me."
we were waiting there a while before anyone else got there. at first we sat in the shade but it was too windy and cool over there so we got one closer to the beach but closer to the long grasses and right up behind the hill before the beach and in the sun where it was much warmer. when mom and dad and dennis and heather arrived for some stubborn reason they went to the picinic table in the shade that we had abandoned even though they had clearly seen us. what in sam hill?! i was just marching over there to convince them to come to our spot when they started coming on their own accord, but dad was crabby about it. he was blustering about this being the worst spot in all of nanaimo, maybe the world to come because it was so windy. i just smiled and said that i'm sure it wasn't the worst. the very worst! he insisted. no, i'm sure harewood wouldn't be as nice of a place for a picnic i said. he seemed somewhat mollified as he started setting up his air mattress, especially as maria took great interest in the air bed and he had to be cheerful with her.
we ate right away because we were starving. it was a perfect feast and to top it all off, mom had somehow saved a pan of her icebox dessert from the night before. dennis wasn't going to have dessert and walked over to a bench facing the sea, but when dad sat down beside him with the dessert and said "are you sure you don't want any? it's the dessert from last night.", dennis sang a different tune. "oh! it is??" he perked right up and handed over his plate to be served.
karey and i were going to go swimming but the tide was out to the barnacle rocks and when we got down to the water we did't feel like it. karey didn't feel like it and i wanted to wait until the tide came in more. so we went back up and i put my capris over my suit but left the dress part out. we decided to play bocce ball. mom and dad and uncle dennis were the green team and me and sarah and auntie heather were the red team. dad was playing with a broken neck but he wasn't doing to badly, however the red team won fair and square. auntie heather would surprise us with some killer shots, which dad would always call lucky. "what luck!" he would moan. auntie heather would giggle and complain that no one ever said she had any skill, only luck. "i think you're very skillful." i told her. sarah and i liked the different variables of the field with divots, pieces of wood and rock, dips and hills, but dad didn't. "i would be so much better if this was a level field." was known to moan. one time i purposely threw the pallini just on the other side of this hole with a slope leading out of it, but a drop off on our side of the hole. auntie heather rolled her bocce ball and as she let go she sing songed "down the gully and up the hill..." sometimes when mom would roll her ball me and sarah would say "slipsies!" and laugh because the last time we played mom said that and we found it quite funny.
after our game was over i was ready for a swim, but no one else was. well sarah wanted to, but she didn't have a suit and she was nursing adriel besides and i didn't have a lot of time before we had to leave for the ferry. karey still refused and said she didn't feel like it. she was deep into her book about the girls and the pants, so finally i just went by myself. the tide had come all the way in and the water was perfect. it was soooooooooooooo nice and the only thing nicer would have been if katie or the twins could have been there to enjoy it with me. i kept myself facing the mountains and the big sea, but periodically i would look behind me. there is a strong pull on that beach towards the north so i mostly swam but stayed in one spot. there was a family on the beach who had thrown a tennis ball out for their dog, but he was totally clueless about it. it was out far by me, so i chucked it back near the shore and they threw rocks near it to get his attention. so that was my friendly action as i was asea.
as we were packing up dad said "i would have gone swimming if we had gone anywhere but here." haha. how can dad not love pipers? it's the best beach ever!
sunday morning we got up early to go to sarah-lynn's ward. she coerced us into staying for the whole time. adriel had a nice blessing and kylie smilie gave a good lesson, but his class was really quiet, all except for brother slabboden who always had a word. it was about king hezikiah. when i walked into the class i was in the middle of blowing a bubble (very classy, i know) when gary vanderleek said "sister laura! i haven't seen you in a long time!!" "brother gary!" i returned, "how are you?" rs. was a very small gathering, but a good lesson. we were sooo tired that when we got home bethany and i put in sound of music and i slept through the whole darn thing. i don't remember one part except for bits of how do you solve a problem like maria? i woke up during the director's little bit.
then bethany and i played big boggle. i wanted to play scrabble but apparently mom got rid of it. bad decision mom. bad decision. still boggle was fun and bethany made me a drink with apple juice, perrier water and something else. yum.
i thought it was a particularly good potluck. we had lots of people. delanie's sister and her three kids, anne, and kathy kelly, and tania and her and esther's parents plus everyone else. everyone brought yummy stuff too. like spinnach salad with strawberries, and enchilladas, and spanish omelettes, and garlic bread, and roast beef and delicious potato wedges.
katie was hot to trot on sunday.
katie and i sat on the swing on the deck with amay and then bethany and then sarah and talked. we mostly talked about amay and bethany's love life. an unending topic as bethany says. amay told us about her future mate, j-rock, who's only in grade 10 right now. and we all had some good times with that one. and everyone pushed bethany to her destiny which is apparently little john russell with the curly muffin top head. we all agreed that their children would in fact be gorgeous.
we played boggle after dinner too. kyle, amay and katie joined us, but katie ubruptly left due to the heat. she says she's not good at it, but i find her quite capable.
then we got a surprisingly huge group to play consequences (mom, dad, heather, katie, amay, bethany, jordan, sarah, evan and i). consequences is a guarenteed good laughing time. auntie heather and karey were the girls most often picked for a hook up. uncle dennis frequented often as well, but not with auntie heather.
later that night tania sat out on the deck with me and karey talking with the mosquitos and moths. she told us about her current love life, which is quite eventful and we all swatted at mosquitos. eventually i drove her home and karey came for the ride while knawing on a corn cob. she finished in the car and asked me if she could throw it out the window but i said no. i said tania could throw it away when she got home, but tania said no way. karey chased her with it to the door but she still would not take it and neither would evan who ansered the door and after threatening to put it in their mail box or inside their door, she put in their outside garbage can like a good girl.
amay slept in my bed that night so she could wake up with the sun the next morning and drive bethany back to victoria and work. i slept on the couch which was hot but ok.
the end
i picked the location of pipers and dad was against it. it'll be too windy there, he said. there will be gale force winds. it's always windy at the beach i said. gale force winds he repeated. i said nothing, just continued on with what i was doing.
karey and i picked up tracy and maria and maria and i had a little chat while karey was in helping tracy with the barrel of water. i asked her if she was still a princess and she looked down doing her version of the demure princess and said yes. i said are you called princess maria or something else. princess maria she said. we talked about some other things and then tracy and karey came back and we started towards the beach. "see that's your aunty laura." tracy said to maria. "i know. i like her." maria confessed. then tracy told us that maria had been saying that she didn't like me. "well that's obviously because she needs to get to know me."
we were waiting there a while before anyone else got there. at first we sat in the shade but it was too windy and cool over there so we got one closer to the beach but closer to the long grasses and right up behind the hill before the beach and in the sun where it was much warmer. when mom and dad and dennis and heather arrived for some stubborn reason they went to the picinic table in the shade that we had abandoned even though they had clearly seen us. what in sam hill?! i was just marching over there to convince them to come to our spot when they started coming on their own accord, but dad was crabby about it. he was blustering about this being the worst spot in all of nanaimo, maybe the world to come because it was so windy. i just smiled and said that i'm sure it wasn't the worst. the very worst! he insisted. no, i'm sure harewood wouldn't be as nice of a place for a picnic i said. he seemed somewhat mollified as he started setting up his air mattress, especially as maria took great interest in the air bed and he had to be cheerful with her.
we ate right away because we were starving. it was a perfect feast and to top it all off, mom had somehow saved a pan of her icebox dessert from the night before. dennis wasn't going to have dessert and walked over to a bench facing the sea, but when dad sat down beside him with the dessert and said "are you sure you don't want any? it's the dessert from last night.", dennis sang a different tune. "oh! it is??" he perked right up and handed over his plate to be served.
karey and i were going to go swimming but the tide was out to the barnacle rocks and when we got down to the water we did't feel like it. karey didn't feel like it and i wanted to wait until the tide came in more. so we went back up and i put my capris over my suit but left the dress part out. we decided to play bocce ball. mom and dad and uncle dennis were the green team and me and sarah and auntie heather were the red team. dad was playing with a broken neck but he wasn't doing to badly, however the red team won fair and square. auntie heather would surprise us with some killer shots, which dad would always call lucky. "what luck!" he would moan. auntie heather would giggle and complain that no one ever said she had any skill, only luck. "i think you're very skillful." i told her. sarah and i liked the different variables of the field with divots, pieces of wood and rock, dips and hills, but dad didn't. "i would be so much better if this was a level field." was known to moan. one time i purposely threw the pallini just on the other side of this hole with a slope leading out of it, but a drop off on our side of the hole. auntie heather rolled her bocce ball and as she let go she sing songed "down the gully and up the hill..." sometimes when mom would roll her ball me and sarah would say "slipsies!" and laugh because the last time we played mom said that and we found it quite funny.
after our game was over i was ready for a swim, but no one else was. well sarah wanted to, but she didn't have a suit and she was nursing adriel besides and i didn't have a lot of time before we had to leave for the ferry. karey still refused and said she didn't feel like it. she was deep into her book about the girls and the pants, so finally i just went by myself. the tide had come all the way in and the water was perfect. it was soooooooooooooo nice and the only thing nicer would have been if katie or the twins could have been there to enjoy it with me. i kept myself facing the mountains and the big sea, but periodically i would look behind me. there is a strong pull on that beach towards the north so i mostly swam but stayed in one spot. there was a family on the beach who had thrown a tennis ball out for their dog, but he was totally clueless about it. it was out far by me, so i chucked it back near the shore and they threw rocks near it to get his attention. so that was my friendly action as i was asea.
as we were packing up dad said "i would have gone swimming if we had gone anywhere but here." haha. how can dad not love pipers? it's the best beach ever!
sunday morning we got up early to go to sarah-lynn's ward. she coerced us into staying for the whole time. adriel had a nice blessing and kylie smilie gave a good lesson, but his class was really quiet, all except for brother slabboden who always had a word. it was about king hezikiah. when i walked into the class i was in the middle of blowing a bubble (very classy, i know) when gary vanderleek said "sister laura! i haven't seen you in a long time!!" "brother gary!" i returned, "how are you?" rs. was a very small gathering, but a good lesson. we were sooo tired that when we got home bethany and i put in sound of music and i slept through the whole darn thing. i don't remember one part except for bits of how do you solve a problem like maria? i woke up during the director's little bit.
then bethany and i played big boggle. i wanted to play scrabble but apparently mom got rid of it. bad decision mom. bad decision. still boggle was fun and bethany made me a drink with apple juice, perrier water and something else. yum.
i thought it was a particularly good potluck. we had lots of people. delanie's sister and her three kids, anne, and kathy kelly, and tania and her and esther's parents plus everyone else. everyone brought yummy stuff too. like spinnach salad with strawberries, and enchilladas, and spanish omelettes, and garlic bread, and roast beef and delicious potato wedges.
katie was hot to trot on sunday.
katie and i sat on the swing on the deck with amay and then bethany and then sarah and talked. we mostly talked about amay and bethany's love life. an unending topic as bethany says. amay told us about her future mate, j-rock, who's only in grade 10 right now. and we all had some good times with that one. and everyone pushed bethany to her destiny which is apparently little john russell with the curly muffin top head. we all agreed that their children would in fact be gorgeous.
we played boggle after dinner too. kyle, amay and katie joined us, but katie ubruptly left due to the heat. she says she's not good at it, but i find her quite capable.
then we got a surprisingly huge group to play consequences (mom, dad, heather, katie, amay, bethany, jordan, sarah, evan and i). consequences is a guarenteed good laughing time. auntie heather and karey were the girls most often picked for a hook up. uncle dennis frequented often as well, but not with auntie heather.
later that night tania sat out on the deck with me and karey talking with the mosquitos and moths. she told us about her current love life, which is quite eventful and we all swatted at mosquitos. eventually i drove her home and karey came for the ride while knawing on a corn cob. she finished in the car and asked me if she could throw it out the window but i said no. i said tania could throw it away when she got home, but tania said no way. karey chased her with it to the door but she still would not take it and neither would evan who ansered the door and after threatening to put it in their mail box or inside their door, she put in their outside garbage can like a good girl.
amay slept in my bed that night so she could wake up with the sun the next morning and drive bethany back to victoria and work. i slept on the couch which was hot but ok.
the end
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