From the time we landed at the dock those Daufuskie trees bore record of our adventure.
Max, Madeline, Emmy, Ella and Tony on the Ferry to Daufuskie
Our family boarded the ferry with 5 Bodilys (Sarah's family), 5 Greens (Flossie's family), 2 Mcleans (Bethany and Eric), and 4 Dalias, along with a myriad of other people heading to the island. We boarded at Hilton Head Island and headed south, loving the warm 65 degree weather.
Sam on the Ferry
When we docked an hour later, we were met by Bryan and three golf carts, as there are very few cars on the island (one of the reasons it's a safer island for so many of us to go to). One golf cart malfunctioned immediately, the one Ryan was driving with all our luggage, and Bryan ended up pushing it with his golf cart the 3 miles to the other end of the island at Bloody Point. It was unfortunate the the golf cart went faster once I hopped off, so I ended up running to the house, greedily sucking in the warm air and memorizing the breeze blowing through the spanish moss.
Sunrise
Our house was magnificent. A part of the old country club, it was perfect for our ginormous family. It consists of 8 bedroom apartments, each with it's own bathroom and tow queen beds. So, each married couple got their own apartment. We had enough space and privacy that we were able to stay mostly polite the entire week.
As there are no stores (with the exception of a small general store), we brought all our food with us, so once we got to the house and unpacked, we were done with our work for the week (that's a fallacy, but we didn't have to leave to work). We fed the 14 grandchildren who were there, and left them in the care of younger Dalia kids and Grandma and Grandpa and headed over to the old Country CLub restaurant, a short 1 minute walk from our house. We feasted on seafood and caught up with everyone. We were there so long that everyone started getting phone calls from mom, who was tired and wanted us to come home so she could go to bed.
From me: Jenn, Flossie, Chris, Bryan, Tripp and Rhonda, Sarah and Adam
The next morning, several of us headed to the First Union African Baptist Church, over 130 years ago by freed slaves. This was my first trip to church via golf cart and wearing pants. I enjoyed driving by the old school in which Pat Conroy taught grades K-12 in a 2 room school house.
We strategically sat near the back, where a kids table was set up with crayons, puzzles and books. Ryan felt nervous about the audible negotiating of the cousins not used to playing together, and 15 year old Seth who is the rowdiest of them all. The preacher noticed his trying to quiet the kids and from the pulpit encouraged him to come listen to the words of Christ, as all in the church were familiar with children and were not put off by their noise. As the service ended, the chorister announced a children's choir she was putting together for the Christmas program the next day. She was looking for children to participate. Mom volunteered her 22 grandchildren to sing, and suggested that Madeline and Ella would play a violin duet.
So, back we headed on Monday, Christmas Eve for the Christmas Eve service. Due to the importance of the children, the church sent a van to pick us up. We crowded 24 children and adults into the 12 passenger van. The children sang, "Let there be Peace on Earth", and Madeline and Ella played, "The First Noel". I enjoyed the words and music, and appreciated the brevity of the hour long service.
Dalia Grandchildren
The 22 grandchildren and youngest of mom's and dad's kids were so excited about each other and the beach and the pool table that Santa bringing stockings was secondary to the fun the inhaling. After the service, the kids all changed into their pajamas and came to the living room for story time. By this time, Joey, Crystal, Mark and Erin had arrived with their children, and everyone was their except Hannah and Johnny. With 16 kids, 7 spouses, 22 grandkids and 2 parents, there were 47 people there.
Talia, Ella and Max listen to storytime
That night, Santa left stockings only for all the children. My siblings and I, in order to help out, lined all the chairs from the 5 family tables and hung stockings 2 to a chair. We set a time of 7:30 am to reconvene. In the morning, we opened presents and kids ate candy. In the afternoon, we asked Ella if she was going to follow through on her plan to get baptized in the ocean. She had previously planned on this, but as she had played around on the waters edge the previous three days, she was nervous about how cold it was going to be. If everyone hadn't been telling her how excited they were for her baptism, I think she would have terminated the plans.
Ella and Katie listen to a talk about Baptism
But, at 2:00, we all met up, where Grandma gave a brief talk, Madeline played, "I am a Child of God", and then we headed outside.
It started raining as soon as we went outside, so we were bundled in our winter coats. Ella asked her grandpa and her uncle Joey (who let her drive the golf cart by herself) to be the witnesses. At the waters edge, Ella started whimpering, so Ryan picked her up and headed into water chest deep, where he put her in and quickly baptized her. When they got out of the water, I put a blanket and towels around them, and they headed inside where Ella had a long bath.
The rest of the week was full of fun. I was amazed to see 10 little boys aged 2-5 who loved the same things. Those boys were either pushing balls around on the pool table, playing soccer outside with Uncle Tripp, or playing angry birds on iPads and iPhones. They loved looking for sand dollars at the beach, and digging in the sand.
Max takes a turn at bat while Tony leads a distraught Sam to wait in line for his turn.
Grayson, Colbey and Max play and watch Angry Birds
Colbey, Max and Uncle Bryan
Ryan and Sam walking out to the beach
The older girls and younger Dalia kids lots of fun playing games, playing on the beach, and making bottle cap jewelry. The girls had a few sleep-overs. They came up with their own games and created their own gangs, battled the wicked forces on the frontiers of the beach and in the jungles of wild oaks. The alligators that roam the island were hibernating, much to everyones relief, so they didn't have battle real enemies. After we put the kids to bed at night, the adults would congregate in the main room to play Catch Phrase, Twister, Phase 10, etc, or to debate gun control, feminism and religion. We left at night exhausted and laughing.
Karleigh, Ella, Baylee, Tali, and Chloe
Karleigh and Ella
Jenn overseeing Twister
We spent some time together as a family unit, but the kids didn't seek us out very often. Right in front of the house were clay tennis courts, so Ryan and I were able to play tennis three of the days there. The clay slowed Ryan's balls down a little, so we were more evenly matched than we usually are.
We took the kids on a golf cart ride to see the island a little and invited Eric and Bethany to come with us. We visited a family graveyard from the 1700's where one of the first white families to settle were buried. The kids weren't very impressed with it, or with the 500 year old oak tree down the road. They asked us to return them as quickly as possible to the main house, as they were certain they were missing out on too much fun.
McLeans and Swapps at the Mary Dunn Cemetary
500 year old tree
The meals and the sickness were legendary during the week, as was the adult time each night. Each couple took a night and prepared food for 50 people with huge appetites. We had fantastic food to eat every night, Italian, Mexican, traditional Christmas, and soup. Desserts were in abundance, and herbal tea was commonplace before we battled it out at Catch phrase and phase 10. The second night there, three kids vomited, a worst case scenario in such close quarters, and considering how many candy canes, cups and spoons had already been shared. Amazingly, the sickness stayed mostly in mine and Sarah's family. Sarah's two oldest vomited the whole time we were there, but only at night. Ella vomited two nights. Max vomited 10 times our second to last night, and Sam waited until we were de-boarding our airplane in the twin cities, where Ryan slipped the legendary barf bag under him seconds before he let loose. In utter graciousness, as I heard Sam gag seconds before, I grabbed our luggage and ordered the three older children to follow me, telling Ryan I'd meet him outside.
Swapp family in front of the 500 year old tree. You can't see the scowls from this vantage point.
We left the island a week after we came, getting back to the ferry in a variety of methods. I ran the 3.5 miles, pushing Max and Will in a stroller. Chris and Adam rode their bikes. Ryan and Eric drove the golf cart with our luggage, and got lost, but made it to the ferry in time. We were so sad to leave the company, the beach and the trees, but glad for the memories and stories we would take back with us. As I ran to the ferry those trees kept me company on the solitary trip, and I thought that if they could talk, having seen all the events that transpired in one week with my family, if those old trees couple talk, they would have some tales to tell.
