Sand castles and quilt shops

The dream of Ane’s life was finally realized during our trip – she got to go to the beach and build a sand castle.

She had been dying to build a sand castle on the beach for months – ever since she saw a Curious George episode where he got to do the same. So when she finally learned that we were going to the beach, she made a list of things we needed – her swimsuit, some surfboards, and some shovels.

We had to break it to her gently that 1) this is Washington state, not Hawaii, and 2) it is April, not August.

Auntie forgot to bring her sand castle equipment, but the house we stayed at had a few things we were able to use. So Gichan (I thought it was the Captain, but I’ve been corrected) marked an ‘X’ for her in the sand, and Ane started digging. The Webmaster said that he had never seen her happier. Sadly, I missed all of this – Tad was napping and someone needed to stay with him.

Auntie eventually helped with the construction of the sand castle.

Yes, Ane was having a marvelous time.

Unfortunately, the sand castle got built a little too close to the waves, and got flattened by the ocean. They built another one. But the Webmaster did not have fun trying to get Ane to come back to the house for dinner. She protested quite loudly in a three-year-old fashion. It rained too much to go to the beach again while we were there, so we will have to hit our local beaches this summer to build a sand castle or two.

We went shopping in Long Beach the next day. Long Beach, Washington, is actually the longest stretch of unbroken beachline on the West Coast – hence, the city’s name. The main street is quit tourist-oriented, but not the shop that Belle’s Mommy spent a fortune in – Anna Lena’s. Belle’s Mommy is a quilter – and quite a dedicated one. She belongs to a quilting club back in Missouri that many other military wives belong to, and I think she carted back over double Belle’s weight in fat quarter fabric pieces that she bought on her trip. Anna Lena’s was her dream store. She loved hunting out the unusual pieces that she could take to her once-a-month meeting. She also hit the local run-of-the-mill fabric stores around Seattle – Jo Ann Fabrics, most notably, but Anna Lena’s was where she had been dying to get to. Therefore, Belle’s Mommy has a new blog name – Quilting Bee, or just Q-Bee. It’s about time that I came up with a new name for her!

As you can tell, we had a good time together.

And after indulging in some ice cream at Scoops, where they make their own waffle cones, we went back to the house. Ane and Tad took a long nap, and my parents started the long drive home. The rest of us left the next morning and made it back home late last Thursday.

The Captain, Q-Bee and Belle left Monday morning – I drove them to the airport. We had a really good visit with them. And now I’ve caught the traveling bug! We’re making tentative plans for me to take the kids (the Webmaster has no vacation time left after this trip) to visit the Captain and family in Missouri this summer. I may beg Auntie to come with me if my parents decide to visit separately.

In the meantime, I have lots of pictures to print and scrapbook!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 9:49 am and is filed under Children, Family, Vacation Tales.
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