Halloween Rendezvous

It’s been an exciting week for us.  The Looper Fall Rendezvous took place and with over 200 participants, plus vendors and staff, it was very busy.  The marina and hotel were at full capacity and having so many people together that share the same dreams is amazing.  We met a lot of people that have done the trip and some planning to make the loop.  We opened our boat for the “Looper Crawl” so others could see how we live.  I had more than one group say that we were the most organized boat they saw (but you have to be with kids!). 

We were interviewed by two magazines, “Life on the Water” and “Heartland Boating.”  It seems we are the only family doing the trip right now.  It was fun to share our story as it seems everyone’s story is so different.  The Great Loop can be done in so many ways all with different goals, routes, timelines, etc.

We also attended a cocktail reception and thanks to Aunt Shell, the girls had pretty dresses to wear (oops, no pictures though)!

Craig found this piece of driftwood on a hike and made a fun mask. 

Morgan had fun with an orange (although it looks like a lime?)

 We had fun making our costumes and decorations this year.

Jaxon took time to hang out in a box and catch up on some reading.  I have a video of him reading Dora Books to himself (he insists that he can read)!

 

When the sirens went off, schools closed and tornado warnings filled the media Craig was doing laundry J while we weathered through the storm. This is what we watched off the aft deck.  It came as fast as it went and all was back to normal. 

 My three little pirates really had fun getting into character!

 

Our friends, Bill and Cynthia had us over for an evening of delicious homemade pie, drinks, cookies, candy and fun!  We don’t have opportunities like this and we enjoyed it very much! 

Bill is a professor at Penn State, but that night he enamored the children with getting into pirate character, a green laser light display, drawing a silhouette of Ryann on his boat, etc.

 
Our friend, Leslie Marsh from “Amalia” took the kids for an art lesson by the pool.  She brought out several fun crafts for them to make Trick-or-Treating bags. 

Thanks to our friend Joan Gehrig from “Windsong” the kids had the most memorable Halloween ever. She spoke to the event planners of the Rendezvous and coordinated time and candy for a trick or treating event JUST for my three little pirates! EVERY looper boat participated and since boats are closer together than houses, they received a lot of candy fast!
Everyone seemed so happy to celebrate. So many of them commented that they love Halloween, seeing the kids dressed up, etc. and this would be there only opportunity this year to have that. Needless to say the kids were photographed on many occasions and felt so fortunate to have so many people that care about them.
It was more than just miniature candy bars this year…..flashlights, stickers, pencils, cake rolls, glow sticks, necklaces and an assortment of full size bars and candy galore made it tough for Jaxon to hold his bag at the end of the night. However, he was worried the bag would fall into the water, so he took the liberty to make sure it was safe.
John and Carol from “Seas 2 Day” were our wonderful slip mates for over two weeks.

Greg, Barbara and Vanilla Bean (dog) from GonCruzn

Bruce and Chris from “Bade Boomer” showing me that they loved giving each kid a huge handful of candy!

Jim and Cathy from “Merried with Her”

Joan with her dog Molly gave the kids several fun Halloween treats (and made this event possible)! What a great friend she is to me and gives a ton of love to my children.

Pete and Anna from “Blue Yonder” were fun to hang out with. A very fast friendship was formed and we enjoyed good conversation and cocktails on our aft deck for a few nights. They are 37, which is the next youngest people to be doing the loop right now!

Skip and Barb from Moor Stuff. Skip was in full character and made the kids really laugh as always!

Greg and Leslie from Amalia had this cute little table set up with goodie bags by their boat. So sweet of them to put so much time into making it so special.

Posing for the paparazzi happened at every boat. They always gave their best pirate faces! We were overwhelmed by the participation and we fun we had!

Friends that have accepted our family like their own. Special people that we’ll enjoy cruising with for a long time to come.

Jim and Gloria from Crawdad

Sue and Darrell from “Present Moment” started their trip from Holland, Michigan

Look at the “booty” treasure we brought home!!!

Wes and Jean from “Miss Ruby”…we’ve been drawn to them since we met…my grandparents names are Wes and Jean and he has this huge smile and blue eyes like my grandpa. Craig has loved talking with them about their boat as it has gorgeous interior cabinetry they built entirely.

Gregs birthday celebration included a yummy cake with a candle that, once lit, opened up, shot sparklers in the air and played the tune of Happy Birthday!

160 bobbers have been found here at Joe Wheeler on our hikes and hidden in coves.

Jaxon fell asleep on a very long paddle ride back to the dock after the dinghy motor stopped working.

The finished Halloween bags!

It’s been a treasure hunt to find these fishing lures, but each day this kids get excited to get our there and search some more. 67 is the current total. Jaxon is collection old lighters, we’ve found two turtle shells, small old glass bottles, etc.