November 2019: Taking Granny and Grandpa to Ocean Shores

November wouldn't be our first choice for going to the beach, but when Oscar's parents planned a trip to come see us over Veteran's day weekend, we offered to drive them to Ocean Shores.

Shortly before they arrived Allison gave her first talk in primary (she's practicing at home here), and Tyler brought home another great school picture.

And speaking of school, Allison had her first day of preschool on November 5th. A spot was available as a peer in our school district's developmental preschool, so we jumped on it immediately. It's in the afternoon, which meant nap would soon come to an end, but you can't beat free preschool! The first day completely wiped her out. She fell instantly to sleep when she arrived home around 3:45pm. She did eventually transition out of her nap, but not for several more weeks.

Day 1 Drive to Ocean Shores

We checked Tyler out of school around noon so we could pick up Oscar's parents from the airport. Their plane was late, meaning we didn't have a whole lot of daylight left to enjoy. Fortunately there were some nice views of Mt Ranier along our way. Once we got to the coast we took a hike to the beach at twilight and stopped at a local restaurant for dinner. I ordered a meat and potatoes bowl. This was the first time I've ever thought there were too many mashed potatoes in a dish.

Tyler wanted to take home this big piece of driftwood from our hike. It somehow fell out of the car...somehow...

That evening I took the kids swiming while granny and grandpa watched. Tyler had fun showing off his jumping skills while grandpa took slow motion videos of him.

Day 2: Rainy Day at the Beach

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel then watched the deer outside. There were at least 3 running around in the brush, and they weren't shy.

The breakfast lady let the kids come into the kitchen and out the side door so they could get up close and personal with the deer. She said they were fine as long as they didn't go down the stairs.

After we were all fed we drove to the nearest beach. It rained all day, but it was light and spritzy, so we were still able to sightsee. Tyler wrote his and everyone else's name in the sand while Allison played.

Daddy and grandpa found a "seasnake" for Allison, which became a running gag everytime we took her to the beach the rest of the trip. She thoroughly enjoyed whipping it.

Fun with grandpa!

At one point Allison became genuinely distressed when Tyler, daddy, or grandpa would walk out towards the water, though they weren't even getting their feet wet. She led grandpa back inland just so she could whip him with her seasnake some more.

I told the kids not to go in the water because it would be too cold and I didn't want them to soak their shoes, but that didn't last.

Allison jumped right in the waves much further out than where she'd been terrified to see everyone else going.

Allison still had her seasnake and got Tyler with it when he came out to her. She protected the boys from the water by whipping them back!

The kids splashed around to their hearts content while the grandparents loved every minute of it. At one point Allison even sat down in the ocean. It was cold! I don't know how they lasted as long as they did soaking wet.

Eventually she processed that she was cold, and then she just wanted to get warm immediately. We dropped granny and grandpa off to do some grocery shopping while we took the kids back to the hotel to change into dry clothes and throw their wet stuff into the laundry (which cost far too much for the little drying it did).

Once they were ready and the laundry was in the dryer we set out for the south most point of the city. Allison's coat was soaked, but fortunately Tyler had an extra one. It was big for her, so the hood kept falling off, but it was better than nothing.

Grandpa climbed up on the rocks to watch the waves, so the kids wanted to go up too. At first it looked like there'd be a sandy path, but eventually they had to climb on the slippery rocks to get out to him.

Granny stayed down on the sand and took a few pictures of all of us.

When we climbed down Oscar found a huge piece of driftwood in the sand for all of us to pose with. Tyler wanted to take it home too (though we didn't let him!).

After that we took a long drive around the bay to climb the lookout tower on the other side. We also stopped at a Walmart in Aberdeen to get boots for Allison and more warm pants for Tyler. Then we had a yummy pizza dinner before heading back to the hotel. Oscar and I remembered this pizzeria from our previous trip here for his 1/2 marathon in 2010. It's still delicious!

We swam again that evening where Tyler hit a huge milestone of swimming all the way across the pool. We have a swimmer!!!

Allison wanted to be tossed in the air like Tyler, without me actually letting her go.

Day 3: Ruby Beach and the Tree of Life at Kalaloch Beach

The next day we packed up, went to church at the local branch, then started our drive north up the coast. We stopped off at the Tree of Life on Kalaloch beach.

It's not going to be there forever, so we had to see it before it collapses. It's hung on for quite some time already. Who knows how much longer it's got?

Allison made good use of her new boots while the seagulls flew over her head. This time the kids were willing to keep their wetness to a limit. I did bring a change of clothes and shoes for them, but we had another beach to visit too, and I only wanted to change them once.

Allison become afraid for Tyler again like she had the other day. She kept saying "he's going to die!" and panicking. We were worried she'd accidentally pull them both into the water trying to tug him away. Oscar had to pick her up and comfort her, and she gave Tyler big hugs when he got back.

We made a slight detour to the "Big Cedar Tree" before heading to Ruby Beach.

Ruby Beach with the family!

There was a lot of driftwood and rocks, but at least the low tide meant we didn't have to walk through water to get out to the beach. When we came here in 2010 we couldn't get beyond the driftwood without getting our feet wet.

It's so pretty, even when it's overcast.

The kids found a big tide pool and skipped rocks in it with daddy and grandpa.

Allison couldn't skip the rocks, but she still colleced as many as possible to throw into the tidepool.

I found yet another seasnake for Allison. She whipped it around a bit, but ultimatley she threw it in the tidepool too.

The sand was wet enough to soak your shoes, so Martha watched us all from the driftwood and took some nice pictures of us playing on the beach.

We made our way back to the driftwood where I got this cute picture of Allison.

We enjoyed our last moments of daylight sitting on a log tossing rocks. Allison threw a bit wildly, so I was pretty concerned she was going to throw a rock into someone.

From there we drove through Forks to our Airbnb in Sekiu. We had two small suites, each with a queen bed and a twin. Tyler stayed with granny and grandpa and took selfies with Martha's phone. We ate whatever we could microwave, though those suites could have really used more dishes! It was lucky Martha had kept some of our disposable cups from the hotel. That's how we heated up our soup.

Day 4: Cape Flattery and Port Angeles

The next day we got to enjoy our coatal views on our way up to Cape Flattery. The weather was originally predicted to be poor, but it turned out to be fairly nice. It was a good day for a coastal drive.

At Cape Flattery we sat in the Neah Bay big chair at the beginning of the hike. I don't think it was there the last time we were here or I think I would have noticed it.

Here we are at the 1st lookout. Some folks in front of us told us there was a feeding whale at the first lookout. Turns out we missed the first lookout and were actually at the 2nd one on the other side of the cape. We spent awhile at this wrong lookout trying to find the whale.

Fortunately we were still able to watch the whale from the final lookout. I took some video, but we didn't want to hold up our phones the whole time, especially with the kids being so close to a dangerous cliff. Since you never knew when the whale would surface, and it would only surface very briefly, it wasn't worth wearing your arm out for it. Too bad we didn't have a tripod! If you watch closely, you'll see it in these videos, but we got much better views with our eyes than you'll see here. Its tail was gorgeous!

The whole lookout was lovely. It was so nice to have a little bit of sun and blue skies after two overcast days.

On our way back we stopped at the first lookout we'd missed on our way in. I'm pretty sure we got better views of the whale from the final lookout than we would have had from this tree obstructed one.

Here we are heading up and out of the trail. I thought the kids might struggle since it was uphill, but they were eager to get back to their Kindles. We didn't let them play at all on their way here.

From there we drove to Port Angeles for a yummy (though overpriced) lunch.

And after lunch we went to the top of the nearby lookout tower for pretty views of the sound.

Allison ran down the stairs before everyone else, but she at least stopped when I told her to stop. I got a perfect picture of her looking up at me.

And here's Oscar silly running with the kids back to the parking lot. 

After that we drove down south through Tacoma and back up to Sea-Tac to drop granny and grandpa back to the airport. They took us out for ice cream at Ben and Jerry's on the way. It was a great trip!

We got home late on the 11th, so the next morning we had Disney+! That evening we watched the original Dumbo with Allison. She'd seen the live action movie at the theaters but had never seen the original animated show. She was adorable while watching it then ran around after it was over flapping her arms pretending to fly like Dumbo. It was so cute! The best part of having Disney+ is watching my kids watch classic Disney movies for the very first time.