A Morning Adventure in Vashon

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A Morning Adventure in Vashon

I’m a do-er. I love to do things. With kids it became harder to do things since we have to navigate around naps, bring a car load of things everywhere, and basically get them to leave the house without (too much) whining. Not to mention my obsessive need to keep to a schedule. However, we still manage to get out and do things as a family. Sadly, 2020 had to come bring the coronavirus which crushed all our plans and ability to do much. It’s been a challenging time, in many ways.

Anyway, I get this itch every few months to get out to do something bigger. Last summer we managed to get out to the Washington coast, but by the beginning of October I was itching to do something again. The answer was: Vashon! It’s close to home and yet feels like a big adventure. We went for a full morning and returned in home to catch a late nap for the little guy. It was the perfect day.

Here’s what we did for our Vashon morning adventure (note: we visited October 17, 2020):

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A Pirate's Life in Ocean Shores

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A Pirate's Life in Ocean Shores

What a crazy, surreal year this has been so far! So many things are different and so many plans changed. We had hoped to take some sort of family vacation this summer, but like many of you, our plans were canceled because of the coronavirus. We had also hoped my parents could come to visit at the end of August and we’d all go to the coast together, but then their doctor advised them not to fly. I was quite bummed not to see them and not to have some sort of family trip. This has been such a hard season for all of us. But we’re trying to make the most of it, and so we did a last-minute mini-trip out to the Washington coast.

I’m so glad we were able to squeeze a small trip in before fall officially arrives and we roll into a school routine. Trips, even small ones, really help me get through the humdrum of everyday life. Plus, my husband comes along, of course, so we get some great family bonding time. I live for family time just like Clark “Sparky” Griswold.

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Flying with Kids: A Few Tips

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Flying with Kids: A Few Tips

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty kids on airplanes stuff, did you hear about the Sea-Tac airport rebranding? Yup, they are rebranding Sea-Tac Airport as simply “SEA.” Read all about it here. Interesting, right?! I’m not sure how I feel about this change, although I’ll probably always call it Sea-Tac.

Now, to the kids talk. I recently took a flight with both boys on my own from Sea-Tac (hehe) to San Diego to visit my parents (grandparents trip!). While I’ve flown with just Caleb and me a bunch in the past, I was very anxious about flying on my own with two kids. Two would outnumber me and I honestly can’t remember what I did with Caleb - something I like to call parental amnesia. I knew Caleb (4 yrs old) would be relatively easy since I can basically just hand him an iPad and he’s occupied for a good while. However, Wesley was another story. He’s 14 months, so he’s not watching shows or playing games, yet. He’s also in that very awkward stage between crawling and walking and is very, VERY wiggly. In addition, I remember Caleb being a terrible airplane napper (so I do remember somethings), so I wasn’t banking on that for Wesley either (rightly so, apparently, as he did not nap).

The good news: All the planning paid off because both ways went incredibly smoothly. {insert cheering!} No meltdowns and really not a lot of fussing either. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.

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