Breaking Out to Seabrook!

Last week, I received a text from Eric asking me to call him.  After getting all of the kids to bed, I called him and learned that both Chris' family and his family had decided to plan a spontaneous trip to Seabrook.  Since Chris' beach house was already booked, they had discovered that the amazing and very large beach house right on the ocean which belongs to the good friends of our parents was actually still available.  After asking my dad to call them, Eric and Chris learned that we could stay there for free (which is amazing as this house currently rents out for $900 a night).  After extended the invitation to me, I told Eric that I needed to talk it over with Ron.  By the next day, Ron decided that he would rather stay home which meant that I could leave baby Emmett behind since I had just weaned him a few weeks earlier.  The three older kids and I drove out early Saturday morning and arrived at the coast before lunch time.  We then spent 2.5 wonderful days out there before returning home Monday evening.  It felt so good to go somewhere and do something fun after being in quarantine for ten weeks and barely leaving the house.  Although Seabrook's awesome, indoor pool was closed due to the pandemic, we had a great time playing on the beach, riding bikes around Seabrook, hanging out with cousins, playing games, watching movies, and eating good food.  Both Saturday and Sunday turned out to be really nice days with very little wind on the beach.  After the morning clouds cleared, the sun and blue skies even came out on Saturday afternoon while we were at the beach.  It was so nice to just relax and not worry about the stresses of our every day life for a few days.  And, although I missed him tons, it was so wonderful to get my first break from Emmett after being with him every day for the last 16.5 months allowing me to just focus on having fun with my three older children!

After pulling up to the "Oceanaire" beach house on Saturday around 11:30 a.m., we quickly unloaded and followed Natalee and Chris down to the beach.  Ella immediately took off running to play in the surf.  She had a great time running back and forth from the water to the beach and ended up getting completely wet and covered in the sand.

Ella, Logan, and Trenton playing in the water.

I asked Callie to take a family photo of us before the kids got completely soaked.  This is the picture that she managed to get of us...

before the water unexpectedly came washing up behind us!  It caught us so off guard that we all went running.  This is the hilarious picture that Callie then got of us.

After recovering from the surprise, this is the second family photo she took of us.

After returning to the house for a late lunch, we all headed out on bikes and on foot to visit the adorable Seabrook neighborhood.  We first stopped at the pickleball court for some games.  Lia played pickleball for the first time and was partners with Eric.

She did a great job and picked up the game quite quickly.

I got the three youngest kiddos to play a game with me in one of the corners of the court where we tried to pass a ball between the four of us as many times as possible before one of us missed it.  We made it to twenty two different times before the boys got bored and wandered off.  Logan eventually tried to play pickleball after some of the older kids had finished.  Although I missed seeing it happen, he apparently chased the pickleball off of the court and tripped landing on the gravel area right next to it.  I looked up to see him pulling something out of his knee that took him several seconds.  I knew right then and there that it wasn't going to be good.  After running over to him, I learned that he had pulled a rock out of his knee which left behind a huge gash.  After examining it for a few seconds, blood started to gush out of it.  I immediately wondered if he needed stitches again.  After Chris convinced me that it was going to be "fine," he hopped back on his bike and road back to the house to get some wet wipes, a band-aid, and some Neosporin for Logan.

Although Logan was very brave and never cried, he was not happy waiting on the bench for several minutes for Chris to return while the rest of us fussed over him.

After getting Logan all cleaned up, we continued on our bike ride and stopped at the horse farm.  Here are the kids standing next to the corral.

A picture of one of the horses inside the fence.

We then rode our bikes and walked back to the large field next to the closed, indoor pool.  A bunch of us enjoyed playing a rousing game of soccer.  Ella, who is always game to try anything, really got into it and it was so cute to see her try to play soccer for the first time.

Lia and Logan both enjoyed playing in the soccer game.  Here is Lia dribbling the ball down the field.  She actually scored two goals before we finished up for the day.

The three kids on their bikes ready to head back to the house.  Logan was still very unhappy about his knee injury and was not in the mood to smile for me.

The kids riding back to the beach house.

After a delicious dinner of hamburgers grilled on the BBQ, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Natalee and enjoyed eating the chocolate cake that Callie had baked for her earlier that day.

We then all headed out again to spend the evening back at the field next to the pool.  We first enjoyed roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores around one of the huge, fire pits.  Here are Lia and Logan roasting their marshmallows.

And Ella doing the same.

Mama, the kiddos, and the fire.

Much to Ella's chagrin, silly Riley took her princess bike for a spin.  After everyone enjoyed eating their s'mores, we played two intense games of Capture the Flag until late into the evening.  The three kids really enjoyed playing this game and running around trying to free people from jail or to get the flag.  We had such a good time that we didn't get home until 9:45 at night!

After an early morning on Sunday (thanks to Ella waking me up at 6 a.m.), we ate breakfast and then gathered as a family for home church.  I then fed the kids an early lunch so that we could head out to the beach without getting hungry an hour later.  Here are the kids and me about to head down the stairs to the beach.

Another shot of us at the bottom of the stairs.

The kids and Brynn posing on some driftwood on our way out to the water.

Another one of the kids and me.

Logan and Lia spent quite a bit of time playing in the sand...

while Ella immediately headed back out to the water with her beloved, older cousin Brynn who is always so nice and willing to play with her.  We sure do love Brynn and will miss her dearly when she leaves on her mission in a few months.

Lia eventually rolled up her pants and headed out to join the girls in the water.

Logan, Trenton, and Lia enjoyed playing in the fresh water stream that flows down to the ocean.

After playing in the stream for awhile, Lia and Ella decided to run back up to the house to put their swimsuits on.  It was so cute to watch the two of them running back and forth from the stream to the ocean.

Silly sisters striking a pose.

After getting cold, Ella ran off to play in the warm, dry sand near the stairs while Lia decided to try out skimboarding for the first time in her life.  I was so proud of her as she decided to do this all on her own. She just picked up one of the boards laying on the beach and headed out to the water to join a few of her older cousins who were already skimboarding.

Lia skimboarded for quite some time first with Vivi and Garrett before later trying it a second time with Callie.  Although I got to watch her during the first round, I had to head back up to the house to start dinner since I was in charge of making it that night and missed watching her the second time around.  Apparently, Eric and Chris came in from surfing and started really helping her and pushed her out several times on the board helping her to have a few good runs.  I'm sad I missed seeing this, but I am so glad that Lia was able to get their help.  I just love this picture and can't get over how grown up she looks in it!

Lia chasing down her board after throwing it on down on the sand.

Hopping on the board!

Lia getting ready to throw her board down again.

On my way back to the house to make dinner, I "picked up" Ella who had been rolling around in the warm sand for over half and hour.  Here she is all covered up in the sand.

After eating dinner on Saturday evening, we headed back out on a massive bike ride around the Seabrook development.  Since Chris and Natalee's guests had checked out of their beach house that day, they were able to go over there and get the rest of their bikes that they keep at their house permanently.  As a result, everyone was able to ride bikes this time around.  It was so fun to cruise around these darling neighborhoods in this big group.  I felt like the Von Trapp family in The Sound of Music!  We then came home for a movie before heading to bed on Sunday evening.  We woke up to some drizzle on Monday morning.  After a slow morning, I gathered all of the cousins together on the back deck for a group photo.  Besides Emmett and the Missoula cousins, everyone was together for this picture!

Since Grays Harbor County had just received permission to enter Phase 2 on Friday, we were actually able to head out that morning to visit a few of the cute shops in town.  Although we all were required to wear masks and had to wait in line to go into each store as only a few customers were allowed to go in at a time, it felt so amazing to be shopping in a "nonessential store" again with my kids!  Here is Ella playing with the toy fishing pole while waiting our turn to head into the toy store.

Lia and Ella 'shopping' in the princess section of the toy store after we received permission to go in.

Ella, Logan, Lia, Riley, and Brynn shopping for treats in the candy store.  The kids all thought it was so funny that they didn't have to smile when posing for these pictures since they were all wearing their face masks.  Another sign of these strange times that we are living in.

After finishing up with our shopping, we came back to the house for one last meal.  We ate lunch and packed up the car before heading out to the beach one last time.  Here are the three kids posing on one of the massive picnic tables on the path out to the beach.

Another cousin picture on the huge piece of driftwood that had just washed in at the beginning of the weekend.

"Toyota!"

Ella jumping for her own "Toyota" picture!

After finding a long piece of kelp (which we have called a "girl" since we were all kids), Chris started playing all sorts of games with it.  He first spun it around over and over again giving the kids a chance to jump over it every time it came their way.

Another shot of the kids jumping over it.

We then turned the "girl" into a jump rope and gave the kids several chances to jump.  After trying to teach the little ones how to jump rope, both Riley and Lia were able to give it a go.  Here is Lia jumping away.

And another shot of Lia getting ready to jump.  We then finished up with our beach time and headed back to the house to say goodbye.  We left at 2:30 and made it home in a record breaking two hours since there was zero Memorial Day traffic on I-5 which is unheard of on holidays.  But thanks to so many things still being closed in Washington State (including campgrounds), there just wasn't as many people traveling home at the end of the holiday weekend which was lucky for us!  Overall, we had a great time and I am so glad that my three older kids and I were able to break out of our house and share this fun weekend together!