It Was a Cold, Foggy, Windy Afternoon

Once upon a time there was a family of six who wanted to visit the beach.  The kids in this family (for the most part) loved the beach.  In fact, they had been begging all summer break to go frolic in the waves and dig in the sand.  So on a weekend when their town was experiencing record heat, their parents packed up the minivan and headed west to sand, water, and cooler temps.

Waaaaay cooler temps.  It turns out it was about 40 degrees cooler.  And while a drop from 95 to 55 might sound like a nice break in the summer heat, it isn't nearly as fun if you plan on spending the day in your swimsuit.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, this story is about us!  Last Saturday we visited Westhaven State Park based on the recommendation of our friends who had gone there a week before.  Our friends had texted me a picture of an extremely happy child sitting on gorgeous white sands with the sun and ocean in the background.  I made the mistake of showing that picture to the boys.  It was only a mistake because after driving an hour and a half to the same beach, we saw an ominous, low-lying cloud in the horizon.  Sunny all the way there, and incredibly foggy on the beach.  

So, yeah.

We knew it might be a little on the cool side, but we didn't know we'd be dealing with strong winds and low visibility as well.  I had figured that dealing with a beach in the Pacific Northwest that things could be unpredictable.  The boys were expecting a North Carolina beach.  They were a little, um, disappointed.  

Isaac was disappointed, too.  But mainly because, in true Miller baby tradition, he started off the experience hating both sand and water.  This picture was the calm before his storm.  He quickly worked himself up to screaming fit every minute he wasn't physically attached to a parent.

The beautiful view:

Michael and Ben rebounded fairly quickly.  Our teenager (12 counts, right?) took a little bit longer.

Ben started his shell collection early on.

After putting food in the monster, he stopped being so hangry and consented to being put down on a towel.

Ben and Michael played chicken with the ocean.  Ben seemed to lose a lot since he got soaked pretty quickly.  Sadly, his mom had figured that no one in their right mind would play in the water given the weather and water temperature (frigid, so frigid) and didn't have him or his brothers change into their swimsuits.

She chose poorly.

Josh finally decided to interact with the beach.

Isaac was positively chipper by now and really, really wanted to feed Jason.  Jason was amused, but not particularly interested in eating something sticky and mushy coming out of his toddler's hands.  But, if nothing else, Isaac is freakishly persistent and had the pleasure of feeding his daddy.

And he finally moved out of the sun (or, in this case, wind) tent.

And THEN Jason actually got him out on the sand.  It took Michael and Ben years to make that kind of progress.

Jason helped Isaac play chicken with the waves as well.  Isaac spent most of the rest of our time there walking around and pointing at driftwood and dogs and saying, "Oh, wow!".

It was a rough start, but we all did have a lovely time.  The Miller rule of adventures states that we must stay at a place at least as long as it takes to drive there and back, so we were there for three hours.  There was more to do like take a walk to a lighthouse, but that will have to wait for a later trip as it was getting cooler and foggier.  Also, Ben was soaked up to the waist and wet up to his chest and we were a little worried about him being so cold in the cold.  It was a nice taste of a beach in our area and hopefully next time we go it will be summer weather.

Big Boy Bed

I am a little out of order here, but something horrible happened on Sunday.  

Isaac climbed (and then fell) out of his bed twice.

And yes, I was a little worried about him.  But I was more worried about our (mine and Jason's) sanity.  

This is not a good sleeper.  And so he doesn't have have exceptionally very at all well-rested parents.  

And that was back when his crib had FOUR sides.  

And now it is down to three.  I voted to turn the crib upside-down and make the jail cage crib more difficult to escape, but Jason thought we should bow to the inevitable and convert it to a toddler bed.

I am not entirely convinced that was the right decision, but there it is.  In any case, if I seem a little dazed or droopy, now you'll know why: even less sleep.  On a positive note, when he falls out of the bed now, he doesn't have as far to go. Also, he hasn't figure out how to open the door of his room (yet).

Update:  The child has mastered the door to his room.  At 12:40am I found him in the kitchen screaming his head off.  It went downhill from there.

Northwest Trek

I am a HUGE fan of public libraries.  In fact, the public library is one of the first places we visit when we move to a new town.  

I am also a HUGE fan of library summer programs.  My kids love the cheap prizes and the thrill of achieving reading goals.  

And I am a HUGE fan of the library summer program here, mainly because we scored some FREE PASSES to Northwest Trek (an otherwise too expensive family experience).  The passes were first come, first served so we were at the library bright and early the Monday morning they started handing them out.  

The passes were only available for the kids, but still a great deal.  Our friends were at their library bright and early the same morning so we could all plan a trip together.  As part of Jason's vacation weekend and before my friend's husband started work for the school year, we drove out to NWT on Monday for some animal fun.

Northwest Trek is like a zoo for local animals.  Which doesn't sound all that exciting, except we don't normally have moose, elk, deer, or seals in our backyard so getting a close look was fascinating.  Even Isaac would periodically take a break from his whining and squirming to squeal with delight when we got close and almost personal with the wildlife.

Part of admission is a 50 minute tram tour.  When I saw "50 minutes", I seriously considered sitting this one out with Isaac.  But then the nice tour guide said, "No food or drinks on the tram.  Unless you have a small child, then go ahead and feed them all you want.  Happy kids = happy tour."   So we refrained from feeding the wildlife outside the tram, but tried to feed the wildlife inside the tram as much as possible to keep him happy.  I am glad I went, because it was pretty cool.  At the beginning I was concerned that we weren't going to see much, but Jason noticed that there was feed at several points along the road and that was fairly effective at bringing the locals.

After the tram tour, we stretched our legs on a nature trail while the kids did a scavenger hunt.

They collected letters on the trail and then put them together to solve a puzzle and find a letterbox.  They stamped their papers (which I am sure by now are in the trash)...

...and put their names in the record book.

By now it was about noon and the kids had laid eyes on the fantastic playground, so lunch and some playtime was up next.  Although I don't have any pictures (oops), the playground was so magnificent that it took a while for the kids to remember that they had been starving just minutes earlier.  I do, however, have a picture of Isaac playing in the creek.

I didn't know there was a creek.

I didn't plan for a creek.

Which is probably why Isaac fell in the creek.

Ahhh!  Of course, I don't carry extra clothes around for him anymore since we are past the poopy diaper blow-out phase.  We stripped off his overalls and used a couple of towels from the car to mitigate the damage, but we did have a very damp (and cranky, though it's hard to say these days if those were related) child for the rest of the afternoon.

After lunch, we meandered around the park to take a look at more animals.  Michael, who had been before, dragged us immediately to the bears.  We were fortunate to be watching when one of the workers spread out some food and one of the bears trundled over and then graciously posed for a photo op.

Mr. Grumpapus spent the rest of the afternoon in the stroller with a pen.

We then took a moment to regroup and plan for the rest of the afternoon.  Our friends left to go on some zipline adventures in the park and we moved on to the birds, forest animals and wetland animals.

But first, some fun on a banana slug.

Then on to the rest of the animals for us!

We ended at the Discovery Center where Isaac was ecstatic in his slightly damp onesie to check out the reptiles and amphibians.  And then he completely and utterly lost it and we decided it was time to go home.  Even though, it didn't end on that great of a note, we did have a fun time and some wonderful memories.

Millersylvania Morning

Jason took a few days off work and ended up with a 5-day weekend for various activities and adventures.  Saturday morning I thought that it would be fun to recreate a fun activity I remember doing with my family when I was a kid: outdoor breakfast.  We packed up the camping grill and some breakfast yummies and drove to Millersylvania Park.  Jason had never been and there are some nice picnic tables by the water and the dock.  Since the whole process involved delaying breakfast and helping prepare the food, the boys were not enthusiastic at first.

Josh begrudgingly helped cook the bacon.  It was quite an imposition to cook one package of bacon, especially since he cooks pounds of bacon when he camps with the scouts.  So much moping.  So much resentment.  The teen years are guaranteed to be so much fun!

Then there were some technical difficulties cooking the pancakes.  The pan tended to burn the pancakes on the ends of the pan and leave the ones in the middle raw.  We'll get some of the kinks worked out, but Jason still managed to make a lot of pancakes for hungry bellies.

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When all was done and on their plates, the boys were happy with the results.  Of course, who can be upset when eating pancakes cooked in bacon grease and covered in real maple syrup?

While the middles and Jason were on KP duty, Josh and I followed Isaac to the dock.  We found out on Wednesday that not only is Isaac a flight risk, he is also a dive headfirst over the side risk.  That meant we had to keep eyes and hands on him and I, now more than ever, need one of those kid leash things.  (Okay, I know they aren't called leashes, but the concept is the same and it would make it easier to keep him from playing with the fishes in the seaweed.)

It is beautiful on the lake.

Saturday was not about the lake, however.  Saturday was about hiking.  In case you are wondering, I adhere to the school of thought that if you make kids do something often enough, they will love it.  Because that works, right?

This was Jason's kind of forest.  Dark.  Mossy.  Ferny.  Full of huge trees.

The boys warmed up to hiking after a while.  Jason has a gift for finding wildlife and cool plants.  He usually wins them over in the end.

The one kid who didn't need to be won over was Isaac.  He was exhausted after spending the morning throwing rocks in the water and trying to get in the water.  A nice ride on Mom was just what he needed to lull him to sleep.

If you ask of some of the boys (ahem, Michael, Ben, and Isaac if he could talk), the best part of the morning was the blackberries.  We finally were able to get a reasonable amount of them off the bushes at a time.  We still didn't manage to bring any home since little mouths were desperate for the juicy berries.  I asked Josh later in the day if he likes VA or WA better.  He still picks VA.  I figure it may be too late for him.  But, I also figure, if nothing else, we will be able to win the rest of them over with summers of berry picking.

Camping is still a daunting thought with Isaac being so little, but outdoor morning breakfasts bring us one step closer to enjoying more of the outdoor benefits of our new home.