I slipped  my  shoes  off  to  feel  the  sand  in  between  my  toes.  Caeley  walked  up  next  to  me  and  held  her  shoes  in  her  hands  by  her  side.   I  listened  to  the  sound  of  the  waves  rush  up  to  the  shore.   The  moonlight  reflected  on  the  water  as  it  crashed  onto  the  shore.

       As  I  walked  onto  the  dock  the  feeling  on  my  feet  changed  suddenly.  the  feeling  went  from  soft  and  smooth  to  hard  and  rough.   Before  we  reached  the end  of  the  dock  my  nephew  came  along  and  ran  into  us  ruining  the  quietness  and  scaring  Caeley  as  she  let  out  a  scream.  We  all  laughed  with  her  over  her  sudden  fright.

“Haha, I scared  you!”

“Go  away.”  She  said  in  a   laughing  tone.

        My  brother,  Paul,  and  his  kids  piled  onto  the  dock.  My  sister,  Heidi ,  and  her  kids  came  onto  the  dock.  Heidi’s  three  boys,  Zach,  Elias  and  Caleb  ran   onto  the  dock  in  excitement.

“Water!”  Elias  exclaimed

“ Yeah  Elias,  cool  huh?”  His  brother,  Zach,  said  catching  his  breath.

Before  we  started  taking  the  lanterns  out  of  the  packages  we  sat  around  and  looked  at the  water.

“Wanna  hear  a  scary  story?”  Caeley  asked  Jameson  in  a  challenging  voice.

“No!”  Jameson  demanded.   Jameson  walked  away  and  started  to  bother  someone  else.

I  rubbed  my  arms  feeling  all  the  goosebumps  from  the  cold  breeze.

        “Alright!”  paul  exclaimed  ruining  the  silence.  “Lets  get  these  up  in  the  air.”

I  was  so  comfortable  where  I  was  I  didn’t  want  to  get  up.   I  slowly  sat  forward  and straightened   my  back  out.  I  stood  up  and  once  again  I  stretched  my  back  out.  I  walked over  to  paul  biting  open  one  of  the  packages.

“Here,  make  yourself  useful.”  Paul  tossed  up  a  packages  to  me.

I  started  picking  at  the  corner  of  the  plastic.

          “Ellie!  Take  this  quickly!”  Heidi  exclaimed  shoving  a  lantern  into  my  hands.

I  had  no  idea  what  I  was  supposed  to  do  with  it  so  I  just  stood  there  with  it  hanging by  my  side.  Caeley  grabbed  the  other  side  of  the  lantern.   My  dad  came  over  and  lit  the  wicks  on  fire.

“Alright  just  hold  it  until  air  gets  into  it,   and  then  let  go.”  Paul  informed  us.

I  looked  over  at  my  sister  and  dad  and  their  lantern  was   swaying   back  and  forth.   My brother  and  sister  in  law  let  theirs  go  and  it  flew  into  the  air  and  far  away.

“Nice!”  Lisa  said  giving  Michel  a  high  five.

“Ok  let  yours  go.”  Paul  instructed.

My  Dad  and  sister  let  theirs  go,  it  started  heading  upwards.  Once  it  got  over  the water  it  was  heading   downward  towards  the  water.  It  flew  only  one  foot  above the water.

“Oh no!” Vera said.

        It started floating away in the water. Mine and Caeley’s was the only one left.  We waited about three more minutes until paul finally told us to let it go. We both let it go and it also floated into the water.

“Dang it!” Caeley complained.

We all laughed as we watched the water take away the lanterns still lit on fire in the water.