A Birth day

Ruby listened to Angus and chuckled as he said about keepingit a secrect " I agree don't want everyone tampeling over the nice island to find these it would ruin the ecology of the place and I personaly love it as it is" she said smiling as he changed his mind " agreed." she said .

Aria let Marcus talk to the kids and heard Daria say she would come with them to the riding carosel. Once Marcus told the twins the plan she took hold of Darias hand and together they walked over to the carosel. As she stood watching she helped lift Daria on to her hourse then smiled to Marcus " no worries " she said and climbed on its back." here hold these, it starts slow then builds up steam." she said and chuckled as it began to move.

Marcus had his eyes out for the boys, and he saw them get in line for the first coaster. Beside him, Poppy was listening to the announcer and the ride instructions.

"Nervous?" he asked her.

"Not now," she smiled at him. "Thanks."

"For what?" he asked her.

"For not making me do coasters all day," she said.

"No problem," he smiled. "It needs to be fun for all of us."

Angus found some greens, some wild capers, and, then the best of all, he found a three nice sized black truffles. He carefully picked them and showed them to Ruby.

"Look at this. This little handful of black goodness is probably worth about a thousand dollars," he told her. "And we will have probably the best risotto in Tuscany tonight. And, no. I am not telling anyone else where we found these. So, let's think about taking our finds back and maybe making some lemonade or limeade. I'm getting warm and thirsty both. I bet they stocked us with enough fruit to make either some sort of lemonade or limeade."

Aria smiled as she ehard Marcus and Poppy talking she held the bar in front of them as it moved slowly to start them picked up " I'll be honets I like coasters but some times a relaxing ride on one of these is fine too" she said and chuckled as she saw Marcus watching the twins as they stood in line for the coaster ride " they will be fine" she said to him smiling.

Ruby smiled to Angus as he sowed her what he hd found as she held the mushrooms " good" she said and " oh I can't wait to try those there ment to be eathy but delishious , in moderation of course." she said as she carried the musrooms in the folds of her skitr back along the beach to the boat.

"Definitely," Daria said. "We've been looking forward to this trip all summer--especially Poppy. The rest of us have gone on weekends like this before with Dad. This is just Poppy's second summer weekend trip with Dad. She was still with her mom and stepdad til early last summer and that's when Dad got custody of her because Poppy's stepdad is a tosser. Last summer, the boys were pretty ridiculous about riding coasters all day long. So I'm glad that we're going to get to do some different thngs this time. I like all kinds of rides. I sorta think Poppy will warm up to them but she'll probably do it quicker than when Zane and Kai aren't forcing her. She told me she's hoping that someday she hopes Dad will take her to ride some unicorns."

"Oh, I'm not worried about Zane and Kai. I'm only hoping they don't do something stupid with Ezra and force him to sit by himself in the front car or something," Marcus said.

Angus went back to the boat, and he put the mushrooms and truffles and greens into a collander on the countertop til he could get to them. Then he checked the galley and found some of the large Tuscan lemons that they liked so much.

"Oh, look. We've got some of the big lemons. We can make an amazing lemonade. I'll work on zesting the lemon and then juicing it if you can find a pitcher and make a simple syrup for the lemonade. I really don't like just adding sugar to water because the sugar doesn't melt. I'd rather make a simple syrup first and then take it from there," he told her.

Aria smiled as Daria spoke to her "I'm just happy he chose to bring me along to your vacation" she said and nodded when she spoke of how the boys loved coasters " That's boys for you" she said smiling " I feel vacationsshould include a bit for everyone to enjoy not just the magority." she said " its about everyone enjoying themselves and having memories to remember when they are older and their kids" she told her as they went around. Hearing Marcus she nodded then chuckled " Im sure he'll tel them to not do that" she said.

Ruby folowed Angus doen to the galley and placed the muchrooms in the culender . she heard him ask for her to make the simple syrup and nodded. She took three cinnamon sticks that she broke into pieces,  one cup of sugar and finally added one cup of water and eset it to warm so it would desolve the sugar to make the syrup. " I made cinimon syrup." she told him.

"You might not wanna give the boys too much credit," Daria warned her. "They're more mischevious than you give them credit for. Those two can make Fred and George Weasley look like saints. Devious buggars. Granddad warned them if they did anything out of line this weekend, he'd ground them for life. I still wouldn't trust them, though, if I were you. Ezra and I dug up nightcrawlers to go fishing with one night before bed, and we put them in the bucket so we'd have them in the morning. Those buttheads transfigured the lot of them into snakes. I thought Ezra was going to poop his pants when he opened that bucket in the morning and it was chock full of freaking snakes. I don't think I've ever seen Grandad or Gran so mad before."

"Good idea. Sounds perfect," Angus told her, finishing zesting and juicing the lemon. He put it in the pitcher. "It's ready for your syrup and then we'll add some more water. I'll see what they left us for snacks." He started looking through the cabinets and he found an airtight container of some sort of cookies. They looked like shortbread to him. He opened the container and smelled them.

"Oh, nice. These are, I think, maybe a chocolate dipped citrus shortbread. And these..." He opened another container and smelled. "Oh. A savory oatcake. Smells like cheddar and...onion maybe. Lets's take them both so we can have our pick." He found a couple tall glasses and some ice for the lemonade and he set them on the counter. "Anything else sound good to you?"

Aria listened to Daria and chuckled " oh might need to keep an eye on those two myself" she said turning to watch them closely " that bad you say" she said and listened to the snake incident " oh we hve to get them back for that" she said watching as they finaly got to the end of the line and saw Ezra climb in behind them " well seems they took his words to heart as Ezra is sat behind them" she said motioning to show her they were in the second car and Ezra was sat behind them.

Ruby turned off the syrup and let it cool slightly with a strainer he caught the cinimon sticks and pored it into the pitcher with the lemon zest and juice , she then added abit more water to it and placed it in the fridge while he looked foe some snacks " lemonade done" she said then looked at th jars he hand and smled " they both sound fantastic but may be some sort of dip for the savory oatcakes?"she sugested

"Um...let me look," he said. He stirred around and found some canned chickpeas and a jar of tahini. He found a little food processor and made some homemade hummus flavored with roasted garlic and toasted onion. He spread some on one of the savory oatcakes and handed it to her. "What do you think?" he asked.

"I so want to get them back," Daria said. "I'm just not deviant like that. My ideas are complete crap. I've tried."

"Dad," Poppy said, "look there's some sort of a floaty water ride. Can we try it?"

"It's a round raft. It can go pretty fast, and you'll definitely get wet. You sure you want to?" Marcus asked.

"Yes. I don't mind getting wet," she said. "Besides. Zane and Kai won't want to go."

"Why not?" Marcus frowned.

"They wont' want to get their hair mussed."

"Well, I've got news for them. They're already mussed on the coaster," Marcus laughed. "Alright. I'm game if you are. We'll check with Arian and your sister, but I'm sure they'll go."

"Ezra will too," she told him. "He likes water."

"Then I think maybe Zane and Kai owe you one for the coaster they're going to insist you go on. Fair enough?"

"Only if you do the coaster with me," she said.

"Absolutely," he said, as the carousel came to a stop.

Ruby looked at the dips and chuckled "Nice" she said "This will be a wonderful tapas" she said and chuckled as she looked at them all spread out in front of her.

Aria chuckled to Daria "It's okay you will one day, making them wonder when is the best thing to do" she said then listened to them talk about the round raft. " not been on one of those myself" she said smiling " and I do not mind getting wet" she chuckled " its fun" she added as the carosel drew to a stop and she helped Daria down from it and walked over to Marcus with her. " can I join?" she asked looking over at the ride with a grin.

"I'm glad you like it," Angus said. "Maybe we can do some snorkeling this afternoon if you like. It's too shallow here for scuba diving unless we go out to deeper waters again. Wanna go out to the deck with this?" He found a tray and set the refreshments on a tray.

"Sure. Ever been white water rafting?" he asked Aria. "Definitely not a sport for kids, but it can be a lot of fun. You might enjoy it." He headed them off to the water ride. He was surprised Poppy had even suggested it because, in some many ways, it was like a water based coaster. But, just as they were going to get in the line, the boys finished on the coaster, and Ezra ran over to join them for the water ride. Zane and Kai ran behind Ezra, not seeing where he was heading. They just didn't want to lose him and then get in trouble. That put them all together.

"I'm going with you," Ezra told Daria and Aria.

"Okay," Daria said. "You two brave enough?" She asked Kai and Zane.

"Brave enough? Of course we're brave enough," Zane said.

"Then prove it. Get in line," she told them.

"Fine," Zane said, pulling Kai and getting in line.

The seven of them were put with a family of four from Utah, and that put them all in the same round raft with another family. They introduced themselves just as the raft started floating down the water channel.

"How'd you get her to do this?" Zane asked Marcus. "Poppy's afraid of everything."

"You'd be surprised," Marcus cast a grin at the boys, not intending to give Poppy away. "Maybe you should get to know your sister a little better before you make a rush to judgment."

"Poppy suggested it," Daria said to the twins. "You don't know her at all."

"Did you?" Kai asked Poppy. Poppy nodded just as the raft went down the first big hill, ending iwth a massive splash, getting every one of them soaked to the skin. Poppy and Daria both laughed,, watching Kai and Zane get all bent out of shape because hteyir hair was messy and wet now both.