I've been ready for summer to be over since July. I think I'm going to try and avoid being 3rd trimester pregnant in the summer if we do this again because it made things pretty boring around here. For the first time EVER, even since I was a wee little one, I didn't go camping during the summer. Camping is just something you DO. It has gotten much more complex now with little ones of my own, and I have done it 2nd trimester pregnant before, but I decided that if I couldn't even sleep comfortably in my own lovely bed with memory foam, then an air mattress in a tent would probably not be the best choice at this time.
But every time I see the neighbors loading or unloading their gear, I get a pang of envy. We've made do with homemade campfire s'mores (charcoal in terracotta pots) and we've made tents in the living room, but I really did miss hiking, kayaking and camping this year. Enjoy your summer vacation, David, because I have grand plans for making up for it next year! Bless my husband for his patience taking us out every year even when I know that he is perfectly content not to camp.
We did make one trip to the coast, staying overnight in the cheapest hotel EVER in Newport. You want to know what $50 a night gets you? A pretty darn small room, but it worked. We met David at work, stopped for a frozen yogurt treat and then made the trek over to the coast. When we got there, Nye Beach surprised us with a fairly warm temperature and virtually NO WIND. This is to be celebrated because playing on the beach is much nicer when your kids aren't having their skin sandblasted off.
Josh LOVED playing in the sand (no surprises there) while Ben refused to budge from the towel. On the small occasion when his skin happened to come into contact with sand, it had to be presented to Mom to be wiped off immediately.
David tried to get Ben to venture forth and at least try to play in the sand, but it didn't work.
When Josh and David went down to play in the water, Ben was... well, just look at the evidence.
That is one unhappy little camper, but he would not step one foot off of that towel.
Luckily Daddy returned to save the day.
He told me that at first Ben was terrified of the waves, but once he realized that Daddy wasn't going to make him shark bait, he started laughing and having a good time.
Things started getting a bit chilly and it was time for dinner, so we packed it up and headed back to the motel to wash a pound of sand out of Josh and his clothes.
I didn't get many decent non-blurry pictures of the boys, but they did enjoy pushing all the buttons in this 'submarine' exhibit.
The boys loved all the different fish.
Jellies are probably Josh's favorites.
And yes, that is how Josh spent most of his time in the "Passages" section of the aquarium. What you can't see from the picture is that it's actually extremely crowded in there and Josh was totally oblivious to the people he was threatening to trip up.
We didn't spend as much time in the aquarium as we could have, but Josh was pretty much in sensory overload from the crowds and stimulation and was starting to yell and throw himself down on the ground every two minutes. So we decided it would be a good time to get the heck out of dodge. On our way out, the crowds were even larger. There was a line out the ticket door clear to the courtyard of people waiting to get in. Yikes. Not at all like the trip we took two summers ago.
On the way home David learned an important lesson: Josh has inherited my car sickness and speeding around corners on coastal highways is a good way to get projectile vomit ALL OVER the inside of your car. Yuck. Luckily for us we were pretty much at David's work when it happened, so I was able to get Josh inside, changed and he rode with me in his other car seat home.
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