Sailing

With all our travel this summer, and the brutal heat, we hadn't had many opportunities to go sailing, so when it looked like there would be a window of decent weather and Mom Mom and Grandpa Don invited us out to the boat, we jumped at the chance. It was Elaine and Nora's first time out on the boat this season, and we had plenty of wind and a great day for sailing. Owen of course was excited to put on his life jacket and harness so he could ride the waves up on the bow, and make mommy exceedingly nervous. Too make sure mommy was really nervous, Nora got to go up on deck for the first time. She clipped in, and walked up to the front of the boat with daddy and Owen. Nora wasn't quite as adventurous as her brother, she preferred sitting with Daddy front to standing by the bow, but she loved riding up and down over the waves and wakes. We'll make sailors out of these kids yet.

(click here for all the pictures)

When the Girls are Away, the Boys Will Play

Mommy and Nora flew out to Minnesota for Caitlin's graduation, so it was just us boys this weekend. Mom Mom happened to be out of town as well to give a lecture series in Japan, so we teamed up with Grandpa Don for some baseball and some sailing.

On Saturday we went up to Baltimore to catch the Nats play the O's on the road with Grandpa Don. Owen was a bit skeptical of seeing a baseball game in an AL park. When we told him about the plan to go see the Nats in Baltimore, he was excited until we explained that in the American League they have designated hitters so pitchers don't hit. He broke into tears when he heard about the DH rule, worried about the poor hitters that wouldn't be allowed to hit even if they wanted to. He rallied for the game, but sadly the Nats used up all their offense beating the O's 17-5 the previous night, and they couldn't pull out the win for Owen on Saturday.

On Sunday we met up with Grandpa Don again, this time to go sailing. There wasn't much wind, but that might have been a good thing, since Owen was intent on playing all over the boat (with his life jacket and a tether of course). His favorite part was going up to the bow to ride up and down as we went over a wake, though a close second might have been playing fetch with Molly, the resident labradoodle at Hartge's (no word yet on how that will impact Mommy's stance on getting a dog ;-).


(click here for all the pictures)

We were on a break...

We generally try and update our blog about once a week, but due to the tremendous number of life changing events that occurred between July 3oth and September 7th, we wrote/edited/uploaded video for 12 posts in a scant 6 weeks. We were tired. Sure it would have been nice to record Allen reading Owen "The Hobbit" for the first time or when Owen and Nora dressed up as a tiger and elephant respectively. We could have narrated our first back-to-school open house or our new neighborhood watch program. We even could have waxed extensively about our decision to stop tracking Owen. Instead, we watched Top Chef and cleaned out our hall closet.

But after a pretty amazing long weekend which included Owen's return to daycare (for a day), soccer, Sofia's birthday party, the H street festival and Nora's inaugural sail, we thought we should at least post something. And so with no further ado, here is our little girl winching away.



(To see the rest of the sailing pictures click here.)

Sailing with Grandpa Fawcett & Grandpa Don

We took Owen sailing several times back when he was almost one year old, but the last few summers we decided he was too little to appreciate sailing, and too rambunctious to be safe. Lately though, he's been talking a lot about boats and ships and asking to go sailing again, so we decided it was time to take him back out on the water.

Last month I helped move Grandpa Don's boat down from the old marina in the inner harbor, to it's new home at Hartge's on the West River in Galseville, MD. Back in the summer of 2000 Dad, Thomas, Joe, Brendan, Billy and I charted a boat out of Hartge's and spent two weeks sailing around the Chesapeake, so I've been really excited about exploring that part of the Bay again.

The weather for the weekend was looking a bit chilly on Saturday for Ben's first birthday party, but Sunday looked to be a great day for sailing. Grandpa Fawcett, Owen and I drove out to Hartge's and met Grandpa Don at the boat in the morning. Owen put on his life jacket, and we worked out a tether for him, and we were quickly under sail. Owen was quite the sailor, working the winch to trim the jib, taking a turn steering the boat (with just a little help;), and keeping a lookout with the binoculars. We sailed out to Thomas Point Light, had a little lunch, and decided to head back to explore the Rhode River.

The Rhode River is just around the corner from the Marina, and it was one of our favorite anchorages on our big sailing trip back in 2000. There was a great little spot in the middle of three little islands where we anchored, and we swam to High Island, the smallest of the three. When we got there, Dad and I were having a bit of trouble orienting ourselves, until we finally realized that High Island had disappeared beneath the waves, all that was left was a little sign sticking up out of the water marking what was now a navigation hazard. Having satisfied our curiosity, we turned for home, and promised Owen we would take him sailing again soon.

(click here to see the sailing pictures)

Sailing on Father's Day

On Father's day Owen and I went sailing for the second time, this time on Innisfree with Elaine, Mom, and Don. He was actually awake this time, and like a good sailor he was happiest when he took the helm!

 

A Day with Daddy

Owen and I had the day off from work and daycare yesterday, while Elaine not only had to go to work, but had to stay late for a retirement party. Elaine was a bit worried about how we’d do without her, but Owen and I were excited to have a day out with the guys. Grandpa called and invited us to go sailing, and though Elaine was a bit sad not to be there for Owen’s first sail, she agreed that the weather was too nice to stay at home. So the three generations of Fawcett boys headed up to Pasadena for the first sail of the season. The sun was out, the temperature wasn't too hot, and the wind was just right. How did Owen react to this perfect sailing weather you may ask? He slept through it all. The collar on his life jacket was the perfect pillow, and the motion of the boat rocked him right to sleep. Looks like we'll have to take him out a few more times to turn him into a proper sailor.

(click here to see all the pictures)

(click here for a great video of Owen playing the piano!)