Memorial Day Weekend

Last Saturday, after some convincing on my part, we decided to load up the kids and drive to the coast for the day.  Shad was pretty hesitant (and I don’t blame him) to attempt the drive on Saturday of a holiday weekend.  We were pleasantly surprised that the traffic was minimal and the coastal town we went to was not crowded, at all.   When it comes to taking day trips on busy weekends, I tend to be the “glass is half full, wishful thinking” kind of girl and Shad tends to be the “holy cow it is going to be crazy and we are going to sit in traffic all day” kind of guy.  In this instance we got lucky and I worked very hard not to say “I told you so.”

We started our day stopping for clam chowder, garlic cheese bread and fish and chips for lunch at our favorite local cafeteria-like restaurant.  It never disappoints.  Then we grabbed our beach gear and headed to the sand.

It was the usual cool and windy with gray skies kind of weather, but that did not stop us.

But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t bundle up.  Yes, I am wearing two hoods.  Note in this picture that Bethany has her shoes off and only a light jacket on.

She stayed that way for quite awhile as her and Daddy built a sand castle.  At one point we thought she was a little smelly, so I pulled back her waistband to check for poo.  All I found was goose bumps and purple buns.  I asked her if she was cold and she told me no through chattering teeth while shivering.

After I put her socks, shoes and extra coat on, she felt much better.  Her buns are no longer purple, so I don’t think she suffered any permanent frost bite or anything.

This girl always runs straight to the water when we go to the beach.  She LOVES the ocean.  She doesn’t go any closer than this, but she LOVES the ocean.

 

 

Hannah played chicken with the waves while Josh dug up sand and threw it back in the ocean.

Hannah and Josh both tried their hand at flying the stunt kite Shad and I bought a long, long time ago.  (Like before we had kids!  That was 100 years ago, right?)  Mostly they would get it up in the air and then it would nose dive into the sand.  I think it may have died that day.  Seriously, it got a rip in it.

Bether’s was content to dig in the sand.

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After we were done being cold we got back in the MV and headed up the road to a state park.  While we were parked, Josh found a clown nose that Bethany got at a parade a couple of weeks ago.

We had a little fun with that.

Not knowing what we were going to find since we had never been here before, we got out to explore.

This is what we found.

And this is what the big kids found.

Next we hiked up the hill above the beach and got a good look below.

So beautiful.

The best part about being up the hill, off the beach and in the trees was that what was wind on the beach was just a light breeze up here. 

We were even able to stop to pose for a picture, and the camera didn’t even blow away.  Major bonus.

We found a cool trail and went for a hike.

He is really into the bunny ears right now, even on himself.  So funny…

We walked for about and hour.  We even got warm enough to take our coats off.

When we headed back down the hill, Bethany got tired.  Shad and I took turns carrying her.

We found a cool tree to pose in.  Hannah was walking up to get her picture taken when one of us, I can’t remember if it was Josh, Shad or me, said “watch out for the bear.” She turned around and refused to go in the tree.  I am pretty sure it was Shad that said it…it could have been me.  Oops.

But, since there really was no bear in the tree, Bethany and I climbed in for a picture.

Or two.

We got a really great view of this rock with a lighthouse on it out in the ocean.

It reminds me of that movie Shutter Island for some reason.

Anyway, after the hike and listening to Josh tell us how badly he wanted to go back to the car, we decided we needed to eat, even though we weren’t that hungry quite yet.  So, we decided to skip eating “real” dinner food and headed to the candy shop.  We ate ice cream waffle cones and fudge, then chased it down with some delicious kettle corn.  Best dinner ever! 

By that time it was getting late and we thought we better hit the road to beat traffic back to town.  Oh, wait.  There was no traffic!  Did I mention that I am not one to say “I told you so?”