Some much needed family time....Our Trip to Ocean Shores

With the on set of summer and the endless list of projects to get done while the weather gives us a break from the rain... it's sometimes hard to remember that we need some family time....


I'm not talking about that 45min long dinner where we're beggin the 4 year old to eat his favorite meal....

or the half hour where we TRY to do something as a family.... when all the hubby can think about is his giant pile of logs that need to get cut and split for firewood

or the hour long bedtime routine where the hubby and I are well oiled machines just working towards that final collapse on the couch or bed....

No we were defiantly in need of a good ol' get away...  I practically gave the hubby no choice... we were going and there was nothing he could do about it.... nice right? :)

So we started looking into where we wanted to go and the first place to pop into my head was Ocean Shores.....

Now crazy story.... I stayed in Ocean Shores as a kid back when I was 6 or maybe 7... so me and my parents drove from Southern California up to Seattle and the surrounding areas... and along the way stayed in Ocean Shores.  Then back in 99 I stayed in Ocean Shores while making the move to the Pacific Northwest.  Both times we stayed at the Canterbury Inn. 

Guess where we booked our stay... Yep the same place...  How fun to share this little memory with my own family.... YEARS later.

We had a wonderful time...  no household chores, no projects to work on, no distractions just us and our little boys to enjoy each other for 3 straight days.

Here's some highlights from our trip....

Friday Morning... All loaded up and ready to go...

Oh good a happy baby... those are the best kind....

 

We're soooo excited... Jeromy mostly because he gets to drive the canal.... blahhh

Yeahhhhh we're here..... 

Ah Yes! Just how I remember it....

 

Colten claimed HIS bed...

Ok time to unpack my stuff... he says

Next on the agenda was to find some grub.... 

We thought we'd give Bennetts Fish Shack a try.....IT WAS DELISHHHH

Ben and his first pickle...  weird kid... he actually liked it

MMmmm Mom you've been holdin out

 

A smile would have worked...

Best fish and chips we've had in a long time.... mmmmmm

Next on the agenda was Go-Karts....

Colten was soooo excited

 Waiting to race...

Mama and Ben waiting to watch the boys race...

Colten patiently waiting...haha

You'd think Go-Karts would be pretty exciting to a baby... Nahh Ben was more interested in the birds in a near by field... (he kinda has a thing for birds right now)

Apparently Colten had a change of heart...

Being the Papa that he is... we couldn't let the poor kid out before the race started... we should definitely have him do a couple of tortuous laps first... Poor kid haha

Papa stopped FINALLY and let him out... he made quite the bee-line to my side... guess Papa was just too crazy to ride with... Believe me I know little Buddy

Much happier watchin...

The Go-Kart guy felt bad that Jeromy had missed a couple laps while droppin Colten off so he let him race again and in a faster car...  Jeromy had his game face on in this picture...once the race started he was smilin like a little school boy... He swears he didn't have any fun... YEAH OK....

Colten insisted he ride the little "Mowkey" (that's what we call them at our house)

Next up.... Bumber Cars...Mama got to drive... now this was Coltens idea of fun... 

We were bumpin fools...  I don't know who had more fun...

Hey now little boy...I'm a stay at home mom with an attitude...

you bes whatch yo-self..

Next we headed down to the beach... how awesome to be able to take the car down there... sure beats carryin all your stuff

The Burb.. She's a road trippin machine...

Ben getting right to work...

Of course the John Deere Tractor came with us...

So if you've been to Ocean Shores you'd know it's either the best or the worst place to fly a kite... the winds can be pretty intense. I specifically remember my kite breaking here as a kid.   A friend of ours was nice enough to give us a bag of kites and we were able to construct ONE of them with some of the parts..haha   

Horse rides $20 an hour.... Stepping in horse poo in your bare feet while beach combing... PRICELESS

"Mama, what's that?"  Great Jeromy you parked us next to a dead seagull....

Yeah we got it in the air...

I've never seen a happier baby....

Happiness is just a bucket of sand away...

He's gettin serious now... bringin out the big tools...

Oh there's Papa fightin with that kite again...

Jeromy thought he was on vacation until he helped 3 cars get unstuck in the sand...

Clam diggin I think....

Smack!.... oh Ben this isn't the bathtub, you really don't wanna get that water in your eyes..

I really LOVE this guy... Jus sayin..

He can be such a stud...

I also remember that if you wanna find sand dollars on the beach you have to get out there early... (before the seagulls)

Good thing that's not a problem for my family... we were out there before 7am... ughhhh

Unfortunately it was too late or the tide wasn't low enough... we were not successful in our quest for a perfect sand dollar.... I knew I should have bought one at the shell shop... haha



Mama can I put this in the beach treasure bag.... Um I don't think so buddy

Ahhhhh... oh it's just Sharkys

The little souvenir shop where Colten picked out a little Shark that Grabs/Bites when you squeeze the handle.... 

The same store we had to go back to the next day for another little Shark...

Our first taste of having to buy two of something to keep everyone happy...

Day two of beach playin...

I'm guessin Ben really wanted to ride on of those Horses...

Wait Bennnn.... Come Back!!  ~Love his little crawly trail..

Gosh you're cute..

Now this is the kind of weather I remember...

Bears on the Beach?

Oh just Mama's Lil Beny Bear...

It was soooo windy...

Some extreme Frisbee playin... 40mph winds make for a pretty hilarious time... my sides were hurting from laughin so much.

We spent a lot of time at the hotel pool, sorry no pictures as I didn't think it was a safe place for the camera, and lets face it I wanted to play in the pool too... I'm pretty sure Colten grew gills on this trip... jumpin in from the side and bobbin around in his little life vest... such a far cry from the last hotel pool where we couldn't even get him to put his feet in...

It's so important to slow down every once in a while.... even though this trip was only a few days... I've returned refreshed and renewed.  My mom patience seems to be improved and life kind of put back into prospective again. 

Things can get so crazy when you're trying to parent two young kids, get important projects done and make it through the day. 

We've found that everything takes 3 times as long to complete and the results are usually not always what you'd hoped for.  Yeah life of multiple interruptions and numerous distractions... that's pretty much the definition of life with kids. 

Thank you Jeromy for seeing that we needed this family time... I love you and love nothing more in the whole world than being with you and our boys sharing these fun filled memories together....