it's a LOVE thing

We love to find a road and drive towards the tulips in Skagit Valley.



I will follow you...
Camille and her view.
We meander drive and meander walk feeling the land beneath us and open sky above us
converging

hands.
Camillekisses.

Home

We have ARRIVED in the town of "Home," near Gig Harbor where we stayed for Spring Break.

Gabe and Camille are excited.
We are surrounded by beaches waiting to be explored. We visited Penrose Park first. Brett is infatuated (okay, that is a bit much) by hermit crabs. We found many and we especially loved this one guy who had outgrown his shell but managed to squeeze his body into the tiny thing.


Camille is ready for stick and rock baseball.
Homerun!

The weather has been quite sporadic and it is a good thing we are on our way out because it has become quite the downpour. Camille is picking up cans to recycle because she said she "wants to keep the earth healthy."
A new day at Kopachuck Park.

Today is going to be fun because there is MUD, MUD, MUD!

Brett is carrying his sock. I had to save him. He crossed over into a sinking part of the beach and that is just what he did. His shoe came off and I being rather heroic ran over to save him. Except, I didn't realize I might get stuck, too. I did, but I had rubber shoes and that is why I bravely leapt to his rescue.

Where it went down.
Brett not posing. I guess I told him to act like he isn't posing. I think he pulled it off.
Camille studies the fuzzy sandollars.
Brett practicing for the summer ahead at Muscle Beach.

Taking a breather:)

Gabe and Camille loved mixing dyes and dipping eggs.
Joemma Park was by far the coolest beach.
These sunstars, as well as seastars, urchins, and sea cucumbers covered the pilings from the boardwalk and some had over 20 tentacles.

We lifted rock after rock looking for sea life. We saw sea snails, rock crabs, hermit crabs, and then a medium sized crab that was new to us, not the kind with the red flat shell for a back (like the one I tried to save) but a pointy dark one. We spotted some larger ones and of course, Brett thought it would be a good idea to fight one and talk to it in a funny voice (all for the kids he said). They would stand on their back legs and look like they were boxing with their front claws.

The red crab was on the sand baking in the sun. I grabbed this contraption on the beach and lifted him out of the sun and into deeper water. He wouldn't cooperate. He kept flipping onto his back and I kept wading in but he just refused to live. Brett said it must have been his time to die. If he was strong enough he would have sought refuge. Determination on both our parts. Nature won.

As we continued down the beach, we found ourselves in the midst of hundreds of geoducks.
Fountains were surrounding us at all times.
Headed to bask on the sunny driftwood.

Enjoying the sun on our backs.

Of course, we had to take our very professional family pictures, where either our heads (usually Gabe's) are cut off. "A Series of Spaz."

We had fun beach combing, painting rocks, dying eggs, fighting and saving crabs (I should have tried to save Brett from the crab and not the mud)!