Ocean

This is another guest post by Brad. Victoria's been 'grammin' it up with her iphone so I figured I'd update the blog. We went on an amazing trip to the ocean yesterday. Since I'm on break for a month we'd been talking about doing it, and then yesterday morning when both Peter and Charlotte were up at 5am we decided it was a great morning to get away. It was such a beautiful drive! And both kids did great - Peter slept almost the entire drive, both ways, and Charlotte slept for part . . . and gave a non-stop stream-of-consciousness commentary on life for the rest. Here are some pictures from the drive there:

We went to Rialto Beach first, which I don't think I've ever been to before. It was lovely; the morning fog was just starting to clear from off the beach and between the trees.

We had a little picnic on the beach (we were the only ones with that idea, somehow) and Charlotte LOVED the strawberries (her white coat loved them by default . . .). Peter dozed.

The beach was covered in these amazing, perfectly smooth grey stones:

Victoria tried to get Charlotte to put her feet in the waves, but the Pacific was too cold for her . . . so she collected rocks, which is one of her favorite beach activities.

Then we headed to La Push! Some interesting foliage we saw:

La Push is one of my favorite places on planet Earth. It might actually be my number one favorite. And it was so beautiful yesterday! Like Rialto, the mists were clearing while we played on the beach, so you can see how the mists give way to the brilliant colors. There's also a short video to watch here.

(yes both of these are me looking super epic)

Victoria has recently taken up watercolor painting, so she brought her paints and made this while Peter and I were napping (and Charlotte was rolling in the sand): 

She would never have posted a picture of it. That's why I'm doing this. She said she had to keep redoing the clouds and sky because their color changed almost minute by minute.

So here is my really lame attempt at a collage of what the beach looked like when all the mist was cleared:

And then some more beach pictures:

And the sun was setting while we rode the ferry home. What a beautiful day!