Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Day 41-- Snow at the Beach

Sabrina wouldn't sleep last night, so... more midnight photography! It was cold and clear and beautiful. I staked out some epic cliffs above the ocean, and wasn't too sleepy, so I did some photography, tried some reading, and drove the car when Sabrina got fussy. I feel a little weird saying this, but I popped in the Kalaloch CD (you know, the one we haven't finished yet), and it was very appropriate. It's weird listening to your own music, but I got a strange satisfaction from it. It's perfect music for standing at a cliff over the ocean under the bright moonlight while not seeing a single other person for two hours. Now, we have to get some album art, master it, and release that baby.

That's Destruction Island in the distance.

Morning was tough, but made more especially tough because today was checkout day. Yes, all dreams come to an end, and our idyllic stay here at Kalaloch had come to its end.

Last night's hail was still on the ground with what-looked-like-snow mixed in with it. During breakfast, some verifiable snow came down, making this our first experience with snow at kalaloch.

Ed and Grandpa at breakfast.

Seagulls in the snow/hail.

Of course, Grandpa and Grandma made sure we had more leftovers (eggs, old bread pudding, etc) to feed the birds this morning. They were grateful and even more came than before. I watched a flock of birds following Edgar as he walked from my parents' cabin to our cabin.

Edgar had some time with his sister while I packed up our stuff. Here's a probably-too-long video of Edgar comforting Sabrina by singing to her.

The songs are "Rockabye, don't you cry, we will go to grandma's", and You Are My Sunshine.

Walking with Daddy to go check out of the cabins.


After checking out, we drove (through snow!) with my parents to Lake Quinault and drove around the lake. Calling the drive around the lake a pretty drive is an understatement, but I don't know how to do it justice in words.

Lake and snow-covered mountains.

Next, we made the long drive home from the Olympic Peninsula. The kids were so good on the road. Edgar mostly stayed awake, played and sang songs. Sabrina slept nearly the whole way. Edgar is so good in the car. I'm afraid of what would happen if someone let him know that other parents let their kids watch DVDs in the car and ignore all the scenery.

Edgar hamming it up in the car.

After hours of driving, we decided we needed a break, so we took what was going to be a quick potty stop at my sister's house in Woodland. Two hours later and two lungs full of cat dander, we were back on the road. I will probably be sick for the next few days in response to the dosage of cat exposure I got today, but Edgar got to play with his cousins, and that was fun.

Edgar and cousin Ole.


Oh-- a note about the mitten he's wearing on his left hand in most of the pictures. Those of you following the blog will remember that Edgar burned his hand on a hot stove last wednesday. Initially, we put gauze on his hand, then the mitten to keep him from taking the gauze off. Then, when we switched to band-aids, we found that Edgar liked to pick at the band-aids unless he had a mitten on. Over the last few days, he's grown more attached to the mitten.  His burns have healed to the point where he doesn't need it, but now he wants it. Last night he woke up in the middle of the night, repeating what I thought was "Mama turn on!", but what was in actuality "More mitten on!" Yes, his mitten fell off in his sleep, and he made me wake up to put it back on. Add to this the fact that he's fed the birds table scraps several times. Oh yeah, and he eats with his hands, so more-than-a-week's worth of meals are in there. It smells pretty bad now. Rebandaging his hand at my sister's house, we hid his mitten. He was kind of frustrated about it. Here's hoping he forgets about it.

Finally made it home to our little apartment. Unloaded the car, and I showered to get all the nasty cat stuff off me. This evening, it's been going through our pictures and catching up on computer stuff. Now that I think about it, I probably won't post this for a day or two, but as I'm writing it, we're just home.

Oh-- a note on the format of the blog. Yes, the blog is named forty-two days. I have six weeks of parental leave starting from when Sabrina was born. Since she was born on a friday night, after work, my six weeks includes the 3-day President's day weekend. So, it's going to be forty-five days in total. I plan to blog my last entry Monday evening, before I return to work next tuesday. So... three bonus days for your reading enjoyment.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Day 24-- Snowbeard

After taking Sabrina and falling asleep on the couch last night, I woke up and brought her into bed. Between the two hours screaming and an amazing 6 hours sleeping, we gave Jen a continuous 8 hours of sleep. I'm pretty proud.


Yesterday morning, Jen said: "Edgar, today is Sunday. What do we do on Sundays?"

E: "Swim Hotel! Swim Pool Hotel!"

Needless to say, that's what we did yesterday.

That's also the first thing we did this morning. As we were getting ready for our big day, Edgar started unzipping his pajamas. "Edgar swim! Edgar swim hotel!"

Me: "Leave your jammies on. We'll change you at the hotel"

E: "No. Leave jammies OFF!"

Edgar then left the room and proceeded to haunt the bathroom door while Jen was occupied. She says his monologue went like this:

"Mommy! Help zipper. Can't do it. Zipper. Edgar DID IT!!! Mommy, help feet. Edgar need help feet. Edgar DID IT!!! Mommy, help arms. Need help arms. Edgar DID IT!!! Edgar take diaper off. Edgar throw diaper away. Edgar sooooo naked!"

Jen emerged to find a stark naked edgar ready for swimming:

SO excited.

We're having at least as much fun as it looks like we're having.


At the hotel, I bid adieu to Jen and the kids and grandparents, and they went and drove to Seaside to spend some time there. They walked on the beach and visited the cool aquarium there. Edgar and his grandpa got splashed by the seals. This is Edgar exploring one of the touch pools:




I was able to escape all the family stuff today, and instead went skiing.

I guess this is one of the advantages of living in the northwest. we can do skiing and the beach in the same day-- at least if we split up.

First, after everyone left, I cleaned out our car, which hadn't had that happen since kid #2 arrived. It was pretty bad. I somehow managed to get the wrong headrest stuck in the back seat center headrest position. Now, we've got one weird headrest stuck way up in the air, and try as I might, I can't force it out for anything. I was pretty annoyed with it until I learned that it blocks out the headlights of the car that's directly behind you. That helps for night driving.

Niece Greta showed up at our house, and we were off on the looong drive to Ski Bowl for night skiing. I grew up closer, so I resented the fact that it took so long to get there from Salem.

The snow was icy and rock-hard, but it was snowing soft snow hard, so the new stuff was quite nice. Although the snow wasn't great, the night was cold and clear, and we had a blast zooming down icy runs.

In perfect snow and weather conditions, you just can't beat Skibowl. Unfortunately, Skibowl is also the least likely place in Oregon to have perfect snow and weather conditions. I've been told that skiing on the east coast is much like our experience today.

Ah well-- it was fun. I got to break in my new boots, which still were a little tight around my impossibly-huge calves.

Came home exhausted, and Greta got to spend some time with baby Sabrina;

I should get some sleep.

To unwind, I figured out how to play one of my favorite Built to Spill songs, first on Moog, then on quiet midnight piano. We've got a big day planned for tomorrow. I hope that I'm up to the challenge.



The following are some photos from the last few days:

Edgar using his toy shark as a utensil at Mo's. We can't take him anywhere, can we?

Uncle Brian (upstairs) enjoying a little time with the Sabrina.