Official Crabber

It's official, Emma is a crabber! Poppop took us out on his skiff in the Urbanna Creek on Sunday afternoon. Emma was very excited to go, until we got down on the dock . . . but after some convincing she finally got into the boat and thankfully put on the lifejacket. She watched Poppop pull up the first pot, and was surprised when she got sprinkled with water as he shook the crabs out. We both got muddy as we fetched one of the bouys. She learned the female crabs have red 'nail polish' on their claws. She held the baby crab, after Poppop broke his claw. She scoped out an even smaller baby crab in the bottom of the boat that I had a hard time finding, even after she pointed to it! She helped drive the boat into the cove, then told Poppop he needed to wash off his muddy boat. After he did that, she helped him carry the basket of crabs up the big hill. The last step was to move the crabs from the basket into the cooking pot using the tongs. It was then I remembered that my little pocket camera takes video. I got three short videos of her trying to move the crabs, and some great commentary from Poppop. Click here to see all the crabbing pictures and videos. After the crabs cooked and Libby woke up from her nap, we enjoyed them for dinner. Emma ate and ate and had fun banging the claws open. Libby ate and ate, and tried to chew up the legs along with the meat. When Chucky pulled the camera out and pointed it at her, she said "cheeeeeee"! A good day if ever there was one. I'm not sure who had the most fun (me)!