Kalaloch Lodge Family Vacation

This last Wednesday and Thursday nights we stayed at Kalaloch Lodge on the Washington coast up on the north end of the state. Kalaloch is about 40 miles south of Forks for you Twilight fans. Some of the cabins had kichenettes (ours did) and they all have wood burning stoves as well. They supply the wood for you too, which was nice! There are no TV's, no phones, and no cell phone coverage (we discovered), so it was a refreshing technology FREE kind of vacation. On the way there, Daddy told Josiah, "And there will be no TV in our room!" He looked at me and said, "Is that true, Momma?" Stay tuned for what he says about that later! We spent some time on the beach as well as hiking in the woods. Above is a shot of Josiah playing in the water at the beach with the seagulls in the background. I don't have the best camera in the world, but I know a good shot when I see it! On the first morning, we had breakfast in the lodge restaurant and Josiah pointed at the ocean and said, "Look the ocean is waving!" So, we all "waved" back!


There was a little gazebo near the beach trail where the rangers would come and give little talks about the area. I managed to get the boys to pose for a picture for a brief moment before heading down the trail. Daddy was resting in the cabin with a sleeping Naomi girl.

It is hard to catch the twins in action most of the time, but I think this is a decent one of them to show how active they are and how much they like to climb over things. Our trip was not without twin mischief, which is no surprise of course! Upon arriving at the cabin, a curious Caleb was trying to open a drawer in one of the rooms and he didn't know his own strength apparently as the side table rocked forward onto him and the lamp fell and broke. An interesting way to start our adventure and hopefully the cost of replacing it won't set us back too far, but such is life when you have adventurous twin boys I guess!

We went hiking on the beach and the boys were having a blast climbing on all the driftwood. At one point, Josiah said, "I found something icky, Momma...it's right there!" I looked at it and said, "Oh, it is probably just bird poop, you can go wash your hand in the water." After he made this face at me, I started laughing and he got a little embarrassed. I told him it was OK and he went and washed his hand off in the little river that was going out to the ocean.

On the way to the cabin, Caleb made up his own little song, "Going cabin, going cabin, going CA-BIN!" At first, we couldn't tell what he was saying as it wasn't perfectly pronounced, but we figured it out after a while when he kept doing it! He was very excited to go to the cabin! Everywhere we went, he had to be sure and collect a few sticks to carry with him as he walked in true Caleb style!

Prior to leaving the house, I was dressing Caleb in his overalls and Daniel took one look at him and said, "I want farm!" This translates to, "I want overalls too!" Needless to say, as you see pictured here, he did get his "farm" clothes on! On the way to the cabin, Daniel was getting a little antsy in the car and we tried to distract him when we got to the road by the ocean by telling him to look out the window and try to find the ocean. At first he kept repeating, "I can't see it," and then he added, "Go 'way trees!!" Finally, a break in the trees came and he exclaimed, "I SEE OCEAN.....I win!!!" At breakfast the next morning, Daddy was making a "guitar" with a rubber band and two crayons and Caleb was strumming it as we were waiting for our food. Daniel interrupted and hollered, "STOP, STOP!!" with his hands palms out in the "stop" sign. Daddy said, "What?" and turned to look at him and he sheepishly responded, "'Cause," and then covered his face with his hands and smiled.

While the twins were taking their nap on the second day, Daddy and Josiah got to spend some time alone together going to a nearby beach to play in the surf and have quality Daddy and son time. They passed by this sign for the July Creek picnic area and Josiah very excitedly pointed out to Daddy, "No triangle hats allowed over there!!" And it was a good thing, 'cause we didn't bring any triangle hats along with us!!

The first night at the cabin was rough for getting everyone to sleep, or more specifically getting Caleb to sleep. This meant that Mommy was REALLY tired the next day as I was the one who got up with him each time he woke up. Because of that, Mommy needed a nap and so Daddy took the boys on a nearby hike while I had a LONG nap and a shower and hung out with baby girl in the cabin (one of the highlights of the trip for me actually). David took the boys on this hike up to a big cedar tree. There was a lady that saw them along the way who remarked that even some people her age (middle-aged gal) wouldn't trek up this trail, so she marveled that the little ones were making it up the trail. There were some pretty steep steps David said and Daniel did his usually huffing and puffing to indicate how "hard" it was for him to do! Josiah was a good leader though and Daddy was at the tail end to bring up the stragglers. They collected some ferns and sticks too (we have a picture of their feet and their little collection which is cute also).

It took some convincing to get Daniel to get this close to the water, but with Daddy nearby both twins were a little braver to face the cold ocean water. We have video though of the twins getting near to the waves and then running frantically away as they got closer to them. Caleb was a little braver than Daniel, but he also feigned being a scaredy cat from time to time as well to get some attention and to mimic his brother.

Here they all are being brave. Josiah on the far left, Caleb next, Daniel bringing up the rear and Daddy on the far right. Josiah had a BLAST jumping over the waves and couldn't get enough of the ocean! At one point, Daniel got even braver and went closer to the water, but he wasn't paying too close attention to the incoming waves. Then a bigger one came and he noticed too late and started running away and it washed over him (he wasn't deep at all and Daddy was nearby) and he fell over flat into the sand. This was NOT popular!! He was soaked all the way through and got sand on his face. Caleb promptly then flopped down in the water as well (though he clearly did not fall) to soak himself so he too could get some Mommy comfort and a towel.

Daniel had the biggest, saddest pouty bottom lip here as he was shivering from getting his pride washed over by the waves. Caleb wasn't too heartbroken, but was enjoying the warm towel anyway. After this, Daniel stayed close to Mommy on the beach to try and warm up.

Naomi got to feel the sand between her toes as well and she seemed to enjoy it. She tried to grab the sand and wanted to taste the rocks Daniel was playing with also. It was a nice warm day to be on the beach and we wished we had our shorts and flip flops, but we weren't sure it was going to be so nice, so we made do with what we had! Guess it is better to have warmer clothes than the other way around!

Josiah loves to be around his baby sister. Almost TOO much sometimes! He gets this funny voice and does this, "Baby daby, baby daby," chant that drives me crazy after a while and then gets this high pitched squeal and this kissy face sound which is supposed to get her to want to take her pacifier. He gets WAY to excited at times and scares Miss Naomi, but it is clear he loves his little sister.

A rare moment to get a picture with all the kiddos!! Gotta love it! The set-up in the cabin was perfect for our family. They had two futon fold out chairs that became the twin's beds (see below) and the futon couch was where we all sat together (see above). Josiah had his own room with a queen bed and we had our own room with a queen bed. It worked out really nicely!! Everyone slept better the 2nd night though once they all got used to their new surroundings.

The first night, Daddy tried to make a fire in the stove and it wasn't working right. He had the kindling going and all, but the logs just would not light for some reason. So the first night, we just gave up and we heated up our marshmallows in the microwave for some Smores. Daniel didn't want to eat his because it was too sticky and he hates to have his hands dirty. Josiah and Caleb ate theirs with no problems! The second night, we came prepared with a Duralog to get the fire going and this time we got a fire. Josiah quipped, "We have a fire now....Daddy did it right this time!" I would like to point out here that I never criticized Daddy for "not getting it right" the first time, so this was Josiah's own observation. Daddy just laughed!

Josiah and Daddy made this for me when they went to the beach together. It was very sweet! Overall, it was a really fun time as a family and we plan to go back there someday for sure! When the kids are older we can do more hiking and other things as well. On the way home, out of the blue Josiah said, "I am looking forward to watching TV at home!" We went back the non-scenic way on the way home and thankfully I did not have a headache like I did on the way there (that was a doozey). A "highlight" for me on the way back or a non-highlight really was changing 4 bad poopy diapers within about an hour of time. One at a gas station (that was THE WORST ONE), one in the car at McDonalds (still a change of clothes here), another one from the first poopy child AT McDonalds and ANOTHER one at McDonalds from the last child that hadn't pooped yet. ACK!! I thought I had enough wipes for the journey, but didn't realize we would blow through all of them on the tail end of our adventure, or wait maybe we do always use them on tail ends!! (That was my facebook post for those of you who missed that one). So on that poopy note, I will close this saga of our journey to the cabin!