Seabrook Weekend

This past weekend we rented a house in Seabrook with some of our PEPs friends.  Seabrook is a planned community on the Washington coast just north of Ocean Shores.  It's a pretty cute place with its own little market and restaurant.  The house came with everything--a full kitchen, linens, movies, games, toys.  It was sweet.

Our group was comprised of four families. Each of us has an almost 3 year old toddler, and 3 of us also have a baby.  This meant that the children were able to self entertain a lot of the time and the adults could chill.

Eileen and Connor played wonderfully together.

In fact, they became inseparable.

 They really did get themselves into this position and just continue playing.  They take parallel play to a new level.

 There was lots of hanging on the couch and eating fruit.

On Saturday morning, despite the misty weather, we visited the beach.

 Little did we know what lay ahead.  While kids played in the sand and let the waves crash at their feet, Dave had the notion that perhaps we should move our picnic blanket back further.  Good idea, but unfortunately, we didn't move far enough back.  A large wave suddenly crashed on the shore.  It was like our own version of a tsunami.  We all ran but couldn't run fast enough.  Some of the parents attempted to lift the blanket with everything on it as well as one child.  Sadly, he fell and was met with sand and water.  We barely managed to rescue our shoes and other belongings.  The wave took our small shovel and pail handle back out to sea.  It also destroyed my phone (luckily, I married someone technologically savvy and we were able to save some of the info).  Wet and sandy, we trudged back to the house.  Children cried and wailed that they wanted to go home.  Back at the house, we dumped kids in bathtubs, assessed the damage, and got laundry running.  For the rest of the trip, Linus repeatedly stated, "I didn't like the big wave."  The beach trip was one of those times that sucks in the moment, but you can almost look back on and laugh.


Later in the afternoon, popsicles were enjoyed by all.  (Sorry I didn't get a pic of Oscar)

Caitlin

Jackson

Is it wrong that my favorite parts of the trip were when all the children were sleeping?  After the beach incident, the kids all went down for nap.  While the kids slept,  Dave and I, and another couple (the Peoples), ate chips and M and Ms, and played Phase 10.  It was really fun.  Dave will try to tell you he won, but since we only played to phase 8, I think it is up for debate.

The evenings were even better.  The children slept, unaware of the fun and serious yumminess occurring without them.

Sterno smores! Paired with red wine and beer.

We invented a smore-eo.  Two oreo cookie sides (with cream) with a roasted marshmallow in between.  There was also the extreme version, with a square of chocolate on top of each creme side. Soooo good.

One of the more random things on the trip was on a walk.  We discovered a longer, trail version of the walk to the beach.  Along the way we came upon a Gnome City.

Gnome City was wonderfully silly.  It lined both sides of the trail.  There were slides, a library, city hall, etc.  Someone had a lot of fun making it.

I really enjoyed our trip to Seabrook, even if the weather wasn't the greatest. A lot of the trip reminded me of a summer camp overnight (if overnights were in nice oversized houses instead of makeshift campsites with blue tarp accommodations).  It was the same combination of silliness, adventure, games, and smores.  It was refreshing to spend time some place with lots of built in playmates, and where all the adults pitch in and help take care of everyone's children.  I feel so blessed to have our PEPs group in our life.  I can't wait to see what our next PEPs big adventure will be.