Flanagan Clan

Since Andrew has a little bit of job flexibility, he decided to switch his vacation day from Monday to the Friday before, so we could go stay the night at Ocean Shores. We left on Friday afternoon, and arrived in Aberdeen, WA, where we had a late lunch at Dairy Queen and hit the Walmart to get all important beach necessities: a kite, beach towels, a bucket and shovel, a helicopter toy, a boomerang, water wings, a frisbee, and cold medication for me because I hadn’t quite gotten over a cold from this past week. We then made our way down to Ocean Shores and hit the beach right away, playing with our new toys. Patrick and Sammy had a blast. Ethan didn’t seem too terribly thrilled with the beach because he also had a cold, although he enjoyed riding in the sling and then in the Bjorn, close to mommy. The weather wasn’t terribly nice, but the boys didn’t seem to mind and it was great for flying kites. After a while, we hit our hotel and took a little break before heading to dinner at Subway. After dinner we grabbed some ice cream and headed back to our hotel. We were so stuffed from all the snack foods and dinner that we could hardly eat the ice cream! After ice cream, we took the boys to the pool. Ethan was sleeping, so we didn’t try to wake him up to go swimming, but Patrick and Sammy did get to go. It was the first time Sammy has ever been in a pool, and the first time in almost 3 years that Patrick’s been in a pool… yeah, we really don’t go swimming that often… Both boys were a little intimidated by the large amount of water, but after a while they started loosening up a little bit and started enjoying themselves, just so long as mommy or daddy was holding on to them. I really should enroll them in swimming lessons… Anyways, after swimming we went back to our room, gave the boys a bath, and tucked them into bed. It took a little while to get everyone to go to sleep, but we did manage to have a fairly restful night :o). Then, Saturday morning we woke up and Andrew took Patrick straight out for a walk on the beach while I got Sammy and Ethan ready for the day and started packing things up. When Andrew returned, we went to breakfast and then came back and finished packing up all our belongings. We checked out of the hotel and headed down to the beach, where we took a little walk down to the water and watched as the tide went down and people went around trying to dig clams. After a while we went to get some salt water taffy (a little tradition we have each time we go to the beach…) and some lollipops for the boys, and came back to the beach again, where Andrew pulled out the kite once more and Sammy and Patrick had fun burying my feet. By this time the sun had actually come out and it was quite warm and pleasant, though not quite warm enough to go into the freezing cold water ;o). Finally it was time to pack up and head home. The boys had a really great time, though, and I am hoping that we can make this a yearly trip!

Here are some pictures from the beach and the day before we left:

Ethan playing with his ball the night before we leave for the beach

Patrick and Sammy playing with their bubble machine

Fun with bubbles

Daddy and Patrick try to fly the dragon kite

Fly, kite, fly!

Patrick and Sammy help Daddy make a sand castle ruin

Ethan likes snuggling close to Mommy

Sammy liked filling the bucket with sand

Patrick and Sammy had so much fun together!

Ethan decided he wanted to start taking in the view and was flipped around… and yeah, he likes to spit… sorry

Sammy and his shovel

They had to wear the appropriate Pj’s for a trip to the beach: Patrick had sharks, Sammy  had a crab, and Ethan had whales :o)

Peek a boo!

Early morning walk on the beach

My little man… yes, he does put his pants on backwards quite frequently!

The sun is out. Yay! (And no, he did not wet his pants… he had spilled his cereal into his lap!)

The boys help Daddy fly the kite one more time!