Vacation 2012 at OneTrueMedia.com

Here are all the pictures together. Finally home and resting from our time at the beach.

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A Perfect End!

Last Day

It is our last day of vacation and what a beautiful day it is. We woke up to blue skies this morning, not the usual grey, cloudy skies that we have seen all week.  The morning was spent cleaning house, vacuuming the floors, laundry, and general clean up.  Todd sent the kids off on a two mile hike down the beach while I got the cleaning done.  After lunch we headed back to the beach for a last swim.  I tried to get in but the water was still too cold for me.  Sorry folks, I am just not going to do it.

The kids had fun and that is what  counts.  Bryce said he didn't want to leave which is a good sign that the kids had a fun week.

Find Bonnie

 Can  you see her yet?

 There she is!

Go Karts

Friday

If you have read the Twilight books or have seen the movies you know that vampires don't like the sunlight, that is why they "live" over on the west coast of Washington because the sun rarely shines over here.  Well, today the vampires had to stay indoors because the sun came out.  Yeah!!! 

We loaded up today and headed over to Ocean Shores.

 Ocean Shores is more of the resort beach.  People were everyone.  Harley Davidson motorcyclists were having a convention in town.  On the beach people were barbequing, swimming, flying kites, and/or riding horses.

 It made us thankful for our own private section of beach we have to play on. We have hardly seen anyone since our visit here.

After a trip to Murphy's ice cream store and a walk to the beach, Todd surprised the kids by taking them  over to ride some Go Karts.

The kids had so much fun....and so did I!  It was a great way to enjoy our last day with my parents.  Of course, we couldn't let this sunny day go to waste.  As soon as we got back to the house, we headed back to the beach to soak in the sun and play in the surf. 

 Todd headed back into town while we were playing on the beach and got us some crabs to have for dinner.  Can you say "Yum?!"  Yum!  A great way to end the day.

We finally got to have our bonfire!!!  The morning started off dreary and wet.  It hasn't really rained here.  We just get a heavy mist.  So we stayed inside all morning.  Everyone curled up with a good book or played some cards til late afternoon.  By then the "sun" had come out and the temps had gone up. We packed a cooler with sandwiches, drinks, and s'more ingredients then headed to the beach.

I am glad we waited although Brian was about to drive me crazy asking when we were going to have our fire and make s'mores up until this time.  The weather was great for a fire.  We found more wood to replace the pieces that another group had burned up the night before and had a nice fire.

Bonnie had heard that driftwood produces a blue flame when burned.  It doesn't.  At least not this driftwood.

Remember Bryce's bike accident the day before we left?  He is still sporting a nice black eye, but he also complained about a hurt wrist.  We thought he might have bruised it since there was no swelling and he could move it, but after a few days of it still hurting, we got him a brace that he has to wear all the time.  He is pretty bummed that it affects how rough he can play in the water.  No boogey boarding or diving through waves,  but that is the price one pays for crashing on a bike the day before vacation starts. 

 The boys did get out in the water as the tide was heading in to watch the waves wash over their feet.  We saw another bald eagle while on shore.  Awesomeness!

After filling our bellies of food, the boys ventured down the beach to find a large tree, roots and all, that had been washed up on shore.  The wind has deposited sand all around it and created dunes all around the trunk, a perfect spot to let your imagination run wild.  The boys disappeared behind the tree til it was time to head back home.

Star Wars movies and more cards concluded the night.  Back to bed and one more day on the Pacific coast with Mamaw and Papaw. 

Another Day on the Pacific Coast

Brian decided to sleep outside last night.  He got his sister's sleeping bag, a couple blankets and set up camp in the reclining lawn chair on the deck.  With his head lamp and book he settled in late last night and finally came inside about 5 this morning.  His blankets and pillow were soaking wet from the heavy dew but he had fun. 

Today we spent more time on the beach.  Todd went for an early morning run down to Ocean Shores which is two miles south of us.  While running he saw a bald eagle.  Mom and I saw a bald eagle later that morning when we were walking the beach searching for more sand dollars.  It was a chilly, overcast morning with temps in the 50s.  The kids wanted to go swimming but we had to tell them no.  After lunch the sun came out and with warmer temps we went back to the beach for the kids to swim.  We haven't been able to have our camp fire yet as the wind really picks up in the evenings.  We decided that we will have our fire tomorrow afternoon at lunch time.  Hopefully the wind won't be so bad then. 

Bonnie found this really cool sand castle (church) behind some sea grass.  Maybe we will try our hand out building some later this week.

After eating our omelets in a bag, the boys and I headed back to the beach.  The tide was out and the sand was covered with sand dollars and tide pools.  We had a lot of fun looking for perfect sand dollars and playing in the water.  Before long my parents and Bonnie joined us.  We gathered up drift wood for a bonfire later in the day, set up some logs for seating around the fire, and found a pallet to use as a wind break.  We thought we could put all of our sand dollars on the crossbars of the pallet to help them dry out but keep them safe from the sea gulls.

We headed in for lunch, a round of Phase 10 and Cribbage, then back to the beach to play some more.  This time we brought the kites and  booggy boards with us. 

The wind was so strong that it took no effort at all to get the kites up in the air.  Once up they stayed up,  We brought our own kites with us, but we found one kite in the Andersen's basement that was pretty cool.  It spun the whole time it was in the air.

Bonnie and Brian weren't interested in kite flying.  Instead they went straight for the water to ride the waves.  It didn't matter to them how cool it was or how windy.

We ended up not having our bonfire.  The wind was blowing about 30 mph so we decided to wait another day.  Oh, and our sand dollars didn't make it either.  When we came back to our camp site, we found all of sand dollars gone except for two and they had been pecked open.  Oh well.  we will head back again tomorrow morning to find more and this time we will bring them back to the house.

Dinner and a the Sackets await us.

Omelets in a Baggy

My mother-in-law went camping a few weeks ago with her youngest son and his wife.  When she returned she told me we had to make omelets in a bag for breakfast while on vacation.  So we did!

It is pretty simple and everyone liked them.  First, you need to write your name on a quart size ziploc bag.  (That is important or you won't know whose bag is whose.)  Second, you crack an egg or two and pour the egg into your bag.  Squeeze the eggs in the bag so that they are "scrambled."  Third, add to your bag whatever you want in your omelet.  We had diced onions, diced green peppers, cheddar cheese, sausage, and bacon to add to ours.  (Mom and I browned all of our sausage and cooked our bacon before we went on vacation so everything was ready to go for our omelets.)  Once you have added all of your omelet ingredients...oh...you will want to add salt and pepper too, we forgot and had to do it afterwards....then squeeze out all of the air and seal the bags.  Finally, place your bag in boiling water and leave it there for 13 minutes.

 We placed all seven of our bags in a big pot of water.  At the end of the time, open your bag and a perfectly rolled up omelet glides out onto your plate.

  Add some salsa or tabasco sauce for a delicious breakfast.

Vacation

Finally, we get to take a family vacation.

Of course, it started off with a bang as Bryce wrecked on his bike.  He has a nice "shiner" now, a sore arm, and lots of scraps.

 Despite that little set back, we left home this morning for Copalis Beach to stay at a friend's home just a short walk from the Pacific Ocean.  It wasn't too bad of trip, even though we decided to caravan.  My parents are here from Tennessee so they followed in their car and Todd decided that he wanted his own vehicle just in case he needed to head back home for an emergency.  A dear friend of ours is failing physically and if he were to take a turn for the worse while we were gone, Todd wanted to be able to join the family as soon as possible.

 The house is everything you expect a beach house to be. It is a simple two-story house with a basement.  They boys took over the upstairs loft.  Bonnie decided that she didn't want to share a room with her brothers so she claimed a couch in the living room; while the adults took over the bedrooms.

 Brian brought his BB gun along.  He can't practice shooting much at our house since we live in town and don't have much of a yard. 

 Once everyone was settled we went off in search of the Pacific.  We have to navigate through some tall grass and fields before finally cresting over the sand dune. 

 The dunes are so high that you cannot see the houses or the trails, so our friends set up this marker to make sure they could find the trail back to the house.

 The beaches on the Pacific coast line are a lot different than the Atlantic.  This beach was covered in seaweed, shells, sand dollars, and kelp.  We haven't found any debris from the tsunami but our week isn't over.

 Brian found some really long pieces of kelp.  I caught him trying to swing it into the ocean.

 The water wasn't too cold.  Lake Wenatchee is a lot colder than the ocean.  I imagine tomorrow we will go down in our swim suits and play in it some more.

 Bonnie found a small jelly fish.  No tentacles...so no need to worry about getting stung.