Styrofoam boots

Round 17: Days 81-85

last update/next update

Narrated by Adam Gottlieb

Athena has been wanting a holiday since before we got married, so I finally relented and dragged the whole family to Cape Elizabeth. We stayed right on the beach, in little bungalows. Wade and Joanna discovered that they love sandcastles. By the end of our trip, there were sandcastles in various states of disrepair all up and down the shore.



While the kids were playing in the sand, I decided to work on my tan which didn't really work out that well. Oh well...I guess I'm already pretty tan naturally, anyway.

For the whole rest of the first day, Athena dragged us all to the hot springs where there was pretty much nothing for the kids to do but ask me when we could go. Honestly, I was pretty bored too.

Sigh, that looked fun. The kids hogged them all evening though.

Despite how boring the hot springs were, there are a lot of things to do on this island. We all went parasailing and when we arrived back at the bungalows, I discovered that even though my mum and dad are in their 70s, they're still unbelievably embarrassing.

We also visited some ancient ruins, where there's a waterfall/fountain where you're supposed to throw a coin in and make a wish. Well, I had a surprise for Mr. Fountain!

This is going to be so funny!

Oops. I guess that's not so funny.

On the pirate shipwreck, Joanna showed us all that she's definitely the family daredevil. I was worried she'd fall but she ran back onto the ship giggling just in time.

Thank God, Wade stuck to activities less likely to induce a heart attack.

I believe this was sandcastle #32, 512. It's so enormous that you can't even see Joanna behind it!

Athena has as much luck with sunbathing as I do.

Maybe that's a good thing though. Mum and Dad both got tans but I think they look kind of...leathery.

Right before we got the shuttle back to the airport, Athena told us all she was going to buy some souvenirs and came back with over $500 worth of jewellery, none of which she's worn yet. She bought a nose ring, despite the fact that none of us have our noses pierced. She said she thought it was all so pretty and she couldn't decide.

Back at home, Dad is really working on getting a promotion. Joanna is always watching, trying to figure out how the machine works. She knows she's not allowed to use it by herself yet but I know she can't wait until she can.

We had a bit of a family get-together the other night. My cousin Ottilie came over with my uncle Elias and Athena's mum dropped by too.

Joanna really loved our holiday. She was telling anyone who'd listen all about it.

Drusilla is really upset about Linnea's divorce and she got a bit blubbery. Athena had to console her for a while before we could get her out of the house. It was so late, I thought she'd never leave!

I'm just going to brag about Joanna for a bit. I think she might be a genius. She gets all As in school and if she was old enough to enrol at Suffolk, she'd be eligible for the Kim Metro Prize for Hygienics and the London Culinary Arts Scholarship and she'd be pretty close to getting the Bui Engineering Award and the Quigley Visual Arts Grant. I can't wait to see what she decides to do with her life when she gets older.

Just as Dad and I arrived home from work the other night, I realised it was his time to go. I think I was too dumbfounded to react in any way at all.

The next morning though, when I realised I'd be going to work without him that day? That was hard. I'm glad we got to work alongside each other these past few years though. It's been really great.

Wade and Joanna took it especially hard, so while they were at school, I headed over to Sullivan and picked up a new addition to our family - his name is Qantas.

While I was at the pet store, I ran into my friend (and cousin) Filippo. I just had to rub his nose in the fact that I'd just got back from an awesome island vacation. The only time he's stayed overnight anywhere but Sullivan was university. He doesn't mind. He still gives me crap about how he went to college and I didn't.

Anyway, mission accomplished with Qantas. The kids absolutely love him.

Speaking of kids, Wade's not one any more! He's 13 now and he's already perfected that fine teenage art of completely tuning out anything said by adults!

Random pics:
So once you've angered the ancient gods by filling their shrine with soap, causing lava to spew forth from it, what would you do?
Splash your hand in it, of course!

Yes, Adam. Lava is hot and hot things burn!

Also, more Adam but he was making total crazy face when learning the sea shanty (which all my Sims do when they visit Cape Elizabeth, but I don't usually post pictures of it).

I don't think anyone enjoyed the song more than Adam.

You can really see the resemblance between Adam and Petra here.

Notes:

• Joanna is a toddler in the family portrait but a child for the whole update, because nothing picture-worthy really happened in the first two days of the round.
• The Gottliebs are another one of my very wealthy families. Wade and Joanna both have nice little $25,000 nest eggs already and Adam's got $150,000 in his bank account. So they can easily afford holidays, not to mention $500 worth of jewellery.
• I'm doing alphabet naming for my pets and I'm up to Q, hence Qantas.
• I hope there was sufficient Adam in this update for you all. ;) The last update was very lacking, so I've also snuck some Adam cameos into some other recent updates, to appease all his fans (one of which is me).