Waves, Sun, and Smiles ...

Today started out poorly. A late breakfast had both kids in tantrum throwing moods and a planned morning at the Zoo was aborted due to massive crowds.

Plan B. 

While running away from the Zoo we decided to stop at the Fort Nisqually Living museum in Pt. Defiance park. Unusually there was no crowd and we had the place nearly to ourselves. It is an amazing museum with several of the original structures and recreations that are impressive in their own right. Della enjoyed herself exploring the buildings and climbing the (princess) towers. Her favorite part was the chickens that live there.

After the museum we grabbed some lunch from the market and headed to the nearest park for a impromptu picnic. Turns out the park, which had a huge playground and spray park, was adjacent to Pierce County's only wave pool!  Once Della sighted the kids splashing and playing in the wave pool no playground or splash park was going to satisfy her. Miraculously I managed to convince her that we needed to go home and get mama's swimsuit (truth) but we would come back soon (after her overdue nap). She let me lead her back to Dad and Huck waiting in the van and we hurried home. After some initial struggles both kids and mama went down for naps while dad did some lumber shopping for our shed project. Once up and moving we fed the kids, gathered our gear and headed back to Tacoma hopping for the best.
The evening pool session started at 5:30 and we arrived just as the gate opened. The initial long line of people had these crowd-phobic parents worried but you really can't break a promise to a 2-yearold especially when she can actually see the prize. We unloaded and waited in line to pay our entrance fee to what we thought was sure to be a crowded, hot, chlorine scented, tantrum filled 2 hour meltdown. "Della, if you start crying (tantrum) we will leave". 

Della didn't cry. 

Huck didn't cry. 

Mama and daddy didn't cry. 

In fact we all had a so much fun we couldn't stop smiling!!! 

It was crowded but everyone one was out to enjoy the beautiful summer weather and everyone was pleasant and considerate. The facility has a large wave pool, shallow sitting pool, and a shallow kids pool with fun sprinklers. After claiming our chairs and dumping our gear we firmly pointed Della in the direction of the kids pool which lasted all of 1 minute before she bee-lined for the wave pool ... with it's really, really big waves! Daddy had first shift and managed to swing by the stand of life-jackets and outfit Della before heading into deep water.

Della LOVED the waves. She spent nearly the entire 2 hours swimming with the big kids in the waves which mimic the ocean extremely well (this coming from a girl raised in the Hawaii Pacific ocean). Even Huck, the youngest kid there, enjoyed the riding through the waves and splashing in the shallow water. There was a short break for ice-cream and a couple visits to the younger kids in the baby pool but otherwise Della held her own in the wave pool with either mama or daddy ... and it was fun!

Della had a mini meltdown as she finally wore down and her conflicted mind struggled between the need to go home and the desire to stay and play. It was sadly humorous to watch her insist she was staying while trying to take her lifejacket off and randomly throw out "go home" comments. But I promised we would come back soon and that we would watch her favorite cartoon at home and then we waved and said goodbye to each of the pools and each of the lifeguards and the facility in general as we headed to the van.
We'll be back ... or at least Della and Daddy will as it'll probably be a weekday visit while I'm at work but I'll still smile knowing Della is having as much fun as a 2-yearold can possibly have!
Pictures are hard to take in blinding sun with wet fingers while holding a slippery sunscreen'd wiggly baby but I managed to capture a few.

 

 Della I hope you continue to let your parents tag along when you get older 

as you are really a lot of fun to play with. 

Fathers Day 2014 - A Ferry Ride

For Fathers Day 2014

we partook in Stark's favorite activity

Road Tripping!

At the start of the day neither kid had been on a Ferry

by the end of the day they had been on 3 different boats!

 Once we got moving Della wasn't so sure about the wind

But she really liked the puddles!

It didn't take Della long to become comfortable on the Ferry ...

requiring me to put the camera away and run after her!

Our original plan was to head towards Pt. Townsend but once on the Peninsula the rain drove us South

Since we hit sun again near Bremerton we decided to hop over to Vashon.

The 3 Ferry routes we traveled were: 

Edmonds to Kingston

Southworth to Vashon

Vashon to Pt. Defiance

This is what a Vashon Island traffic jam looks like

1 Ferry bobbing around waiting for 2 Ferrys to depart

Everyone held up by a sail boat

But once on the island we enjoy looking for crabs under rocks...

 Unique playground toys...

Swings that swing really, really high!

Our road trip was successful in part due to:

Ferry boats that function as rest stops and toddler discovery centers

and 

our new (to us) ford van which provided fantastic, safe and dry, 

picnicking and playing space while waiting in line for the Ferry

 Looking for PUPPIES in the Ferry waiting line

All in All it was a Great Day 

 Happy Fathers Day Stark!

Since Della is still asking to ride on the BIG Boat

this may become our yearly tradition

A Dose of Della ... and Huck

A Dose of Della ... and Huck ... June happenings!

Where's Della?

Practicing her game of hide-n-seek one evening after dinner. 

She's pretty good. 

Good thing her feet still give the game away

otherwise I wouldn't have known where she was!

 Conversing and hugging the local Park whoo-whoo (otherwise known as an owl ) ... 

 Discovering that she fits ever so nicely into our produce delivery box

Another evening excursion to our local Tacoma waterfront

on Della's 2-1/2 birthday!

My favorite picture of the evening ...

She is an excellent rock hopper!

The boys watching the rock hopping

 Daddy trying to teach Della his mad rock skipping skills

Which evolved into a rock throwing session

no skipping achieved

But pleased with herself nonetheless!

Heading back to the van

 Taking her turn pushing Huck

 Huck ... 

being Handsome ... 

because he's good at it

 So good at being handsome ... he can do it in his sleep