Parents' Time Off (Well, Mostly). Our Trip to the Washington Coast Part Un

The last week of our trip in Washington took us away from our usual haunts. We dropped the four older boys off with Aunt Sara and Grandma and Grandpa for a little Chaos-sharing, and took off to Ocean Shores on the Pacific coast with Tommy, my parents and my sister and her boyfriend (who we met for the first time on this trip and love as one of our own already!), Jason. We had three little condos in my parents time share place, all stacked one above the other.

This summer we were supposed to take a family trip to Ireland, but the plans ended up falling through. Traveling with Tommy wasn't going to be too fun, that and other reasons, we changed plans. But we didn't want to give up on the "mostly grown-ups only" trip, so we picked something much closer to home.

The days without the boys were pretty lazy. The weather did nothing to inspire us to do much. It was overcast and cool, a fine mist hung in the air at all times. By the fourth day I was beginning to wonder if there still was a sun beyond all the cloud cover. But it was nice to have an excuse to do nothing. We strolled along the beach, took in a movie (Inception, brilliant! Although Tommy woke up and started babbling during the last 20 minutes so I took him out of the theater and haven't seen the end, just got the summary. But the rest, FAB!), and ate at every "hot spot" on the Ocean Shores eatery list. YUM! One of them was Apollo Ohno's favorite restaurant, Ocean Crest, another was an Irish Pub, in honor of the trip that wasn't.

We did get a wee bit active and went for one little hike around the Weatherwax estuary. It was beautiful. The dampness spurred all kinds of crazy growth. Some of the trees had moss strands hanging off of them six inches long (although later in the week we would see monster moss that dwarfed our little Weatherwax moss)! We were very proud of our effort to leave the condos to do more than eat and walk on the beach, so to celebrate we went out to dinner.

Adam also picked up a stunt kite. Having flown the two my dad bought a few years back a number of times, he decided there was no better place to get one than Ocean Shores. He, my dad and Jason flew the kites whenever there was a strong enough breeze, and for a stunt kite that doesn't take much! My dad only considered the day "great" if the wind picked up enough to fly, otherwise it only got "good" status.

It was so relaxing and so nice to have a bit of time off from parenting my five. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Sis and Jason for such enjoyable company, and thanks to Aunt Sara, Grandma and Grandpa for providing our big boys with love and entertainment! There is something so snuggly-gloomy about the fog and mist blanketed coast. It makes me feel like autumn and cuddles, warm, delicious food and blankets. I loved being able to enjoy the time with just the adults and our wee little Tom.