A New Consideration

We just spent two weeks in Tahanea Atoll.  And a lot of our time there was structured around... kids' birthday parties.

Elias has reached the age where he really wants the company of his peers.  For a couple weeks before his birthday Alisa and I had been talking about how nice it would be if we were sharing an anchorage with some other kids when the big day rolled around.

And then, just like that, we met some very nice families with very nice kids aboard other boats in Tahanea.  Conveniently, one of these boats had a birthday of their own that we helped them to celebrate, and in turn we were able to muster a respectable mob for Elias' big day.

Taking a page from the book of Pacific Bliss, who had shared their birthday celebration with us, we had beach games on the big day.  There were spoon races...

And tug of war...

And a break for cake.

And then a good swim for all.

It worked out great.  But it was also hard not to notice that we were suddenly playing a new game - our plans weren't just built around the considerations of time and tide and what Alisa and I want - there is suddenly a very important third vote to count when we're deciding what to do.

And the fourth vote is coming in the not-too-distant future.