Our Washington Trip | Samish Island

 Oh Samish Island, I hadn't been here in years. It's where I spent several beach days in my childhood digging for horse clams with my Grandpa Reidar. I knew he was watching over us while we were there and it was just as beautiful as I remembered. 

We learned during this trip that Lyla really doesn't love to get dirty. haha Her reaction to seeing the ocean for the first time was, "there is no way in heck you are getting me to step foot in that water!" She kept asking to go back home and take a bath. haha

Liam was LOVING it! He followed around Uncle Brendan and Danika the whole time who taught him to call the squirting horse clams, "ding dongs". 

It was so fun sharing something so special to me from my childhood with them.

See Lyla pointing back toward the sandy shore away from the water. haha 

"It's time for my bath now, dad." 

She did have fun chasing the seagulls with me though!

Put me at the beach ... my heaven on earth!

It was so fun going out there with extended family too ... my Grandma Millie, Aunt Deanne, Aunt Wendy, cousin Melissa, and her two boys came along with us! Melissa's boys were not shy about jumping through the ocean waves!

Liam found something that resembled a sea snail and wanted to show me but didn't want it too close!

Another dead crab on the beach ...

"Hey momma, look what I can do!" 

The tide was out a ways and Brendan was flipping over big rocks to see what we could find underneath. He unearthed the strangest giant tadpole looking fish. They must have been spawning because there were eggs covering the underside of the rocks. 

We even found a tiny starfish!

I'll tell you what, I hope that when I'm almost 90 like my grandma that I can make this steep walk up and down this hill to the beach. I was absolutely amazed by her!

I tried to soak up every moment as best as I could because I'm honestly not sure if I'll ever have the opportunity to come back out here again. It will depend if my grandma continues to live out here for at least another year or not. It was one of those bittersweet goodbyes. I'll always have a special place for Samish Island in my heart!