Memorial Day Weekend

It all started innocently enough and well enough. We got up Saturday and headed out on a secret adventure. West to the coast was the order of the day--- main goals: see the Pacific and go up in a lighthouse.

The trip to breakfast, breakfast, finish trip to beach, and success finding Westport lighthouse!! (thank you DVD player and DVDs of the Muppet Show).

The lighthouse tour was good. Westport is the opposite of 99% of other lighthouses--- it is gaining beach instead of losing it. 100 years ago it was on the beach and today it is about a mile away. This pic is taken from the topWe all climbed the 135 steps to the top (M was carried). E and G were over the moon, M was acting like Satan ( the impersonation is almost perfect now) and I was holding anything that looked stable on the tiny little walkway around the light and was whisper-yelling at the children not ot move. Our guide seemd a bit nervous, I wonder why?? After the lighthouse we went down to the beach.

Let me break at this point to say I planned for a cool day with showers; it is now a warm 70ish and very sunny. I only brought change of clothes for Max thinking the other 2 could just roll up pants and stay relatively clean.

We get on the beach and everyone is playing and there are sand dollars as far as the eye can see. One of the boys begins throwing sand dollars.(imagine the next in slow motion) A sand dollar goes into the air, the wind catches it and it pops E on the crown of the head. You wouldn't think a fragile sand dollar could hurt, but as E ran to me with blood dripping from his head, soaking his shirt we thought we had a disaster in the making (2 hours from home, 10 minutes walk from the car, 3 kids, no idea where a hospital is). Luckily D stopped tossing sand dollars and came over and calmed E and I down. The bleeding stopped after a couple of minutes. While I went to the car to get a bag for the sand dollars and check for antibiotic cream, the boys continued to play on the beach and gathered @300 sand dollars. Everyone was wet and sandy so we cleaned up as best we could; the big kids went the rest of the day with no shirts (just putting on jackets and zipping when we got out of the car) and had to just let their pants dry. We drove to see a little town up the coast where we thought we might vacation sometime, stopped for another quick beach walk and headed home. Saturday night we were all so tired when we dropped into bed that we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.... oh yeah, until the coyotes screamed about 10:30. D and I both bolted awake thinking it was M. And then we listened again. If you haven't heard this sound.... don't. It is disturbing. We both then lay awake thinking of all the times we let the kids play outside with only light supervision and thinking other alarmist parent thoughts.

Sunday and Monday were spent mainly relaxing and recovering from Saturday. We grilled, planted, taught the kids to stay away from any strange animal that comes into our yard (don't laugh but the black bear who lives around our neighborhood wakes up in mid-June and uses the cul-de-sac next to our house as a path to Wollochet Bay for fishing),and spent time with neighbors. Belated Happy Memorial Day!

Quotes for the Weekend:

G "Daddy, I'm trying to catch a cold. I have been trying all weekend and I just can't catch one."

M "Wow....cool."

E upon getting his first sunburn(slightly pink not really burned even) "Will I get skin cancer now?" Maybe it's not such a good idea to explain everything to him.

love and hugs and remember your sunscreen and animal safety lessons,

B