Family Time

The week before thanksgiving we pulled the kids out of school, (yep bad bad parents that's us) and headed over to the beach for awhile. We're not exactly tropical paradise type vacation people but a week at rainy long beach washington was very very relaxing. We got there quite late on a wednesday night and stayed until the following Wednesday when we headed up to Lynden to spend thanksgiving with the family. You would think a full 7 nights would be plenty long but it's really not. By about day 4 you start to adjust to your new routine and it's really hard to give that up to go back to reality! Because we went directly up to Lynden from there we were gone from home for just about 2 weeks!

Our view from our patio

We had a wide range of weather. Everytime we go to the coast in the fall/winter we always manage to have a few really nice sunny days and a few really rainy stormy days. This year I would say we definitely had more rainy stormy days than sunshine. Thankfully the pool was nice and warm so we got in lots of swim time even on the rainy days. It was actually a lot of fun swimming in a windy stormy downpour!

We made sure we took advantage of the few sunny days to get in some quality beach time! Again, not exactly tropical location, that water was downright cold but you still just had to get your feet wet. And of course the temperature didn't seem to bother Kenny one bit!

Bob is such a chick magnet. This little girl decided he was fun to play with so she stuck around...and stuck around....and stuck around,...

One of the few beaches you can drive right out to the water on. 

We headed down to Seaside Oregon for a day, where you have to stop at the aquarium and feed the obnoxious seals,

And color some pictures.....

And feel the starfish...

And ride the carousel.....

And try on hats at the crazy hat store!

We finished out our day in Seaside by eating at Pig n a Pancake. Someplace where we've been going since Ashley & Brandi were 2 and 6 years old! Unfortunately, this time nobody enjoyed it very much. Bob had watched a documentary on TV the night before about all the germs and bacteria you find in restaurants....showing what exactly is growing on those salt & pepper shakers and how much 'bathroom bacteria' are on the menus. So the whole time we're there he's freaking out every time the kids touched anything, they kept running to the bathroom to wash their hands AGAIN...after that we decided it was just easier to pick up groceries and eat in. Easier for them...not so much for mom.

Ashley tried to get a little driving practice in while we were down there. Here Bob was making her drive over the Astoria bridge which is a very long very high bridge. She was just a tad nervous because the day before a semi had flipped over right on the top due to the high winds and the bridge was closed for an entire day. They wouldn't allow tow trucks up there to upright the semi because the winds were so strong they were afraid the tow trucks would blow over as well.

I think the bridge is over 3 miles long, it gets quite steep as you head up to the peak of it.

One rainy afternoon we headed to the bowling alley in Astoria. We have come to the conclusion that we are a tad 'bowl challenged'

But we look good in the shoes!

Brandi taking on the ping pong master! Just kidding....as Bob frequently reminds me, I was the nerd who was on the pingpong/fooseball committee. Obviously he's just jealous because I can kick his butt at ping pong every. single. time.

Kendra &Tyler chillin, watching a movie in the 'commons room'

Ashley & Kendra trying out the elipticals in the gym.

It was a great relaxing week. We always look forward to going and like to start planning the next one as soon as possible. It's getting harder and harder to do though because Bob is busy so much of the summer that we can't go then. And the older the kids get, the more difficult it is to pull them out of school. Sadly enough, it's not the academics that worry them. If they are involved in any school sport at the time they simply can't miss practices or games!