August 31--Day at Redondo Beach

Julie Chaplin invited us out to their beach house again.  Last year we went and it was beautiful and sunny.   This year we went and it was gray and overcast...yet still it was 65 degrees.  We were prepared with raincoats, rainboots and towels.  Over the weekend we had a terrible windstorm that wiped out powerlines and power for over half a million customers in the Seattle area.  We lost power for about 10 hours.  I was at Shelly's bridal shower and Mike and the boys were in Monroe helping Heath move.  So we were expecting rainy weather...but on the beach, there wasn't a drop.  :P

Here's the Julie's. and Kaylie...

Her place is the one with the turquoise umbrellas.

We started out on the hunt for treasures...crabs starfish, centipedes, worms, Sea anemones etc.  so the boys had their own buckets.

Daddy got caught by a crab...he said it hurt a little bit...

Daddy would move big rocks and then the boys would try to shovel the crabs and put them in their buckets.

Here's the first starfish we found.

Then he let the starfish sit on his hand.  After awhile the suctioned starfish started to hurt his hand.

This is Cody's pet crab.  He named him Cuto....instead of Cutie.  :)

Julie supplied Subway sandwiches and fruit.  Last week, they saw Orcas out in the Sound.  A pod of three adults and one baby.  Kaylie was dressed appropriately with her killer whale on her bum.

Julie held Kaylie and rocked her to sleep

So we laid her in the Yert.  She slept for about 10 minutes before waking up and start to cry not knowing where she was.

Decker loved this starfish too.  This big one was cool.

The boys played this game for a bit, while holding a starfish and "Cuto".

Julie took their shirts a couple of times and put them in the dryer for the boys.  So ice and warm when they came out and put them back on.

Here's our bucket of treasures.

Then we freed it all and let it go back to the ocean as the tide came back in.

Now that's a cute couple!  Mike's got a shell in his hand.

MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A SEASHELL IN YOUR POCKET AND SAND BETWEEN YOUR TOES.

As we were packing up to leave, we noticed an OSPREY coming out of the water with this dogfish in its' talons.  He flew over our heads 3 times before settling himself in a tree to feast.  So cool!

We had such a nice afternoon.  Great way to end the summer before school starts in 2 days!!!