Olympic Peninsula

Oh, how I adore the Olympic Peninsula! It's one of my favorite places to just be. The beauty is breathtaking, there is a plethora of fun to be had, and it's so close to home! It was a summer tradition while I was growing up, and I couldn't be more pleased that it has become one in my own family as well. After the 4th, we took off for Kalaloch. Now, last year we went almost the exact same time (off by a week) and had the most beautiful weather I've ever seen there. (Of course, it was miserably hot at home.) We thought that was perhaps just a fluke, as it rains more often than not on us there. Well, God was smiling on us, because this year was even better than last! (Once again, miserably hot at home.) On Wednesday it was GORGEOUS and the sand was simply too hot to walk on! This was also the day Mom and Dad joined us. Serendipitous!

Celebrating the Fourth

Every sunset looked like this one from our cabin!

Our days were spent lounging on the beach, the way it should be! With a lot of this:

and this:

and my favorite view of all:

Tiernan has a unique ability to coat himself head to toe, including orifices, in sand within a minute of hitting the beach. We never knew how he did it, but this time G witnessed the phenomena. He simply stops, drops, and sticks his head in the sand. Communing with nature or mimicking an ostrich?

Sand-coated ear and hair

Sand-coated Tiernan!

More Sand-coated T!

My Beach Bunny

Nothing better than Rainiers on the beach!

This was also a very happy visit for me as my children finally discovered the joy of actually touching the ocean, even playing in it up to the waist!

After Kalaloch, we ventured into Forks among the throngs of TwiHards. I do believe that Kealan got a few double-takes and side-stares due to her blood-red eyes there! This time I couldn't resist taking a few side stops:

(T often hangs his head when he's sulking, preferably against a wall. This is what we call his Blair Witch Pose. You can see another example above in the beach writing pic and in our last Disneyland post from March.)

I get this picture every visit!

Next it was off to stay in Port Angeles at the Olympic Lodge and a visit to Sequim to see Grandma and Grandpa. We had the best visit yet, as we were able to actually have dinner, visit, and my kids ate like champs at a restaurant! I couldn't ask for more.

Of course we had to pay a visit to the sweet animals at the Olympic Game Farm - yet another tradition. We've gone there countless times and have yet to take the kids in the Bison part of the farm. They can barely handle the llamas and yak, let alone the bison, elk, and zebras! G is just fine with this, as the times when we went prior to kids, he left drenched in buffalo snot!

T Funny - G and T were listening to the Zune and James Brown came on. G decided to school T and informed him that it was James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. T stated, "Daddy, this music makes me want to boogie!"

K Funny - Again, we were listening to the Zune, and the B-52s came on. I looked up and saw my daughter standing on the table dancing like a go-go girl!