How I Spent My Summer Vacation

You guys, traveling with two bitties is so tiring.
We have been home for 4 days now and I am STILL exhausted!
Our vacation was super fun though and it was totally worth it.

We headed up to Washington to visit TJ’s dad, go to a wedding, and spend some time with family.

The plane ride over was awesome.
An amazing flight attendant saved us the front row, so we had all sorts of leg room.
Riker was happy with a movie and snacks, and Olivia only slept for 20 minutes but she didn’t cry or scream…WIN!

We landed in Seattle, greeted Grandpa and Grandma Grier with hugs and kisses, and headed to Tacoma.
After a long, busy day we were exhausted.
I have more than one picture of TJ and Riker passed out in bed…we partied hard all week and we were always so exhausted by the end of each day!

Day Two of our vacation was devoted to the wedding.
Jesse and Maria’s wedding was beautiful (and I’m so grateful that my children didn’t ruin it by screaming or crying!)
and the reception was a blast.

It was a long, long day (a long, long week) with no consistent naps, but the kiddos were troopers.
This picture of Olivia makes me laugh, she was so tired…and when Olivia is overtired, she gets slap-happy. She was giggling at EVERYTHING!

Riker’s favorite part was the dancing.
He would ask me to go dance with him and we’d rock out on the dance floor…but after a few minutes, he’d say the music was too loud and we’d head back outside to run around the gardens.

After seeing the bride and groom off, we loaded up for the drive to Ocean Shores.
TJ’s dad Thom recently built a little house there and we were excited to get to finally check it out.

Ocean Shores is absolutely gorgeous.
The house is right on the channel water and everything was so green!
Of course, it was also pretty chilly! I loved wearing sweaters in August!

Riker’s absolute favorite part was the yard.
From the moment he woke up, all he wanted to do was play outside.
We played baseball, went down the slide, and chased the dogs. Riker was in heaven!

I was really looking forward to taking Riker to see the ocean for the first time.
His reaction absolutely did not disappoint.
He took one look at the ocean and said “Whoa, that’s a lot of water!”
He loved walking in the “squishy sand” and running from the cold waves.

One of my favorite activities was going on bike rides.
We loaded the kiddos up into the wagon and cruised around the quiet streets of Ocean Shores.
The elementary school is just down the street from the house and was the cutest school I’d ever seen! And Riker loved the playground!

One night we roasted ‘mallows and Riker got to try a smore for the first time.
He loved it…but he just isn’t a fan of getting messy so it was hard to convince him to eat it!

On our last day, we headed to the beach while the tide was out to check out the tide pools.

TJ worked so hard to catch this crab, soaking his shoes and jeans in the process!

Finally, after 6 days of non-stop fun, it was time to head home.
I wish I could say that the flight home was just as pleasant as our flight to Washington.
Unfortunately, Riker decided to act like a 2 year old and Olivia cried like the overtired baby that she was.

As sad as we are to return to the reality of our lives (and the heat of AZ!), we were excited to get back to our own beds and the kids regularly scheduled naps!
But we definitely can’t wait until our next visit to Ocean Shores!