Being unable to visit with Grandpa & Nana and the Man's recovering brother, we had some free time on our hands, which to be honest wasn't so bad. We most defiantly would have rather been with the fam, but we made the best of it.

After consulting with Gramma we knew the tide was going to be fairly low mid-morning and the weather was a breezy, blue skies 72 degrees. AGH! I miss that so much! All this meant fun at the beach. The decided we should head alittle father west to a great park right on the water with some great tide pools. Tide Pools are awesome and I've played in them many times before and it's always fun. The northwest coasts of California, Oregon and Washington have mostly rocky beaches, with some sand. The rocks are prefect homes for crab, eel, starfish, sea anemones (what Nemo lived in), and other treats. When there's a low tide, the water will retreat exposing the rocks and the water trapped within them, teaming with life.

Here the Man and Buddy head out to some tide pools to seek the wonders of the sea. Where they are walking is usually underwater at normal tide.

It was hard for the Little Guy to navigate his way through the pools, as the barnacle and seaweed covered rocks were very slippery.

LG found a baby crab, which he played with, it was pretty much already dead, so it was easy for him to handle and play with it.
Buddy found a baby starfish pretty early in the adventure and this only fueled his curiosity for seeing what else he could find.
LG had a couple of spills and let M.E. tell you barnacles hurt. Eventually he got a pretty good gash on his leg from one. This sent he and I back to the car for some cleaning, cream and band-aid. (I totally love the little tiny first aid kit, I got from the Health Dept years ago, its sooooo handy with two rowdy boys like mine). After the patch up, LG didn't want to go back to the tide pools, so we stayed on the beach. He found another little 3 yr to play with so they would run down to the water (which was about 55 degrees) then as soon as it washed up on their feet, they would run back up the beach laughing and giggling. The other Mom and I had a nice chat and I found some cool beach glass just running my fingers in the sand.

The cold water game only lasted so long, so we headed up to the cool playground. He's too cute! I love this pose.

The Man and Buddy finally joined us after they had explored the entire beach and the tide was starting to come back in.

After a few minutes on the jungle gym, we call cousin Katy and Uncle Tom for some lunch. I totally love fish & chips and there is no place better than the pacific northwest to have them. Loved it. We then headed back toward home and stopped to hang out with Pal. Upon arriving the boys were asleep and stayed like this for about an hour. We totally could not leave the kids in the car asleep like this in OK, they'd suffocate even with the window down. But in WA is was perfect weather for a little nap.

Here's Pal.
How cute is he. When the boys finally woke up, he was in awe of the big boys. Buddy fell in love with Pal's house and him of course. I think it had nothing to do with their backyard being a wiffle ball field.

We wound up back at the beach with Gramma for some time around the fire and more visiting. I could get use to this.