Thursday Dec 11th. We go to the beach. Dan surfed, Merle kayaked in the surf, and the boys and I played in the surf on the beach. Shandro learned the skimboard in a couple of amazing hours today. And he was also very successful at riding the skimboard in to shore on his tummy, pushed by the waves. He must have said he was grateful that Shane and Amy gave us the skimboard about a hundreds times that day! Even Matero gave it a go, and rode it easily close to shore. They both had an amazing day. I tried to body surf. There is a lot of power in the waves, that’s for sure!! It scared me so I tried it a few times. When I am 100 years old, I willl probably be fine with not mastering surfing in this life. But I am going to try it some more just in case. Dan went into town and we retired to the boat. I think Merle was up every hour checking for him. When Dan returned (after walking several miles and swimming across a river twice and swimming the mile out to our boat – all happily and not even mentioning it actually) Merle heard him right away. I thought it was so sweet that Merle would care so much that he would watch out for Dan. Merle slept well after Dan was home.