Fort Stevens State Park and Grayland Beach State Park

We took our first camping trip of the year last week.  It was also our first trip using the trailer my family used as I was growing up.  Grandma and Grandpa G gave us their suburban and their trailer after buying their fifth wheel.  We'd been using their tent trailer but WOW what a difference!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa G!  We had a great time! So great in fact that after our reservations at Fort Stevens were over we decided we needed one more night so we headed up to Grayland Beach for an extra night of fun. 

Fort Stevens State Park was a great camp ground.  There is a really nice paved bike trail that takes you out to the beach and even continues on further down the beach.  There's a lake along the bike trail that has another trail going around it.  It was really fun for the kids to ride on the trail and around the camping loops and a LOT of fun for us to be able to just ride out to the beach.  The only problem with it was the mosquitos.  Holy cow there were tons of them, I think if we had been in a different camping spot they might not have been so bad, we were in the shade almost the whole time. I have a TON of pictures, I haven't even gone through the ones Grandma G took.  Enjoy!

 

Our first night in the trailer, ready to crash for the night after their bath.

It was a really nice beach, there's a section of it with the wreck of the Peter Iredale so it was fun to see that, for a couple of minutes at least.  It had wonderfully clean water though.

Daddy really likes to play in the sand.  He decided to build a pile with a little moat to "protect" you from the water when the waves came up.  Dillon got really upset watching the waves wash around him but Kayda loved it.

 Dillon's favorite thing to do was run from the waves, if you stopped he would say "again" and if you said no he'd move on to the next person, grab their hand and drag them out there.

 Kayda loved everything about the beach she spent a lot of time wandering between activities.

 Squishing the sand castle (she's actually in the air)

Grandpa was pretty worn out by the time we left the beach each day.

 Grandpa was dancing around but everytime I pulled up the camera he stopped, pretty logical... Daddy kept going.

 We tried biking up to the South Jetty but the bike trail didn't go the whole way, you had to ride out on the road, it was quite a ways from camp and Daddy was towing the bike trailer.  We ended up driving up to it.  While we were there Daddy picked Kayda up to climb up to the top of the jetty. Well she lost her sandal down into one of the holes between the rocks.  These are her horse sandals that we're talking about and she is very attached to them.  She of course got very upset so we of course decided we needed to try to get it.  I stuck my leg down in the hole to try to grab it with my toes, no go. Daddy did the same then decided to start moving the smaller rocks around to get closer (if the jetty fails we know who to blame).  Eventually Daddy managed to find a stick (which Grandpa was telling us to do the whole time we were just being ridiculous, myself included).  Daddy managed to rescue the sandal. 

 At the beach there is a very steep section before you get down from the parking lot (which is where the bike trail ends)  Daddy decided that it was fun to jump off of it.  Kayda saw him and wanted to do it as well.  After Kayda did it, Dillon wanted to. Though he never got into it the way she did. 

 Kayda found a stick and decided to write in the sand.  Without any prompting she wrote her name.  Then proceeded to write our little family's names.  I basically just had to tell her the letters on the other names.  She writes hers all the time.

 After writing our names she decided to put everyone in a circle.  Notice Grandma's circle, then check out Grandpa's circle. 

 Dillon loved to be out in the water, if he was in someones arms or holding someone's hand.  Daddy had a great time getting soaked so he could bring Dillon out into the waves.

 

 

Grandpa introduced the kids to the woods right behind our campsite.  They had a great time being explorers, especially when they went through the paths to the bathroom.

This is at Fort Stevens itself, the historic part of it. 

Grandpa showed Dillon and Kayda how to use their flashlights to look into all the dark rooms.  The kids had a great time with it.  It made me a little nervous in certain parts because there were holes in the floor.  It was hard to keep the kids with us because they wanted to run off with their flashlights.

Notice Kayda giving her horse a piggy-back ride.

Grandpa hid the horse in his vest and then Kayda decided that it was cold so she made Grandpa zip up his vest to keep the horse warm. 

Flying a kite. 

The kids helped us build a sand castle and decorate it with pretty shells.  They liked it enough that they chose NOT to destroy it by jumping on it. 

Snuggled up and ready for a movie before bed.  After this Kayda asked to do it each of the remaining nights.  It only happened once, it will have to become a tradition.

Friday morning we went to the Astoria Maritime Museum.  Unfortunately on the way there Dillon got car sick.  Daddy had to drive over to the store to get Dillon some shorts and he had to wear his coat so he wouldn't be shirtless.  I felt so awful for him, of course it was the one time I didn't have a change of clothes packed so I didn't have something fresh for him to change into.  Despite getting so miserably sick he was still able to pull it together and have a great time in the museum looking at the boats.  Kayda and Dillon really liked going on the big ship and seeing where the crew slept and ate and cooked etc. 

Back at the beach (we spent most of our time there).

Daddy and I built a sand obstacle course.  The kids LOVED it.  We'll definitely be doing that every time we go to the beach.

The Wreck of the Peter Iredale, this was the ONE night we could see the sunset. We didn't get rained on though so that's fine by me.

We didn't get enough there so we went over to Grayland Beach.  It was a really nice campground with a relatively short walk out to the beach.  Be warned though the beach is very wide and flat so once you get to it it's still a ways out to the water.  The kids especially enjoyed looking for crab parts (shells, arms etc) with Grandpa. 

We saw this sign along the road on headed towards Westport.  We also saw a plant nursery called the "Pot Shed."  What are these people thinking?

Kayda's Dance Recital

Kayda had her dance recital today. I was really concerned because during the first and second attempts at the dress rehersal she wouldn't do ANYTHING. Fortunately after lunch she decided she would dance. Here is a clip of the dance, blurry at first but it gets better. Her cousin Ella is just to her left. At the end the girls all freeze and the lights dim. You can see just before it gets dark the audience starts clapping and Kayda get this "Yeah I did so good" look... SO cute.

There are a few pictures, again blurry but you get the gist.

First Signs of Summer

The weather finally got the memo that it's summer, at least temporarily.  We had a wonderful day today, the kids were outside literally ALL day long!  We were busy working so I didn't get to take pictures until this evening but it was a great time.  They played outside with Kylie today in the sprinkler, in the wading pool, the sandbox, and on the swingset.  You name it and they were doing it today!  We even went by Grandma and Grandpa G's to help sort through some old toys which turned out to be a major event for Kayda and Dillon because they discovered "Hungry Hungry Hippos".  They played that game outside and inside for over an hour total.  Kayda of course had to be the green one and Dillon could care less which one he was.  It came down to the kids putting the marbles directly into the hippos' mouths.  In the picture below Dillon "fed" Kayda's green hippo.  When he was done Kayda held down the handle so that the hippo stayed out and made him say thank you.  She even changed her voice so that it belonged to the hippo when it said "Thank you Dillon!".  It cracked me up!

They also got to dance with Daddy, some of the dance moves were...interesting, but the kids loved it! 

They also played London Bridge and the kids thought that was the BEST!

I'm pretty sure that Kayda must've gotten THIS from her princess movies.  She just randomly started walking around like this today saying "I'm Kayda"

He's putting some serious effort into swinging that bat!  Unfortunately I couldn't pitch to him because Hank and Gunner were playing, every time I threw the ball they'd try to go get it. 

Guilt Trip

Well, I guilt tripped myself when I realized I only post once a month now.  Fortunately today was an excellent day for pictures.  After Dillon's nap today we got all dressed up and went out to play in the sandbox.  Between the sandbox, the wading pool and a tub of soapy water we entertained ourselves for 3+ hours! You won't see it in the pictures but they both decided they HAD to have their swimsuits on.  They can't stand for their clothes to be wet.  Fortunately, even though the sun wasn't out, it was incredibly muggy and warm. I actually remembered to bring out the camera, combine that with my guilt trip and you get an extra post!

This next picture cracks me up.  She was trying to stomp down the sand tower while sitting on the edge.  I snapped the picture right as she toppled backwards.  She immediately popped up and said "My Okay!".  Then she got back in the sandbox and tried again standing up.

Squishing the sandcastle we made.  It was nothing beautiful or glorious which would be fine if they made it, but I did so you only get to see the demolished version.

Hank, he was brave enough to get in the sandbox for a little while and sniff around.  When they saw him in there they came running.  Apparently then it was too crowded.

 

Kayda wanted to clean the patio table so I got a tub of warm soapy water (as opposed to the cold sand filled wading pool water).  Next thing I know they're cleaning their trikes.  I'm worried about what they're going to be like when they turn 16 and have cars if they pay this close attention to their trikes.

Dillon still takes a nap every afternoon, he just isn't quite ready to NOT have one.  Kayda on the other hand gave hers up not too long after Dillon was born.  Since they played so hard today this is how Kayda ended her day.  (She snuggles with Hank a LOT)

Dillon, on the other hand, is still awake and kicking!  Mommy and Dillon special time since Kayda's zonked out and Daddy's off playing softball!  Off to enjoy my little snuggle bug!

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!

The month of May was a nasty affair here.  Rain, rain, rain and more rain.  Though we had a couple of decent days here and there.  The kids and I have been snuggling up inside most of the time so I finally caved and bought some nice wood puzzles, the cardboard type I was getting before just wasn't cutting it.  Both the kids LOVE to do puzzles.  Kayda is escpecially good with special orientation.  She does a puzzle a couple of times with an adult, then magically she is putting pieces in their approximate locations WITHOUT any other pieces even near them (see below).  Dillon is still figuring out how to get them turned correctly but he can tell you where a piece should go and sort out which pieces create each part of the picture.  They will sit there and play with these things (I bought more than I should have...course I fully intend to get more of them) for up to an hour. 

We have been spending every opportunity outside, even in light rain.  The kids go out front to the cul-de-sac and play with the other kids that live in our cul-de-sac.  They ride bikes, play catch (to the best of their slowly increasing ability), dig in the dirt, watch the dogs play.  Speaking of dogs Hank has made friends with our neighbors dog.  Since he's started playing with Gunner, Hank has started being a much more obedient dog, he comes when I call and he is playing fetch out front now instead of just when he's confined.  So he is outside, even in the front yard, with the kids and I almost all the time now. 

Anyways back to the kids.  We bought Dillon a bike, 14 inch thinking 12 is too small and Kayda's 16in is too big.  Well guess what... he's tall enough to get on it but can't reach the pedals at the very bottom.  So he has his blue big bike that he LOVES but he won't even try to ride it because it's too big.  Oh well, guess he'll have to stick with his trike for a while longer.  Despite the fact that Dillon pedals three times as fast and moves half the speed all the kids have been having a great time outside.  Here are a couple of pictures:

I love living in a cul-de-sac, well not in it but on the way into a cul-de-sac.  It's a great place for the kids to play and I can keep an eye on them easily.  They ride their bikes in the cul-de-sac, down to our house and back, all day long.  

I have been roaming craigslist almost obsessively ever since Uncle Jordan showed me a sandbox he found on there that I fell in love with.  Well good news!  I found one, for the fourth time, and was the first contact so we are now the proud owners of a sandboat!  The only boat we'll own for a LONG time.  It has a canopy and a padded seat for the bench on the back which are currently being washed.  The front also has a cover but I have to fix it, it's meant for toy storage.  The kids and I are so excited!  They were out there playing in it in the rain yesterday after we got it.  Kayda is anxiously waiting for me to finish this post right now so we can go play with it, Dillon's sleeping. 

Last but not least, it is official, I will NOT be working next year.  I handed in my resignation May 26th.  I'll still have to substitute occassionally for a little breathing room but for the most part I will be home to be mommy, nurse, teacher, chauffeur, play date organizer, snuggler, story teller, artist etc with my wonderful children!