A Day on a Boat

We were invited to go on a fishing trip on the Red Sea last weekend. I knew starting out that it was going to be a busier/harder day than normal, but it was just a little too fun to pass up.

The girls loved being on a boat. It had three decks and the bottom deck was filled with bedrooms and the girls wasted no time in staking claim to one with three bunks. Just as quickly they divvied up whose was whose: Sophie's was on the bottom so she wouldn't fall off and hurt herself.

My husband and girls fished for hours, but Savannah wins the prize for the most patience. She dropped the line over and reeled it in many, many times without catching anything. Brian was baiting the
hooks with shrimp and when Savannah would reel up the hooks with the shrimp still on them, she would shout, "Daddy, Daddy, I caught some shrimp!"

 

 Our mealtimes were group meals. At the noon meal, there were plates of beans, fried eggs (delicious!), cheese, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, and bread. There were no utensils. Everyone ate with their hands, dipping into the plate nearest to them. My children were completely comfortable with this style of eating. 

Dinner, served at 7:30 pm, was grilled chicken, four huge plates with mounds of pasta, and a cucumber and tomato salad. Between the 9 adults and 12 children there were seven spoons. Just seven. No one but me, seemed bothered in the least, so I played along and waited my turn. We did manage to keep one spoon just within our family, however.

 

This sweet picture of Sophie, sitting on a cooler eating watermelon, makes my day look deceptively simple. In fact, Sophie was enamored with the water and spent every second of her day (that she wasn't eating watermelon) running towards the edge as fast as her sweet little legs would take her. Coupled with the fact that she was touching everything and trying to eat everything in sight on an incredibly dirty fishing boat, I was one busy Mama. 

By the time the boat docked at 9:30 pm, I was more than grateful to get off that boat and drive home. 

But it was still a good day.