Beach Day

I dunno if you've heard, but we've been having greeaaat weather over here! Instead of endless dark drizzles, we have the occasional shower and enjoy seeing the sun and getting up to the low sixties!!! Okay, usually it's the fifties, but the sixties happened, people, and you better believe we got out to soak it all up!

A few weeks ago we packed everyone in the car and drove up to our old stomping grounds in Federal Way to enjoy the boardwalk, beach, and a cute little hands-on aquarium. When we got there we went straight to the aquarium with high hopes of poking sea critters --only to find it had closed for the day! :( So, we went down to the beach. Luckily, it was low tide, so we had plenty of room to roam around, hop over little streams of water, throw sand (Anna's favorite) and collect rocks. Bear with me through these very less-than-perfect pictures.

I loved how they were all holding hands with each other! Ben also enjoyed watching the scuba divers in training who can be seen in the shallows.

It was really hard to get the girls to hold still amid their exploring...so nevermind the random lady in the background <:) At least everyone is smiling, right?

Investigating. Just how cold is that water??

Once I felt like Ben had an eye on BOTH girls, I acquainted myself with these little fellas. I loved their subtle colors and textures that I couldn't see until I got up close.

See the nice blue-blacks, mochas and creams? I guess if I were to more accurately describe the cream color of some of the barnacles, I would call it 'Bone'.

I LOVE light on water
and enjoyed this scene because of the stark contrast given by the piers beams.

!!!Beautiful!!!
(If you let your eyes unfocus while looking at the black, I think it can look like so many different things. The first thing that came to my mind was an enormous constellation of stars.)

As the the day wore on the winds picked up, so we ended our visit on the boardwalk.

I think we all really enjoyed the day. Being back in Federal Way made Ben and I feel nostalgic; we miss living near the water and in a community with so many well-planned exercise trails and nice parks. Still, I'm not really complaining about where we are at present. We're doing just fine here, and it's nice to be aware of the blessings we receive wherever we happen to be. This next comment is kinda unrelated to the whole post, but as for blessings, Ben and I are very happy to say that we have successfully refinanced our house and no longer have to live in dread of foreclosing in two years! YAAAY! So lets hear it for many more a year living, ohhh, close enough to the water and having many more happy moments together.