Family Vacation -- Long Beach, WA

We took a family vacation to Long Beach, Washington to enjoy the ocean and whatever else we could find. The town actually has a small "boardwalk" of sorts, with go-carts, miniature golf, fun center, bumper boats, etc, so there was plenty to entertain our very active son. Sammy enjoyed getting away too, although I got the feeling he spent the first day or so wondering whether we were trying to leave him somewhere. He was noticeably calmer the second day.

Our hotel was oceanside, with sand dunes separating us from the ocean itself. Upon arrival the first day, I volunteered to finish unpacking our things while John walked out to the ocean with Sammy and Josh. By the time I started out to meet them, I could see John walking back with Josh on his shoulders, wearing John's sweatshirt. At first I thought, it must be colder over the dune, with the wind coming off the ocean. Then, as we got closer to each other, I could see that Josh's legs were bare under the sweatshirt. Then I saw Josh's clothes in John's hands. Sure enough, he ran straight into the ocean upon arrival. He is fearless, and like his father he always has to get in the water.

This picture is from Saturday, as we head out to the ocean to (try to) fly our kite.
I look huge in this picture, but as I am 7 months pregnant I will let it go and publish this picture anyway.
Beautiful blue sky and sunny day.


I made everyone stop at this bench on the walk over the dunes for a photo. Josh is visibly unhappy with me for impeding his progress.


The kite flying attempt was a disaster. We had a general-store kite from Nags Head, and as we arrived on the beach I noticed that all other kite fliers had nice, constructed kites with sturdy frames. I knew right away we were in trouble, but I didn't realize how much, and Josh would not have allowed us to abandon the kite flying anyway. So we got it up in the air, and the wind just literally shredded it. The construction was not up to the challenge of the Pacific wind!
Here we are enjoying the beach itself, at least:


After the kite failure, Josh moved on to "soccer kicks." He is getting quite good, despite John's early attempts to discourage it (in jest). He can kick well with both feet, slide into blocks, and adjust his stride to dribble.

Go Carts!

Or "race cars," as Josh refers to it. "I drove race cars with Daddy!"

This seems to have been the high point of Josh's trip. He talks fondly of the "ocean" and "kites," but it was driving race cars with Daddy that he remembers best.


Coming through turn two:


Josh looks so tiny in the go-cart!


Josh did actually wave to me as John is suggesting here, but between the shutter speed of the camera and the speed they were driving, my shots were not very accurate and I never captured one of him waving, so here's John waving.


Tuckered out on the drive back to the hotel:

Random Josh pictures

Josh biking to the kitchen, with Sammy in tow.

Dante, he is wearing his new shirt from you, if you can see it. He is never too young to promote good beer!




Josh can put on his own shoes and socks now.


Just a cute picture of his smile.


This is how he eats now: with at least one (and sometimes two) race cars on each side of him. He is obsessed with race cars.