I can remember my granny asking me this riddle when I was a little girl; I was constantly trying to keep up with number of '7s' in my head so I could give the right answer...
As I was on my way to St Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
Seven wives had seven sacks.
Seven sacks had seven cats.
Seven cats had seven kittens.
So, kittens, cats, sacks, and wives...
How many were going to St Ives?
Well, this summer I finally went to St Ives myself, and let me tell you, it is not an easy place to get to. St Ives is near Lands End of Cornwall, and there is one road in and one road out, sooo that can make for a long ride. The girls passed the time on the road yelling hello to all the cars we came across, singing at the top of their lungs, and counting all the sheep on this 355 mile, 8+ hour journey.
We went the week after school finished with our good friends Claire, Grandma Linda, Hannah, and Emily. They go every year and sometimes multiple times a year. They were the perfect tourist advisers, but unfortunately I wasn't in the exploring mood. The roads are the narrowest & busiest I have experienced since moving over seas, it rained every day, and the girls just wanted to play at the beach.
Claire, Gma Linda, and I took 1 hour shifts huddled up on the beach with our rain gear on, layers-upon-layers of clothing, umbrella, and blankets while the girls played in the water. We should receive an award for braving the weather in the name of our children. You may ask how the kiddos stayed warm...well I'm not really sure they were warm but they would have never admitted otherwise, but never fear, (remember we are going for Mother of the Year Award here...) they had wet suits on.
Sophie didn't like hers too much because she felt like it was choking her. We tried to explain it had to be tight so the cold water wouldn't get into it. There were several times we had to bring Sophie back to the room because she was turning blue in the water (I'm guessing there went my Mother of the Year Award). We would shower her off and then let her take a warm bath...she was singing the entire time with a huge grin on her face...even if her face was a little on the blue side :-)
The girls on the other hand, loved it...
Regardless of how cold the Atlantic Water was, sun or no sun, the girls were like fish. There were several different beaches the girls could swim at, and the waves were different based on which beach we were at ~ some waves were surfing size, almost all waves were body surfing size, and there was plenty of splashing for all.
A couple of afternoons the girls went crabbing on the dock. It is a tradition on the island and people line up with their pails of crabs. First you go to the bait shop and ask for the leftover fish (another way of asking for old, stinky fish guts), then you fill a small bag with the bait, dangle it in the water, and catch some crabs. You don't kill the crabs; you just put them in your pail to see how many you can get ~ kinda like a catch & release mentality.
Brittney & Emily were unstoppable when it came to the water. They were fearless in the waves and loved every minute of the holiday.
On the last day we finally had sunshine. Gma Linda went out real early to stake our claim on the beach. We were in the back, up against the wall with our wind guard marking our territory. It was kinda ironic, within a few hours we were sweating hot. We tried to brave the cold water, but without a wetsuit (& who wants that image of me in a wet suit) there was no way.
The girls on the other hand, loved it...
Regardless of how cold the Atlantic Water was, sun or no sun, the girls were like fish. There were several different beaches the girls could swim at, and the waves were different based on which beach we were at ~ some waves were surfing size, almost all waves were body surfing size, and there was plenty of splashing for all.A couple of afternoons the girls went crabbing on the dock. It is a tradition on the island and people line up with their pails of crabs. First you go to the bait shop and ask for the leftover fish (another way of asking for old, stinky fish guts), then you fill a small bag with the bait, dangle it in the water, and catch some crabs. You don't kill the crabs; you just put them in your pail to see how many you can get ~ kinda like a catch & release mentality. Brittney, tired of catching crabs, decided it would be fun to catch a sea gull. She threw her line out and a sea gull thought about eating it, instead he found himself entangled in the line. We weren't sure how to get him off because he was trying to fly away while screaming at the top of his lungs and the girls were screaming on the dock. Claire tried to drown him in the water but his 'Fight or Flight' syndrome kicked in and he was able to free himself from the line.
Two different times when we were out on the docks a seal came up to the girls. They were able to feed him some of their fish guts and watch him do a few twists and turns in the water. Everyone was squealing for joy (even us adults). Unfortunately we didn't have our camera with us due to the rain and the water.
We finished the days off with ice cream from Kelly's. We would walk around the shops and spend Daddy's hard earned money.
1 comment:
great blogging Cathy!
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