The week after the home explosion was spent in relative peace and harmony at our friend Bob and Audra's home. We were so thankful that they opened up their home for us during our transition period. And, while they were wonderfully welcoming and offered to keep us indefinitely, we knew that if we wanted to keep that close friendship that we should probably skeedadle out of there.
The kids were thrilled that our next landing place was a small little vacation home, fully furnished, on Washington coast in a tiny little faux Martha's Vineyard type town called "Seabrook."
It's right by a typical Washington state beach (sandy, yet cold and windy). It was the first time that Lily had ever been to a beach (!) and she jumped in (literally and figuratively) with both feet.
It was gratifying to see her just throw herself whole-heartedly into messy, cold, wet play. She had no fear of the water. Jamisen also proved to be quite an explorer with forays into and over streams and wandering down the beach by himself.
He loves to build too. His sandcastles were complete with moats, imaginary windows and stories. He was marginally thankful for Lily's help with these sandcastles but was more possessive than anything.
The kids loved swimming - or rather, sitting in the hot tub - almost daily. Lily got in the big pool but quickly decided that her brother had the right idea with his plan to sit in the hot tub! The week went by pretty fast and we were excited that Grandma Faiola was around to help (a lot!), driving over 90 minutes one way, multiple days to support our family. It meant a lot to all of us to have that family support during our transition time (which, continues! More on that later ....).
