Minas Tirith, Trampolines and Cake

Well, after one sick baby, two birthday parties, three missing trampine springs, four marshmellows, five days at the ocean, six levels of Minas Tirith, seven tanks of gas, eight hundred miles times two, nine birthday presents, and ten cousins, we're back. I am referring of course to our vacation up to Washington. It was a vacation that marked a few milestones for us: Lucy's first vacation, the first time that I really wanted to move back since I've been gone, Lucy's first times getting hurt, etc...

Like every year at the Washington coast, I built a big sandcastle with Steven, Jenny's brother. This year it was Minas Tirith:



It took us about five hours. Towards the end, we were getting tired, and this woman whose kids we let "build" with us (ie, babysit) came and helped us with the finishing touches. I wanted to make all the buildings individually and give them detail, but there just wasn't enough time unless it spilled over into the next day, and I had had enough Minas Tirith building for that week.

It was Lucy's birthday that week, so of course we had to have two birthday parties, one for each family. She got her first taste of cake which she gluttonously shoved into her face with both hands. She ate all four marshmellows on top too. She was pretty proud of herself:

As I mentioned, it was also the first time Lucy got hurt. We were on the previously mentioned trampoline that was missing three springs in a row, we turn our backs for half a second, and...whoops! There goes the baby through the hole, hitting her head on the wood boards keeping the dirt in place (the tramp is half underground), and luckily landing on her diapered bum. We were all a little distraught, I think us more than Lucy. She came through it with just a flesh wound but I think we are permanently scarred. She does really love the trampoline though:

While the ocean water wasn't really swimmable (it was colder than the high alpine lake I swam in last month), it was really refreshing to be there after the several weeks of post 100 degree weather in Utah. The weather is what made me want to move back. It didn't rain once, and it was in the 70s and lower 80s every day, with one or two in the upper sixties (and that was at the coast). And the proximity to water up there is a plus as well. And of course, Lucy seems to enjoy it: