USA Trip - Washington Coast

Allen's mom flew to Portland on December 31 and was able to spend New Year's Eve with us. We had a pretty low key night with treats, games, dance parties and watching the ball drop.  (Pictures to come)

The next morning we got up and headed to Long Beach, WA where we stayed at Mom Frost's time share. We stayed for a few days and the weather was gorgeous! It was sunny for almost the entire time we were there which is rare for the PNW at this time of year. We took lots of walks along the beach.

I wanted to take some pictures of the kids in the sea grass growing on the dunes at the beach. Allen thought it was SO FUNNY to photo bomb all of my pictures. You can tell how funny the kids think he is though and they are lucky to have such a great dad.

The downside is that I was never able to get a non photo bombed picture of them all looking at the camera. Allen was busted for that one.

 I do LOVE this picture of the kiddos with Grandma Frost:

Carter thought it was so funny to make sand poo and pose appropriately (or inappropriately as it were). Please do not judge unless you have a 10 year old boy living at your house. I'm confident that anyone who DOES have a boy between the ages of 4 - 104 will understand how ridiculously funny he thought he was.

And then the girls had to get in on the action. Sigh.

We found out that it was clamming season in WA and decided to try our hand at it. It only happens twice a year, once in the winter and once in the summer. The tide must be at a negative level to find clams. Unfortunately, that means it is pitch black when digging in the winter. We bought some boots for Allen and me to wear and the kids thought they were so funny to clunk around in.

Marsh's Free Museum is an iconic landmark in Long Beach and we spent a surprising amount of time wandering around looking at things. It's super hard to explain but it's a shop full of old carnival games that still worked (some really old ones from the 20s and 30s), funky musical instruments, taxidermy stuffed animals and everything else you can imagine. It was a really fun afternoon.

Our kids thought this passion tester was the funniest thing in the world and did it over and over again. Best $5 in quarters we have ever spent. I'm sure the shop owners were thoroughly annoyed by us by the time we did it 20 times.

The result of all of Allen's passion (hahaha)

Jake the Alligator Man is another icon, albeit a very weird one. People have bumper stickers and tshirts with this "guy" on it. It was kind of gross.

We took a long drive to one of the lighthouses in the area and the scenery was so beautiful. One of my friends asked me if it made me miss the PNW and it really didn't. I always forget how much I hate being cold and I felt cold the entire time we were there. It sure is a gorgeous area of the country though!

We got to the lighthouse right at dusk and it was so beautiful stuck out on a little peninsula. I believe it has recently been purchased by the coast guard to become an operating lighthouse again. It was very weather- worn but love it and think it added to the charm. 

The lighting was amazing  and I caught this picture of Makenna right before my phone battery died and I am so sad I wasn't able to get more pictures of the kids. I know I'm biased but she is sure beautiful!

Later that evening we tried our hands at clamming. Here's the deal: You can go out an hour before low tide which was at about 8 p.m. It was already pitch dark and cold. Allen and I had the boots we had purchased and a clam gun but we only had a couple of small flashlights and it was hard to see. We had watched a few  Youtube videos of how to spot the places where clams are in the sand and it looked pretty easy. Yeah. Not so much. We were total rookies and while it was super memorable and funny, it was unfruitful. Our kids' feet got soaking wet within minutes and they were miserable and cold. Allen's mom took the girls back to the condo while Allen, Carter and I tried to find clams. It was easier without the girls because I wasn't worried about someone being swept into the ocean in the pitch dark after they left. But alas, we only found 1 measly clam. We were so confident going in that we thought we would have to put clams back because we would have reached the legal limit (20 clams per permit carrying person). It is so ridiculously hilarious now. Anyway, here we are after our attempt. Carter was so annoyed but I thought it was so funny and a great memory.

And here is cleaning our lone clam.

We also spent a lot of time playing in the heated outdoor pool, sitting in the hot tub, eating at yummy restaurants where we had the best clam chowder ever, playing games and watching movies. It was a wonderfully relaxing few days and we were all finally feeling healthy and over our jet lag!

Next up: Disneyland