Beach Getaway

We spent Monday and Tuesday night on the coast at Lincoln City. It was so nice to get away for a few days. I spoke to my high school friend, Jill, last week and she told me that she and her husband and daughter would be in Lincoln City for a few days. So, we decided to crash their vacation. We got a hotel room right next door to theirs. We swam in the pool, sat on the beach, went out to eat, went to a park, gambled a little at the casino (not Henry), Jeff swam in the ocean, and we had a really nice time. I took LOTS of pictures.

There was an indoor pool at the hotel, and we went in right after arriving. Henry didn't cry at all. He seemed to love it. We stayed in the pool for over an hour. Jill's daughter, Madison....
Henry still hates sand, but I think we made some progress. The day we arrived, Jeff took Henry down to the beach in the wagon while Jill and I watched from the hotel balconey. I took several pictures of Jeff and Henry on the beach using my camera's zoom feature. When they got back to the room, Jeff told me that Henry cried the entire time. He hated the sand, and cried his shaky-chin cry from the moment they stepped onto the sand until the moment they stepped off. We tried again the next day. This time we spread out a sheet on the sand, and I sat with Henry reaading books while Jeff swam in the ocean. After a while, Henry actually ventured off of the sheet and took couple of steps in the sand before quickly returning. He had a minor meltdown, but it didn't last long. Here's a great example of Henry's shaky-chin crying on the beach:

On our way back up the beach, he held my hand and walked a little bit, and he was o.k. I think if we had more time, he'd get used to the sand, but who knows when we'll be at the beach again. We took the kids to a really cool park that was several blocks away from the ocean, but it was on a lake. It had a huge wooden castle play structure that Henry will probably love in a year or two.



Daddy & HenryCalvin & MaddieJill & MaddieIt was a fun little getaway! Just in case Jill, Calvin & Maddie haven't seen enough of us yet, we're heading up to Seattle tomorrow to stay with them for a couple of days. Jeff is going to paint his sister's house, and Henry & I are going to visit with Jeff's sisters and his mom and Jill's family. We'll be back on Saturday or Sunday.