Mom: "I've got crabs!"

I don't know whether my secondary school English teacher, Mrs Gregory, might have something to say about the use of punctuation in the title of this blog entry but I wanted to make absolutely sure that no one thought I had caught a nasty infestation!  And perhaps I should explain my Mom's outburst.

Last week I joined my parents, my England dwelling sisters and their families on a camping holiday in Porthmadog, Wales.  I was a bit nervous about it as Austin was only 7 weeks old and Jon wasn't coming with us as he had to work but I shouldn't have worried because it was brilliant!  We arrived on Tuesday evening and got unpacked before making everyone a yummy dinner of Cajun Chicken Pasta (which is delicious and deliciously easy if anyone would like the recipe).  Hayley was far too excited at the prospect of sleeping in a tent to actually go to sleep but we did eventually settle down to a surprisingly warm and comfortable night.

On Wednesday morning, Mom, Dad, Hayley, Austin, Jessica and I explored Porthmadog then met Cait, Richard and Ethan at the Harbour to do sometime I had never tried before - crabbing.  I was pretty excited to give it a go, though as it transpired not as excited as Mom who took the first turn under Cait's careful tuition.  After several failed attempts to catch anything, Mom pulled in her line and shouted very loudly "I've got crabs!" to which all those in the vicinity fell about laughing and the tone was set for the rest of the day.  Mom got freaked out when Cait was trying to get the tiniest crab off her line and it landed on the harbour wall and scuttled towards Mom.  Mom was screaming at Cait to get it and Cait obviously wasn't doing it fast enough as Mom swatted the poor thing and launched it 20 feet into the air!  But this doesn't even compare to her sneaky little comment which unfortunately for her Cait heard and retold to the rest of us.  Apparently Mom had a few crabs on her line which she failed to get up into the bucket so Mom said "The little buggers fell off!"  Probably sounds tame to most people but not if you know my mother!

Mom moments after her "I've got crabs!" outburst

Mom swapped with me to look after my sleeping babies and I had a brilliant time.  Having never been crabbing before I asked Cait if bacon was the only bait you could use and she said "Bacon, ham... whatever", to which I replied "Just pork products then?" to which she very quickly came out with "Yes, that's why you're not catching anything, you're fishing in the Jewish community."

My first time Crabbing

Thursday was a bit grim weather wise so we all took a trip on the steam train to Blaenau Ffestiniog.  All of us except Mom, Becky and Jess who decided to climb Snowden.  If it hadn't been raining I think it would have been fine, but as it was the only place we could find to eat our picnic without the sandwiches going soggy was a bus shelter.  Classy!

That evening we had planned on borrowing Adam's laptop to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  This is a favourite of some of my family but I hadn't seen it.  While sat with Jess and Richard in the gazebo the two of them started quoting funny lines from the film.  I asked them to stop because I didn't want them to ruin the film.  They stopped for a couple of minutes and then started again, at which point my Mom put on her 'I'm really cross' face and said "Jessica! Enough!  I mean it, enough!"  To which Jess broke off laughing for all of a second, then wheezed out "She tried to tell me off!" before breaking into further hysterics.

Well there's lots more holiday memories to share but they'll have to wait until another day as my little boy needs feeding.