Summer Vacation Part VII

Sadly, our time in Ventura came to an end.  We flew our of LAX on Monday night around 7 pm, so we spent the first half of the day in Ventura.  We checked out the harbor--a bit of a touristy thing to do, but they had a neat arcade, the weather was nice, and we had the time.  A big incentive to go to the harbor was the promise of a carousel.  Bode loves these, and as soon as he saw it, he was ready to ride.

There were also the requisite goofy plywood pictures with holes to put your heads in.  Bode couldn't resist.

After a hearty meal, we needed to get moving.  Alas, we took one more picture of Bode in front of the beach before we left for good.

We made it to LAX with no problems.  We were delayed about a half-hour on departure, but otherwise, a smooth flight.  Bode planned on sleeping, so he brought Buzz along for the ride.

Most of the stuff on our trip simply happened--no real planning, just family members enjoying the beach, and figuring out what to do next.  We could not have planned a more relaxing vacation--well, relaxing for us.  Bode was wiped out due to the extensive playing with "the Friends."  We've promised him we will return.  I go back to work tomorrow.  My Endless Summer is no more.  Oh well--there's always another vacation just around the corner :-)  Pleasant week to all.

Summer Vacation Part VI

Saturday night (I think it was Saturday...not really sure), John and Leea (Eileen's son and daughter-in-law) had everyone over to their house for lasagna.  By the McDermott standards, this was a small gathering of maybe 25 people.  Leea makes a great lasagna--I think she comes from an Italian family, and she cooked enough for a small army.  Ashley and I played the part of Japanese tourists, snapping pictures and trying not to be intrusive.  In no particular order, here are some pictures of the group.  First up is Charlie and Jessica, who are very happy to be alive.  Jessica ran the Boston Marathon this year.  Evidently Charlie was standing right next to bomb #2.  Fortunately, Jessica is quite the runner, so she finished well before the detonation.

Next is a great shot of Charlie and his daughter, Jamie, and Tom, the youngest of Eileen's kids.  Tom is a pharmacist by trade, but he spends at least an hour a day getting in a surf (you don't think that hair just happens, do you?).  I do not think you could meet a more laid back person than Tom.

Next up is a nice picture of me, Bode, and Great Aunt Eileen.

Here is John holding his nephew, Dane (Charlie's youngest).

For this next picture, Ashley let me take some pictures.  Ashley, Eileen, and her son, Jim, Ashley's surf instructor (although if you want to split hairs, these pictures were taken before the day in the surf, so Jim had not yet earned the title of instructor.  I'll claim writer's discretion--the facts don't have to be completely accurate if the narrative is improved).

Kristen and I posed for a good picture.  Kristen remembers when I was just a little kid--maybe seven or eight?  I think we both look the same as we did those many years ago.

At some point, John opened up the hot-tub.  This was probably the second-best part of the evening for the kids.

In the tub with Bode are Charlie, Locklund, Jamie, and Dane.  Playing the roll of life guards are...

Jared, Rory, Max, and Shannon.  I'm pretty sure the above four all participated in the six-week junior life-guards course on the beach, so the youngsters could not have been in better hands.  Recall, I said the hot-tub was the second best part of the evening.  The highlight had to have been eating cake in the hot-tub.  I think I heard one of the kids say, "You know boys, it doesn't get any better than this." (Wait until they discover beer).

I'm pretty sure on this particular day, Bode was busy from wakeup until the cake.  After the sugar wore off, Bode came up to us and said, "I want to go home and go to sleep."  Simply awesome.  Before leaving, we snapped this picture with Shannon, who did a heroic job watching the kids.

Maybe two more posts summarizing the California trip.  I can't believe we did as much as we did.

Summer Vacation Part V

Bode called all the cousins "The Friends," probably because there were so many kids' names to remember.  One night, we went over to Jim's house (Eileen's son).  Jim is married to Lisa, and they have three kids: Little Jim (who is 6'4" or so), Shannon (who is in 11th grade and also 6' tall) and Jared, who, I think, is in 9th grade.  He might not be 6' tall, but he'll get there.  Eileen's two other sons, Charlie and John, and their families, were there.  Charlie and his wife Jessica have four kids (three were mentioned in a previous post; their fourth is their oldest son, Charlie).  John and his wife, Leea, also have four kids.  Jake and Tara are both in college, while Rory and Max were at the beach with us.  The entire family has a great setup--Jim and Lisa live in Ventura, while John and Leea have a beach house a few doors over from Eileen.  Tom (the youngest of Eileen's children) and his family also live in Ventura.  They all live within a one mile radius of each other, so there is always someone around, which is why Bode had such a good time.  Charlie and Jessica have lived near San Diego, but are moving to Boston for a two-year stint (why they are leaving the beach is a long story, and hopefully it works out).  Should be a big change for them (there will be pictures of the adults in a later post; for now, let's focus on the kids).

Like I said, Bode had so many friends around.  He often had to ask me, "Daddy, what's his name?"  Just as often, I had to ask the same to Aunt Eileen.  At Jim and Lisa's, a number of the kids watched a movie.

In the above, we have Shannon and Jared on the coach, and Jamie and Rory on the ground.  There was also a mean game of foosball being played.

In the above, the adults are me and Charlie.  In front of Charlie is Dane, and we were whipping up on little Charlie, Max, and Locklund.  Tons of fun.

Night-time brought what amounted to a big slumber party.  The top floor of Eileen's house is a big dormitory.  Along the back wall is a row of bunks.  Find a spot, grab a blanket and pillow, and you better not snore.  To my surprise, Eileen has a TV with cable in this room.  Growing up, the McDermotts did not have television, and they turned out pretty good.  Perhaps Eileen has mellowed.  Here's a shot of Bode, Dane, and Jamie getting ready for bed while watching some Disney.

Finally, here's a movie of this same scene, because it's always nice to hear the kids' voices.

When we got home yesterday, it was a bit sad to see Bode going to sleep in his room...by himself.  Hopefully he had some great dreams of all the fun he had to keep him company.

Summer Vacation Part IV

Ashley went surfing.  Jim was nice enough to offer to help her learn the basics.  She had taken one lesson when we were in Hawaii a dozen years ago, but she thought her time on a snowboard would help.  I believe it did.  The waves were nothing for the California crew to get excited for.  However, they were nice enough for Ashley to hone her skills.  Before getting in the water, Jim taught Ashley the best way to transition from paddling to standing.  Evidently you have to do it with one fluid motion or your center of gravity gets all out of whack.

Note both are wearing a wetsuit.  Ashley would not get close to the water without one.  After a few practice sessions, they paddled out into the surf (looks almost glass-like, doesn't it).

Jim was a phenomenal teacher.  He's been surfing for 40+ years, so he knows what he is talking about. He hung by Ashley and coached her up, told her when to paddle, and watched her try to stand up.

Here's a movie a good attempt, although she wasn't able to stand up.  The other surfer in the video is Charlie.

Charlie has been surfing just as long as Jim, so they make it look easy when they catch a wave.

Ashley was able to get up a couple times, although I didn't get any real good shots of her.  I did get the following sequence, which makes it look like she knows what she's doing.

Ashley was in the waves for almost an hour.  Like most water sports, she said it was exhausting.  She also said she can see how easy it is to get hooked on surfing, because when she got up, the feeling was both exhilarating and calming, some type of chaotic serenity.  Interesting dichotomy.  No need to get her a surf board for Christmas--let's wait until we get that beach house first :-)

Summer Vacation: Interlude

California is exhausting.  I can see why everyone is so laid back--they're tired.  Every now and then, we needed a nap.  Well, Ashley needed one, probably because she got up a 0545 and went to a Crossfit gym for a workout.  Hopefully she lifted enough weight for all of us.  One afternoon, Ashley was napping, so I started playing around with her camera.  Ashley has a SLR Nikkon Super Spectacular Picture-Taker-inator (if you don't watch Phineas and Ferb, this won't be funny to you).  I have a small, Lumix camera, about the size of my hand.  Ashley's camera has a few more bells and whistles, not to mention you can just press the button and take about a thousand pictures.  The following are 13 sequenced shots--it's almost like an old-time flip-er-rama.  I include these pictures as evidence for a future lawsuit against Ashley for her attacking me.

Here's the first picture.  Ashley and Bode relaxing.  I think Ashley is telling me to stop taking pictures.  She's still laughing, but starting to get annoyed.

 In this picture, Ashley's smile is gone and she's upset.  Like any good camera man, I keep things rolling.

 With catlike speed, Ashley is up.  I felt like how an antelope feels when a cheetah springs.

A pause by Ashley, thinking her first flinch might have convinced me to stop shooting.  Ah, dear girl, you should know better.  Note how Bode is hardly moving in these pictures--he knows to be very still when a predator is on the move.

 Ashley has had enough.

 The decision has been made, and she accelerates to full speed.

 Leaping off the bed in one fluid motion.  Again, note motionless Bode.  Well played, my son.

 The pursuit is on.

 Both feet are on the ground, and I only have seconds left.

 She rounds the corner of the bed, somehow pivoting on her right arm, which looks to be in an unattainable position.

 She starts to cock her right arm, getting ready to deliver the death blow.

 Like a shark moving in for the kill, her eyes roll back.

She strikes with the savagery of a woman who was trying to nap only to be bothered by her annoying husband.

Due to the graphic content, this website would not allow me to post the remaining photographs.  They are particularly gruesome and not for the young at heart.   Fortunately, I escaped with my life, but my "good-camera" privileges were revoked.

Summer Vacation Part III

The beach.  What is it that draws us to it?  Nothing but sand and water (and freezing water at that--the Pacific ain't the Gulf of Mexico).  Still, we were at the beach every day, sometimes twice a day, sometimes thrice a day (you don't hear "thrice" all that often in conversation; it's used every fortnight or so...).  I ran on the beach, we walked on the big, built sand-castles on the beach, and just watched the beach.  Watching might have been the most fun.  We saw one of Eileen's neighbors--I don't recall her name, but let's just call her Dee Dee.  She was quite buoyant.

Ashley and I took this shot.  Not the best picture of the two of us, but so what--we were having a lovely time.

Here's a better shot of Ashley in front of the ocean doing her impersonation of an onion (many many layers).  She never grew fond of the ocean breeze or the chilly water.

Bode loved the beach.  One day, Jamie, Locklund, and Dane took Bode out onto the rocks.  Jamie, Locklund, and Dane are four of Aunt Eileen's 23 grand-children.  I think they are Bode's fourth-cousins, but Bode just referred to them as "the friends."  Well, the friends had a grand time scampering on the rocks, looking for little sea crabs and splashing in the waves.  On these vacations, Ashley and I sometimes feel sad when we see the fun Bode has playing with a crowd of kids.  One day, we saw him around 10 am, then not again until 6 pm.  Little dude could not have been happier.

Bode loved hanging out with the McDermott kids (more pictures of more of the clan in later posts).  He also played with Daddy a few times (when he didn't have better options :-)  Ashley went to Target and loaded up on toys.  Bode has a future in construction.

Yup, that's our boy, just lying in the sand.  It gets everywhere, but I think that's part of the fun.  We did go in the water and splashed around in the waves.  The water temperature was a balmy 65--amazingly, we could not convince Ashley to join us.

I surprised myself and went boogie boarding a couple times.  I stayed in for about 30 minutes.  It wasn't too cold when you were in the water, but when you got out, it took a long time to warm up.  I couldn't get Bode to try it--he wanted to ride on my back, which simply wasn't going to happen.  I guess this means we have to go back :-) or maybe even buy a beach house.  If the current administration can get everyone a cell-phone, why can't them get us all beach houses? :-)