The big birthdays

Our long weekend didn't get off to such a great start. Tom ended up having to work until 3:30 (grrr) on Friday so we didn't get the early start we had hoped/planned for. Traffic was HORRIBLE. By the time we got coffee and got on the road at 3:45 the normally 20 minute drive from Everett to Seattle was at an hour. It took us a painful 5 hours to get to Ocean Shores. It was so hot and I was boycotting the AC because of the price of gas (3.97/gallon) but by the time we managed to get to Sea-Tac I said screw it. It was horribly hot in our car. Emerson did really well considering the heat. Grandma Judy kept Hannah overnight on Thursday so we were down one kiddo on the way there which was probably a good thing. We stopped in Olympia and grabbed a quick bite to eat, I fed Emerson and then we kept on truckin. The big surprise for us when we finally got there was, Kevin's dad had flown in from Indiana for the week. I think Tom and I were the only ones that didn't know already (Kevin had spilled the beans to Rich and Kim) and what a nice surprise it was!

Saturday we got up early and headed down to the beach with Rich and Leina. The kids had so much fun down there. They both (Hannah and Jakob) insisted on wearing their swimming suits just in case they got wet. It was probably a good thing because as soon as we got there (9:00 am) they stripped down and were headed out toward the water. I'm the mean mom and won't let Hannah actually go into the water because of the strong rip current. I'm a little paranoid like that. We played there for about an hour and then headed back to the house for breakfast.

Kim and Judy opened their gifts after breakfast. Us kids got Judy a beautiful necklace that Kim picked out and then we all pitched in and got Kim a gift certificate to her favorite spa. The two little ones were less than impressed with the gifts and more so unimpressed that Auntie Kim didn't let them help her open her gifts...they were being kind of bratty.

After breakfast we got cleaned up and got ready for the guests to arrive. The party started around 1 and I think we ate until we went to bed that night. Tom did a wonderful job BBQ'ing. He likes to consider himself the BBQ king, don't let the bunny rabbit apron fool you. =)

A group of us left the party and headed down to the beach to play in the sand, fly kites and we even had a fierce game of four square going on. If you look closely at the picture, Tom is being called out by his Aunt Sally. I think he was trying to plead his case for not being called out. I can just hear him saying "what!?!", makes me laugh.

It was a really nice weekend. We couldn't have asked for better weather. I think that was the first time I've been at the Ocean and had nice weather all weekend long. What a treat! We headed home on Sunday and met up with my parents and their friends down at the Pikes Place Market and then headed to the Spaghetti factory for dinner. It was the perfect way to end our weekend.