Shark Bait

Many moons have passed since Mark has had a day off that coincides with a good night's sleep and no home improvement projects.  The little kids and I have been neglected in our travels outside the surrounding property, so we decided that today would be a good day to head to the beach.  For the kids' sake.  We, Mark and I, would have been happy to stay home and disappear in our hobbies.

We decided to go to Penrose since we went to Joemma last time.  Penrose has a great intertidal zone with tons of critters and fun rocks and trees to climb on.  I love taking pictures of the kids there, so I made sure I brought my lazy lens.

I was just getting started with picture taking when Daniel, who was swimming barefoot against my wishes...

 ...stepped on a very sharp shell.  He said, "Hey mom, take a picture of my blood dripping into the water!" like any boy would, right?

When the blood pooled all around his legs, I had to get a better look.  I immediately scooped him up in my arms, said, "Come on, Shark Bait, we gotta go home."

After cleaning his deeply cut toe and reassuring him that we would not take him in to see the doctor, we made sure he was nice and toasty warm and not suffering from shock (he cried hard all the way home and he really did bleed a LOT).  He is now happily playing video games with everyone else crowded on the couch watching.  You know, SpongeBob does have a song about the safety of staying indoors...

Twinsies

We took a quick trip to the beach this afternoon, all ten of us!  Lula and Heidi looked especially like twins...in fact, a lady asked me if they were!

I did take some other pictures, but not too many...

Ian: The Greek Statue

Fiona: The Middle Child Who Won't Swim

A Cool Creature

Spring Beach

If the temperature reaches 80 degrees in April in Washington, we must go to the beach.  And since the schools are on spring break and we had no evening activities, Mark could work late and could join us.

These two are resembling each other more and more

These two need more beach time!

It wasn't long before the boots were abandoned...

...and the adventurous were swimming...

Daniel is adventurous!

Heidi was not. What happened to my Selkie?

Lula, Genevieve, Shane, Mark, and Daniel are all adventurous!

Jason's first toe dip!

Heidi's first Dad Dip!

Ah, someone else can hold Jason for a second....

Getting braver!

This guy got adventurous too!

It wasn't long before I was tired of pulling rocks out of his mouth.

Our trip didn't last very long. We didn't bring water or food or sunscreen or towels.  Some of us started burning pretty quickly. Some got hot and bored. Some didn't want to get wet and ride home in wet clothes.  And some wouldn't stop putting rocks in their mouths which meant they had to ride in a heavy, hot backpack on mom's back.  I'm happy we went, I'm happy I got a picture of all my loves, and I was happy to get home.

Selkie Girl

I took my four youngest to the beach today. I'm supposed to be getting ready for the big day coming up, but watching Daniel, Lula, and Heidi jump on the couch for the forty-millionth time after being told not to made me desperate to do something else.

Too bad I didn't check the tide table before I left the house.  Oh well.  There was just enough beach for kids to walk on.

Heidi decided that she didn't want to wear her boots.  We had the beach to ourselves, so there wasn't anyone around to call CPS on me, so I decided to not fight her on it.

That would be the high tide line from this morning-up over the bank.

 The colors and light of the beach were perfect for pictures.

Greens, browns, grays... Pacific Northwest perfection.

Heidi, come get your boots on!

"Wa-wa!!!"

 PUT YOUR BOOTS ON!!!

Noooooooooooo!

This is when she finally wanted her boots back on

 And then I got to drag her kicking and screaming back to the van when it was time to go home! Fun!

Ooo! Dogs!

All done crying.

Greens, greys, and browns.