Vacation!

We lucky ducks were in Turks and Caicos week before last for the Sanders Family Vacation. Our set up was dreamy: our house was right on a pretty sandy beach on a calm bay. Every so often a prickly little sea star or sea urchin would creep up toward shore to remind us that it wasn't just a big, beautiful wading pool. A few pix below, more here.

Some moments:

1) Elijah showed up with one very, very loose front tooth. The real highlight was watching his innovative, preservationist approach to eating, where he could bite anything without letting it touch that front tooth.

2) Naked kid swimming: Sam and fam made their very tight connection but their luggage didn't, so Elijah and Dash had no swimsuits that morning. They went swimming in the raw and Rosemary tore off her swimsuit in solidarity.

3) Seeing an octopus out of water - literally - as it tried to hunt down a crab on a low-tide rock ledge near our house. It scrambled back in and disappeared right quick when we approached.

4) Early mornings with Rosemary, Birthday for Frances, cups of coffee (me, not her), and walks to our watery staircase.

5) Jason, John, and Elijah played touch football on the beach and Jason threw a ball that finally knocked Elijah's front tooth out. It flew up, up, up in the air aaaaaand...disappeared onto the sandy beach amidst a whole host of pearly-white, tooth-sized shells. Good camouflage. Tooth hunt was ultimately successful and the tooth fairy came all the way to T&C.

Tooth hunters:

5) Next day at dinner Elijah's second front tooth fell out, totally unceremoniously. This may or may not have been due to playing football with Jason again. Tooth fairy summoned back to T&C.

6) Kayaking to see the snails in what Rosemary dubbed "Seattle," a teeny tiny beach down the bay from us.

7) Lots of swimming and jumping and kicking in the pool.

8) Watching Dash and Rosie work together making indoor pillow forts and watery canals on the beach.