This ain't Hawaii

We took the kids to the closest beach we could find today.  It's at this place we used to go kind of a lot, at the crossing of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.  Both of the rivers have heavy transport traffic, so they're surrounded by ports and industrial areas in a lot of places.  In fact, the park we went to today had a wilderness area on one side of the road and a HUGE lot for new imported cars on the other side.  It's crazy.

Anyway, with much whining on the part of our older child, we finally got underway with him walking and Tali riding her little tricycle.  We were just planning to take a walk and get outside for awhile, but then we found this little beach right by the water.  By little, I mean tiny, and freezing!  The kids had a great time throwing sticks into the water and playing with the sand and such. 

A happier moment during our walk

Here's the "beach."  Check out that fog!  It was magical for the kids, though, so I guess we don't need to visit the tropics after all!

The kids could hardly stand having SO MUCH FUN!

Finally, a photo with Mama, per Grammy's request :)

They'd probably still be there if I hadn't gotten too cold finally and had everyone head back to the van.  The incredible amount of "I'm toooooo tiiiirred, I CAN'T walk back to the car" that we heard on our walk back convinced us that we really had left at the right time.  And, everyone's spirits improved back in our warm van.

We've had a lovely weekend - one of the best in awhile.  Mateo and I made pancakes for everyone this morning and stuffed them full of so much fruit that they turned purple!  Purple pancakes for breakfast = awesome.  We also got in some playtime at home, some time out of the house for me, some time out of the house for Sacha, and one casserole cooked for dinner while another one was cooking for the freezer in the slow cooker.  We had dinner with Apa to cap off the day, and now Sacha's in bed and I'm waiting for the slow cooker to finish so I can put the casserole in the fridge and go to bed, too!  I'm sad to see the weekend end, but always excited about one more day closer to meeting Drizzle :)