Costal Vacation - Day 1

 My sister lived in Colorado for years.  I use to stop and see her on my way home.  It was super convenient.  I got a free place to stay, a break from driving, and I got to see my sister.  Then she moved to the Washington Coast.  It was a great opportunity for her family and they have been really happy but I hadn't seen her in two years and my kids hadn't seen her in three years.  It took me exactly one week to get situated in my house before I decided to head out to see her.   I knew she lived eight hours away.  I knew my kids had a free summer and that my husband could use a little peace and quiet while he studied for boards and so one day I packed our swim suits, grabbed some snacks and called my sister and asked her for her coordinates to plug into my GPS.  I told her I would be there by dinner and I took off.  The trip there is long and honestly I did not appreciate driving most of the state of Oregon.  The speed limit there is 65 miles an hour, 65 miles!  After doing 80 in Idaho it was like torture.  She feed us and set us up in her master bedroom.  People that is love.  I was not nearly so nice to her when she drove through a month later.  My kids were so excited to see hers.  I have five siblings I was raised with and of the five of us we are the only two that have kids yet, so if you want cousins kids, these are your cousins.  We pretty much crashed after dinner but the next day I took my kids to their first time to see the ocean.

Now this trip was not well planned.  I knew my sister lived on the North West Coast, that the ocean was freezing, and that it was an overcast day.  I figured my kids wouldn't be interested in getting fully submerged.  Boy was I wrong!  It took about five minutes before my kids had ditched putting their feet in and were in up to their waist.  That first day at the ocean my kids went crazy.  They climbed cliffs, they looked for shells, they body rode waves, they played with drift wood and they buried themselves in the sand.  What is it about the ocean that is so magical?  The pacific Northwest Coast is some of the prettiest country I've ever seen and our week there was magical.  Sorry for the picture overload!     

 This is all my mother's grandchildren.  I hope she appreciates the effort it took to get them to take this picture.  This was the first day down to the beach.  We were never able to get them to stop at this place again after they realized they were only about fifty steps from the ocean. 

 Cliff climbing.  Can I just say I spent most of my time waiting for a vampire or a werewolf to jump out. 

 My sister's kids came prepared with swim suits.  She knew what was going to happen.  Apparently kids don't care if the water is freezing. 

 What is it about kids and sand.  Mine just loved it, although partially it might just have been to stay warm. 

 Cheetah was the lucky one.  My sister had an extra swim suit so she didn't have to spend the day in wet clothes.  She loved this swim suit on this day but the next day as soon as she saw her actually swim suit was in Washington with us she insisted on wearing only her swim suit.  Also check out this driftwood fort.  The beach we were on is actually a cove that many of the locals like to use because it is the safest area for actually going in the water.  The tide brings driftwood in and eventually it takes drift wood out.  People build forts, bridges, Tepees, etc.  The stuff takes quit a bit of work and may last a month or may just last a day depending on how high the tide comes in.  The kids loved looking at all the new stuff that was built each day.  

 When your aunt is the one burying you, you never know what is going to happen.  This time Captain E got turned into a mermaid.