Mid-day Thursday

I ate one of the brats for lunch yesterday. The boys, clearly less adventurous than I, opted for macaroni and cheese. So far, so good, so I ate another one today for lunch. I'm half-expecting to come down with chills or abdominal cramping or blurred vision. On the other hand, it isn't possible that they weren't cooked after four hours.

We went swimming twice yesterday. I believe this was a contibuting factor to Michael's proclamation that yesterday was the best day yet of the vacation. It probably was the sole factor. I actually went down the "water slide," which is literally a slide which has been placed in the water. It was surprisingly fun. In the evening when we were walking Luka, Spencer looked at the beach and said wistfully "Michael, doesn't the slide look inviting?" He was echoing something Michael had said on the first night. Still funny.

We built sand castles and a sand turtle. We tried to catch fish with a bucket. Spencer suggested that if we had a worm it might be easier. I agreed.

I taught the boys how to play ping-pong in the gameroom. They are both getting the hang of it, but a volley (or even a return shot) is not on the horizon for a little bit.

Last night we made a fire. I was impressed with the boys' abilities in this arena. Apparently they once listened to a naturalist give a lesson on how to start a fire. They weighed the comparative advantages of the teepee formation versus the log cabin and unanimously agreed on the log cabin. They arranged the logs, then asked for "kindling first, then tinder." Of course we only had big blocks of wood, so we found birch bark (which is great) and dried leaves and some twigs. It worked.

We roasted marshmallows. First though, I had to convince the boys that it was possible to roast marshmallows on a stick. From a tree. Then, they informed me that they couldn't eat the marshmallow directly from the stick, but would need a plate to put it on. Also, if the marshmallow catches on fire, it is inedible and must be sacrificed. I lost two last night.

We have been playing a lot of games. Spencer is really enjoying mancala right now and usually beats me. At least when he goes first. Which is all of the time. He says that "he smokes me." Though under Michael's criteria for "smoking me," he would only have "smoked me" one time. Michael claims matter of factly, as if it is a well-established fact, that "smoking" means winning by five or more.

Lastly, Michael came into my bedroom this morning to show me a scrape on his heel. He said it hurt but he wasn't sure how he got it. Spencer asked with genuine concern "did it just come out of nowhere?"

On a separate note, I saw a giant spider today. It looked like it might be poisonous.