Hood Canal! - Part 4

 After swimming for hours the girls got dressed and we headed out to find some lunch. Peaches loved this cool spot in the lobby. She also loved the cats that this place was really big on. They had several cats roaming the lobby and cats on a lot of their signs.

 

 

We found a little gift shop where Bug and Boo picked out sweatshirts and then went down the road and found a great little sandwich and pizza place. They also had ice cream!

 

 

Then it was back to the pool for a couple hours. 

 

 

For dinner that night we got to go on a cruise to the restaurant. 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful view. 

 

 

 T talked with the other conferees while the littles ones and I sang any sea/ocean song we could think of and counted interesting sights. We found 1 seagull, 2 boats, and 19 jellyfish!

 

 

Here is the 19th jellyfish we found after we had docked.

 

 

The girls loved this little tugboat looking thing. :)

 

We had a beautiful view with our dinner!

 

 

We sat on the bow for the way back.

 

 Where they had another reception set up for us. We roasted marshmallows and made smores before I took the little ones off to bed. Daddy and the big girls played some lawn games with the other conferees.

 

 

The next morning we enjoyed another good breakfast.

 

 

And then headed off to the pool for one last swim. Peaches and Lou's swimming really improved a lot while we were there. Lou has decided she can swim and doesn't need her life jacket anymore so this trip was not relaxing for me at all. Unlike the other trip where I could just let her play to her heart's content (in her lifejacket) while I read, I had to watch her like a hawk. 

 

She only almost drowned herself once, and thankfully Peaches was close enough to grab her when I yelled at her to. Ugh. I did teach her to flip over on her back and float if she got too far from the side, but whenever I wasn't swimming with her I sat watching her constantly with a floatie ready to be tossed to her if she got too far to swim back. 

Bug swam with them the last morning and they loved it.

 

 

We got all packed up and checked out and then collected some more shells while waiting for Daddy to finish up. 

 

 

We loved the resort and it was sad to leave...maybe we'll get to go again next year! 

Hood Canal! - Part 3

 Both mornings we were able to get breakfast with T before he started his meetings. We brought ours back to the room and Peaches was so excited to have "breakfast in bed".

 

 

Lou was too.

 

 

This is when we discovered the reason for the long dock...the tide went out super far! 

 

 

 

All the strips of white are shells...millions of them! 

 

 

 

The girls had so much fun hunting for pretty ones.

 

  

 

We even found tiny crabs!

 

 

 

It was amazing how many shells there were. I really like the ones that were bright purple inside. 

 

 

The big girls gathered shells for a really long time. The little ones got tired of it after a while and we headed to the pool. I was amazed at how far the water went out. This wasn't even as far as it went. By the time it finished it was past that dock behind Boo, and some of the boats were even out of the water. It seems like that wouldn't be good for them to be on dry land, but it must be fine since there were multiple ones beached.

When the big girls came into the pool they discovered the littles liked to be thrown. Haha.

 

 

I spent some time working on Lou's swimming technique. She can swim probably 10 feet by herself. If  she would keep up her technique she could do it but after about 8 feet she loses her form and starts doing random stuff to get to try to get to the side. We'll keep working on it.

 

 

 They jumped into the pool dozens of times before we finally got out for lunch.

 

 

 Last of the pictures tomorrow!

The Hood Canal! - Part 2

 It always makes me sad when Lou outgrows my favorite outfits and this is one of my all-time favorite swim suits. She is just too darn cute in it.

 After dinner we hit the pool before bed.

 

 

 They were so funny. There were floaties, pool noodles, and kickboards for the guests to use.

 

 

So happy!

 

 

Peaches perfected her cannonball while we were there. 

 

 

Lou tried too.

 

 

These two have so much fun together!

 

 

 

Bug took some more pictures while they swam. 

 

 

She and Boo found the tiniest shells!

 

 

The girls slept well after all that swimming! Peaches looked so tiny in the bed all by herself. We had brought Lou's "crib" but she ended up wanting to sleep on the window seat. 

 More fun tomorrow!

The Hood Canal! - Part 1

 Daddy had another conference so we packed up and hit the road for a little trip.

 

 

I had originally thought that Peanut would go to 9/10 camp but found out her friends were going to 11/12 so I signed her up for that one but in my brain she was still going to the later week and I didn't realize until a few days before that she was going to miss the conference because of the switched week. :( 

 

The big girls had been at teen camp the week before and hadn't even been home 14 hours before we left so they took a nap on the way. 

 

 

 

The hotel was so nice!  

T got us two adjoining rooms. Since the big girls were so behind on sleep we let them have the King room and we took the queen one with the littles. I knew that T would have to be up early for his meetings so that way at least someone got to sleep in. Haha. Bug and Boo were thrilled with the arrangement. :) 

 

 

Peaches and Lou were pretty happy too! 

 

  

 

We got unpacked and then explored the grounds a little before going to a reception dinner. It was really beautiful.

 

 

They had a super long dock...we realized why the next day. We were told that the house to the left of the resort belongs to the Nordstrom family, and Bill Gates owns a house a couple ones to the right. 

 

 

The girls realized there were a bunch of shells they could reach off the dock.

 

 

We found a beautiful hydrangea bush so T told Bug to take a picture of us. :)

 

 

My photography skills of the hydrangeas...

 

 

vs Bug's! She definitely has an artistic eye.

 

 

And we found these super brightly colored hydrangeas down the path! I've never seen ones this color.

 

 

The girls wanted to check out the pool!

 

 

More pictures tomorrow.