Seaside-PNW Trip Day 5

A Pacific Northwest trip just wouldn't be complete without a visit to Seaside!  We love it in Seaside and have made such wonderful memories there.  This trip was no exception.  We even opted to stay overnight.  Tuesday we all drove out in the morning, ate lunch at the McDonald's in Seaside, then gathered our stuff and headed out to the sand.

The clouds had burned off and it was a beautiful, if slightly chilly, day.  We were a little concerned about how Talia was going to do with a full day of being at the beach with all the sand, but she ended up being alright.  She got carried out to our spot on the sand and sat on a blanket while we set up our stuff.  Aly and Ryan brought their little 4 man tent and we set it up as a sand/sun free sanctuary for the babies (and Tal).

As soon as the boys were sunscreened they ran off and started digging and building and splashing.  Talia saw how much fun they were having and wanted to go in the water.  I told her I would take her down to the water but she had to walk.  It took her a few minutes, but her desire to go play in the water won out over her dislike of the sand.  Once she got to the packed sand she was fine.  She spent the whole time filling up her little bucket and then dumping it up on the packed sand to make a puddle to jump in.  Over and over.  My favorite was that she was so surprised and happy and kept saying "Mom, I wike the water!  Mom, I wike the hawd sand!  Mom, I wike da beach!"

Beckett conked out in the tent for about an hour, which was a nice break for Ian and I.  The boys built castles and I even got to lay out in the sun and doze for a few minutes.  After a couple of hours a thick fog rolled in.  It got kind of cold and you couldn't even see the water from our spot on the sand.  We packed up our stuff and headed over to the little main street to shop.

We hit up our favorite candy store The Buzz for salt water taffy, fudge, Necco's, and a specialty soda.  Ian tried a black cherry one.  It was so good and I don't usually like anything except Dr. Pepper.  We walked down to the end of the main street then came back the other way.

The kiddos rode the carousel.  Davin was so funny.  He insisted on sitting on the bench instead of choosing an animal to ride.  We tried to convince him to pick a more fun spot but he looked so sad when he got off the bench that I told him it was ok.  He just wanted to relax because his feet were tired.  :)

After the carousel Jim and Denny treated us to dinner at Norma's.  Beckett was so tired he fell asleep on Ian's shoulder.  We moved him to Ella's stroller (because it's cooler than ours and lays back) and he slept all through dinner.  The clam chowder hit my happy beach day spot and the kids were so cute and excited about ordering their food.  They made masterpieces out of their kids menus and crayons too.

We weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we wandered back over to the carousel mall and went to the t-shirt/sweatshirt store.  Grandma got all the kids a new Seaside sweatshirt.  They loved them!  Ian and I found a Seaside magnet to add to our souvenir magnet collection too.  By the time we were done shopping the kids were pretty much done.  Jim and Denny headed home.  Aly and Ryan came with us back to our hotel to wash up Ella before they drove home.

We turned on a movie and vegged for a little while, then Ian took the boys to the hotel pool while I bathed Talia and Beckett and put them to bed.  The boys had showered off down at the pool, so when they got back we all just went to sleep.  Everyone was so tired from our big beach day that we all slept great.  Hooray for another fantastic day in Seaside!

Goodbye Edmonds, Hello Happy Valley-PNW Trip Day 4

Monday morning we gathered our considerable amount of stuff from Grandma and Grandpa's house and loaded up the van.  We got some last hugs and pictures with Grandma and Grandpa before leaving Edmonds.  Grandpa gifted Ian one of his beautiful Wayne Henderson guitars.  It was kind of bittersweet since we are sad that Grandpa can no longer play his guitar, but Ian loves it and is so grateful to have it.  It was fun to get some photos of Beckett with his namesake.  His middle name is Lawrence, after Grandpa Squire (his name is Lawrence, but he goes by Larry).  We so loved our time in Edmonds and are very thankful to Grandma and Grandpa for feeding us, entertaining us, and letting us take over their condo for a couple of days.

The drive to Happy Valley was pretty uneventful.  And faster than I thought it would be!  We made it from Edmonds to Ian's parents house in less than four hours.  We stopped and had a little picnic at a rest stop on our way and it was kind of fun.  Ian got out the guitar and played and the kids ran in circles around us.  That sounds really hippie when I write it like that, but hey, when in Oregon . . .

We discovered Beckett had a disgusting, huge, poop-everywhere explosion when we got out of the car at Ian's parents' house.  So that was a fun first hour there.  I was just glad it was when we arrived at our destination and not at the rest stop that it happened!  Anyway, once we were all cleaned up we got to visit for a bit.  Ian ran an errand with Jim in his sweet bug.  I ran to Target with Aly while Denny hung out with the kids.  Davin was very proud to count to 100 for her.

Before dinner we all went swimming at a friend's house.  The pool was chilly, but we all still really enjoyed relaxing and cooling off!

Talia mostly liked dipping in at the steps then getting out and watching herself "pee." I blame the fact that she has 3 brothers.

What?!? Beckett snuggled up and dozed off on Uncle Ryan. He never does that with me!

We had a nice dinner with everyone that night.  After the kiddos were in bed we played some cards and I spanked everyone in Dummy Rummy.  Ian hates that game, but it's only because I always win. ;)

Edmonds-PNW Trip Day 3

Sunday morning the kids were all up bright and early after sleeping out in the living room in sleeping bags.  They played with their new toys and ate Grandma's yummy coffee cake for breakfast.  Grandma got some good snuggle/reading time in with Beckett while I showered. And Grandpa showed the boys a couple of his puzzles. 

 Once we were all up and dressed Grandpa took us to the beach.  It was about a 10 minute walk.  Talia insisted on holding Grandpa's hand the whole time.  It was so cute.  And we saw a real live working phone booth!  The boys had no idea what it was.

 Edmonds is beautiful.  There are flowers growing everywhere, and you can see the Puget Sound and the peninsula across the water.  We enjoyed puttering around the beach in the sun.  The tide was low, so there were lots of tide pool creatures to see.  Talia, of course, was not a fan of walking around on the sand, but the boys had a blast.  They saw this giant sea star and Weston found a dead crab that he thought was super cool.  Also, we were right by the Kingston ferry and we kept pointing at it when it was docked. Talia was confused and kept saying she liked the tooth fairy (meaning the ferry) but that it was too loud.  :)

When we were done at the beach we walked back to Grandma and Grandpa's condo building and Grandpa showed us his "sanctuary."  His workshop was so cool.  He makes these awesome little cigar box ukuleles.  He played a couple of them for us and then gave our family one.  He also gave all the kids sand dollars from his collection.  Weston got a set of juggling balls too.  Grandpa has a pin up poster of Grandma Squire's sister who was a model during World War 2 hanging in his man cave as well.  So much character in that little garage.

 Talia was pretty worn out from the first few days of the trip and our morning beach outing.  She conked out on the couch while watching a movie.  Sunday afternoon Grandma hosted a big family dinner.  We had let all of Ian's aunts and uncles and cousins know we were going to be in town that weekend and that we would love to see anyone who was around.  We were so happy that everyone was able to come!  It was so much fun catching up with cousins we hadn't seen in 10 years.  Lots of Ian's cousins are married and having kids now, so there were new babies to meet and little cousins for my kids to play with.  Talia stayed asleep while everyone arrived.  She was kind of shocked when she woke up to a noisy house full of people she had never met.  She adjusted pretty well though and had fun playing with the other kids.  Grandma made us a feast.  She made cannolli and Mexican chicken.  We had fruit and salad and mint mud pie for dessert. All Grandma classics. I made sure I got her recipes before we left. We loved getting to visit with so much family!

 We were all tired that night, but because Talia took a solid nap she took awhile to settle down and go to sleep.  When all of the kids were finally snoozing Ian and I snuck out for an evening walk on the beach.  We caught the tail end of the sunset.  It was quiet and peaceful.  We really enjoyed strolling around and talking.  We are both so glad we got to spend some time in Edmonds on this trip.

Edmonds-PNW Trip Day 2

 Saturday morning we woke up and Beckett's fever seemed to have gone down.  Hooray!  I was so ready to get out of La Grande.  We got ready and loaded up the van.  We drove about 6 hours from La Grande to Edmonds, WA.  We only stopped once in Yakima, WA.  The drive was very pretty.  More deserty than I thought it would be, but there was lots of farmland and vineyards.  Beautiful.  We thought maybe we had stopped in a bad part of town when we ate lunch in Yakima, but I think it's just kind of a ghetto little city.  

Anyway, we were all happy to get to Grandma and Grandpa Squire's house and settle in for a couple of days.  That afternoon we went for a walk in beautiful little downtown Edmonds.  It was sunny and warm.  G&G Squire let each of the kids pick out a toy from the toy shop.  Weston picked a Lego book that came with the pieces to build several little contraptions.  Davin chose a fun building set called Zoobs.  When we first walked in Talia picked up a bag of party balloons and insisted that was what she wanted.  Beckett got a fun little geometric toy.  Everyone was happy with their purchases.

The boys played with their new things for hours and we all had a blast with Talia's balloons.  She was so cute playing catch with her blue balloon with Grandpa.  The kids also enjoyed digging through G&G Squire's toy drawer and finding binoculars and kaleidascopes.  Lots of fun. 

Ian and Grandpa jammed on the guitar and uke for a little while that evening, which is always fun.  Grandma made us her cheesy chicken.  It was delicious.  Beckett was happy to get a nap in a bed rather than the car.  It was a very nice day.  

PNW Trip 2013-Day 1

Prepping for our Pacific Northwest trip stressed me out.  So many days and so many different places.  I didn't know where to start.  I finally got everyone's stuff gathered up though.  I even managed to figure out a decent system for our days where we stayed just one night somewhere.  I packed a separate bag that was our "overnight bag."  It had diapers and wipes in it all the time.  Before we left to go stay one night somewhere I would pack each person a change of clothes, pj's, a bathing suit, and underwear.  It made it so much easier to only have to bring a couple bags into the hotel rather than our entire van load of stuff.  

We left for our trip on Friday, August 2nd.  We didn't get on the road super early since we only had about 9 hours of driving that day.  Plus we got the hour time change in our favor.  The kids did really well in the car.  They all plugged in and played on screens or watched movies.  Beckett slept a lot.  Poor baby Beckett was not feel good, but he still was a pretty happy baby in the car.

We stopped in Burley, ID for lunch and then again just outside of Boise, ID at the nicest rest stop I have ever seen.  It was like a park and the bathrooms were way nicer than most fast food restaurant bathrooms.  We stayed and played there for about half an hour and let the kids run around and stretch.

We made it to La Grande, OR around 5pm.  We checked into our crappy little motel (it was dark and old and smelly) and changed into bathing suits.  The kids thought it was great.  They jumped on their bed and were super excited to swim.  The pool was actually pretty nice.  I kept Beckett out of the pool though because he was still running a fever.  Talia thought it was the greatest and kept saying "Dis is so awesome!" :)

Beckett had a fever on Thursday but I didn't take him to the doctor because he was also getting a molar and I didn't really think he was sick.  By Friday night I was getting a little worried about him since he was still really warm and had been on Tylenol around the clock.  It seemed like his fever wasn't going down with the medicine.  We looked up an urgent care place in town after dinner.  It was closed, but the doctor told us he would come in to check Beckett out.  It was really nice of him.  He came in and unlocked the place in his flip flops and shorts (he had been at home when we called).  Beckett appeared fine.  No ear infection, no sore throat.  The doctor thought he might have a urinary tract infection that was causing the fever.  I still thought it was the teething.  I headed up to the hospital lab to get a urinalysis done on Beckett only to find that the lab was closed.  Beckett and I had both had it by this time and we were so tired, so I just called it a night.  The kids all slept well in the hotel room and in the morning Beckett's fever had gone down.  I figured if I was still worried when we got to Seattle then I would find a lab there to get the test done.  Long story short the fever went away and he was fine.  Just getting all 4 molars at once.  Bad timing.