These past three weeks at home have flown by so quickly, but they have been full of all sorts of traveling and family fun.
My family welcomed me with hugs and kisses when I arrived home in
I arrived home not just to Mom, Dad, Rachel and Caleb, but also to Nicholas Guibaud, a visitor from
We were all quite impressed with Nicholas’s English – much better than my five years of high school and two college semesters worth of French. Our running joke was that Nicholas had a wider vocabulary than Caleb. When you ask Caleb how dinner tastes, for example, he says in a low monotonous tone: “Goooood.” When you ask Nicholas how dinner tastes, he replies with enthusiasm: ‘Deleecious!’
Mom and Dad decided that while Nicholas was here we should introduce him to as much as the Eastern seaboard as was possible. Though he did not explicitly state it, Dad was also looking for some quality time to test his new GPS (which got us lost a couple of times in our journeys)…so, we all packed up the family van and headed to Baltimore, Maryland for a round of some authentic American baseball. Eating plenty of peanuts and drinking lots of good-ole Coca-Cola we all watched the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles. After the game we walked
Next, we hopped in the car and headed down to our nation’s capital,
After D.C., we made our way down to Dixieland. Dad’s brother, Thad owns a lake house on
While at the lake, I also enjoyed getting to see my cousins who I hadn’t seen in a couple of years, and some who I hadn’t had the chance to meet! My cousin, Julie, and her husband Joel, have, in the past year and a half adopted two beautiful children. She has one biological daughter, Elena, who is five, and is as beautiful as can be, with the longest eyelashes you have ever seen! Elena was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when she was born, and has come remarkably far over the past few years. She plays piano, is starting home schooling, and can sing The Little Mermaid unlike anyone I know! Ethan, Joel and Julie’s second child, looks just like Joel with dark eyes and dark hair, and has the most mischievious smile. Emily is three months old and a blond-hair, blue-eyed ball of love with Williams dimples in her cheeks. Needless to say, I had a great time getting to play with them and hold them all – they are all sooooo cute! Jennifer, Julie’s sister also joined us at the house with her son, Will. Will is a hoot and a half. A fun fourth-grader this year, he has such an imagination and a great sense of humor. On an afternoon boat ride, Will transformed himself into a boat steward instructing everyone as to how they could secure their seatbelts and the steps to take should we all find ourselves in the midst of an emergency. He is growing up so fast!
After saying our goodbyes in
Our first few days at the beach, were, unfortunately rainy ones, but when the sun did decide to show its face, we were able to enjoy some of our traditional beach activities. Mom and Dad rigged up the family Flying Scott, and we sailed over to Shackleford Banks (a barrier island directly across from the house) for a day on the beach. I caught up on some shelling and worked on my strawberry-vanilla tan J.
During our stay at the beach we were joined by the Charvin family, French visitors who were staying with my Aunt Kakie and Uncle Bob. The Charvin’s are relatives of Emilie Guibaud, who stayed with my family eight years ago. Christine Charvin (the mother) has a twin sister (Annick) who is Emilie’s mother. The Charvins have been exchanging children with my aunt and uncle for several years now as well. My nineteen-year-old cousin Nathan, went to stay with the Charvins summer before last and had a wonderful time biking across
The Charvins were up for all of our beach adventures, and they entertained us with their wonderful sense of humor. All of the children sail and they all enjoy water sports, so the beach was a wonderful horizon of summer fun for them.
above pic - The Charvin Family, me & cousins - goofing around in the Beaufort Maritime Museum
I think one of the most amusing parts of their stay was my uncle’s idea for a fishing adventure. We loaded up the Scott with fishing gear (our Hancock motor boat was out of commission this summer) and headed out with a motor attached literally chasing the schools of fish. He had me and Marie Sophie stand on the sides of the boat and point out moving schools of fish while the boys all frantically cast their lines in the direction of the schools. So for an hour we puttered in between three docks waving our hands and fishing poles in fury at the fish we didn’t catch. My uncle was perplexed at the fact that the fish weren’t biting the white fake bait he had bought at the store –he was sure it would catch a Spanish mackerel. I think, to tell the truth, that the fish weren’t thinking about biting at all, more like fleeing from the big white boat above them. Hehe.
So, yes, my summer has been full of wonderful events and people, and I’m looking forward to what is yet to come. Bring on
Will write again soon.
Much love,
Hannah
