Ruby Beach Rock Throwing

I tried to be selective with photos from our first full day at Quinault, but it was too beautiful to narrow down much.  We woke up to this scene from the back porch - 

Collin and Brownie went for a morning kayak ride -

I don't think my two-year-old fully appreciated the scenery, but he still talks about kayaking at Jan's lake house.

Lounge chair, sippy cup, lake and mountains -

Where we ate our meals - I could definitely get used to these views!

Alex and Coady at breakfast -

After an incredible breakfast made by Uncle Walter and Aunt Cheryl, we headed to Ruby beach, at the south side of Olympic National Park.  We skipped rocks -

And Collin played in the rocks.  He could have happily spent the entire vacation throwing rocks into the water.

Posing for pictures with Mommy was torture when there were millions of rocks just begging to be thrown - 

But sometimes he'll humor me for a kiss -

The foggy Pacific coastline -

Exploring hermit crab shells with Brownie -

Alex and Sapphire worked to build bridges, while Coady with her sandals happily splashed through the water.

Getting sandy -

Playing chase -

Our sweet, sandy guy -

Getting a little dirtier -

I like the Collin trail -

Messy monster -

Mischief in those eyes, coming to wipe sand on Uncle Walter, who fought him off with the classic nose grab

Driftwood = drum sticks as he played the ABC song for us -

Jan spent the time at Ruby beach painting; she's an incredible artist -

Son & proud father -

Posing with Coady & Alex.  My hard-working husband was back at the cabin handling emails on Friday, but was able to relax and join us for the rest of the trip.

For some reason, we took the native Washingtonians advice and wore shorts to the beach - and it was FREEZING.  Luckily we had lots of layers for Collin, but the rest of us found warmth by lying on the rocks which had soaked up some summer heat -

Collin was not happy to leave the rocks behind, and he threw his last few into the pond before we drug him away kicking and screaming.  Luckily, Lake Quinault offered him ample opportunity to continue his new favorite pastime of throwing rocks into a body of water.

Blue trees and bald eagles

The next day in Seattle, we had brunch at Lowell's in Pike's Street market with my family and my Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Walter.  Afterwards we walked around the market, watched the tossing fish, and got a dinosaur balloon animal for Collin.  

Big hugs from my matching son (guess who did the packing) -  

Near our hotel was an artistic park filled with metal statues and blue-trunk trees -

Alex and Coady on Coady's half birthday (she had informed us with glee at dinner the night before; I thoroughly enjoy that she still keeps track of her half birthdays) -

Collin was intrigued by the statues & the tree bark -

Though everyone else was ready to leave, Collin kept running from tree to tree and statue to statue, with my mom and I following behind with our camera -

After the art park, we loaded in the cars and headed to Lake Quinault in Olympic National Park.  Our wonderful family friend, Jan, whose family hosted our 20 family members in Hawaii 3 years ago, invited us to her "fishing cabin" on the lake.  When we entered the national park, Collin just giggled hysterically that we were in a forest, having never seen trees this big before.

And what a forest it was!  After we settled in, a group took a short walk to a picnic area with humongous trees overlooking the lake, passing by a bald eagle's nest.

Coady & Alex -

My dad, me, Jan, Coady & Alex -

We ended the evening with dinner on the deck overlooking beautiful Lake Quinault, making plans for a drive to the Washington coast the next morning.  

Dares and Dinner in Seattle

Our family of three met my parents, brother & sister-in-law, and aunt and uncle in Seattle for a long weekend at the beginning of August.  After a 7am flight and long nap at the hotel, we met up with my parents and took a monorail to the space needle area to find Alex and Coady.  The monorail is one of three topics Collin remembers from Seattle (the others being kayaking and Jan's Italian greyhounds).  

It was a beautiful day to enjoy the park and join the crowd in the fountain area.  After being cooped up on the plane, Collin had a great time burning energy in this grassy field - 

He looked on as the fountain sprayed in different directions and heights.  We soon noticed the "dare" was to touch the center of the fountain, so Alex and my dad ventured down the hill.

My dad was unsuccessful -

But Alex made it -

Not to be outdone, Cas and Collin jogged down the hill -

And crashed at the bottom as Cas hit the slick tile.  Do you see Collin in the air?  The onlooking fountain crowd all took a collective gasp as both went down, Cas cushioning Collin's fall.

After a few tears from the surprise and only a small cut on Cas' wrist, the boys gave the victory sign that all was well.  I had only brought band-aids for Collin, and I took great pleasure in the fact that Cas sported Cars band-aids the rest of the trip.

Collin and Aunt Coady re-unite -

And he spent some time discussing deep two-year-old thoughts with Uncle Alex -

Alex had a conference in Seattle, and we used the conference discount at the downtown Westin.  The problem was when we asked them for family-friendly seafood nearby, their criteria was a place with a child section on the menu.  That's what we got for staying in such a nice hotel.  So we ended up at a fancy restaurant at 7:30pm, or 9:30pm central, with our 2-year-old in tow.

At dinner that night, I was given a bib for my messy cioppino meal.  The table mocked me, but sweet Coady asked for a bib too so I wouldn't be singled out -

Cas' hand unfortunately covers his glass to ruin the humor of the photo, but he was drinking white russians & Collin was drinking milk -

After our delicious dinner and no huge tantrums at the restaurant, we considered our first day of vacation a success . . . capped off by lights out for all three of us within 20 minutes of entering our hotel room!