More From Our Weekend Trip

Friday night, when we were all tired and ready for bed, in our tight quarters, MIL (Nana) read the boys books then attempted to put them to bed. The idea was that she and Hutton would sleep in the queen, and Harrison would sleep in the twin bed pushed up next to the queen. Harrison, however, had other ideas.

He screamed about wanting his crib, and was inconsolable. This wasn't good, as we were in a tiny cabin that shared a wall with another cabin, and I'm sure everyone at the resort could hear him. MIL walked him outside, which shockingly, did not calm him. I finally got up and got Harrison and brought him to bed with me and Hubby, and nursed him to sleep. He slept with us the rest of the trip.

I called this the nuclear option. Before the trip, Harrison had been semi-weaned. He hadn't nursed in 58 hours, and I was relieved. See, I didn't want to resume nursing Harrison to sleep, as we're going to visit my mom later this week, and I'm leaving the boys for the weekend alone with Mom. Needless to say, she can't nurse Harrison to sleep, and I was glad he had been able to go 58 hours without nursing, so I could rest assured that he would be OK without me for next weekend. But I wasn't willing to let him cry it out if it involved everyone else at the resort hearing this wailing for more than 2 minutes. Fortunately, now that we're home, he's back in his crib and Hubby put him down with no problems.

Saturday we woke early and walked to the creek that feeds Lake Crescent. We saw a deer out walking by the creek, which was very exciting for the boys. The deer seemed quite used to being around people, and didn't run off too quickly, so we all had a chance to see her before she finally crossed the creek and went off to forage on the other side.

After a tasty breakfast in the lodge, we got into the car for our first outing of the day. We drove out to Ruby Beach on the Pacific Coast of Washington, and it was very pretty. We hiked down a short trail from the parking lot, and climbed over several downed trees and logs that had been washed clean by the ocean. The beach was warm and sunny. After exploring a pool by a feeder creek leading to the ocean, the boys soon figured out the place to be was the wide expanse of wet, gray sand out past the many, many rocks. We all took our shoes off and had fun wading in the little tide pools, having our feet sucked under the sand, and running in and out of the surf. Hutton got in a little deep, and spent the later part of our trip in his tee shirt and wet underwear, as his shorts were soaked. I didn't know we were going to the beach when we left for the day, and if I had, I probably would have assumed it would be too cold to go in the water, so I didn't bring the boys' swimsuits. I didn't calculate children having no problem with cold water if it involves a beach!

After playing in the water, we sat out on the warm rocks and tried to stack the flatter rocks on top of each other.

When it was time to go -- around 1 pm, and we didn't have lunch with us -- Harrison threw a super tantrum, as he wanted us to know he'd been having fun and it was really not fair to ruin everything by leaving when he was having fun. Getting back to the car involved carrying a screaming, uncooperative child over several big logs piled on top of each other, which is difficult enough without the child when one is wearing sandals, as was the case. I eventually passed off the tantrummer to Hubby and took cooperative older child to the bathroom at the top of the trail in the parking lot. Tantrummer continued screaming for several miles after we left. He was finally able to stop when I tempted him with bunny crackers - the graham crackers shaped like rabbits. Unfortunately, since MIL was sitting next to Harrison, she wanted him to ask for the crackers with a "please." At that point, my headache was telling me I wanted to just shove the crackers in Harrison's mouth if it would make him stop screaming. I could not have cared less about rewarding his bad behavior with crackers. I just wanted him to be quiet.

But, he was, and we enjoyed a nice enough drive back to the lodge. After lunch, we hiked on a trail beside the lake, then took another trail to a nearby waterfall. Hutton was the leader the entire way of the 4 mile round trip! I was very impressed, as the climb to view the waterfall was steep. Harrison rode most of the waterfall hike on his daddy's shoulders, but wanted to climb the steps when we got to the view area as well.

After our hike, we decided to drive to Port Angeles for dinner. Our day had been so nice, and the boys both fell asleep on the drive. Unfortunately, this happy drive wasn't to last. Hutton woke up from his nap with a cough, and was very upset about something. We all found out what he was upset about in a moment when he threw up all over himself. That had never happened before. Hubby pulled over and we cleaned Hutton up with baby wipes, then I put him in a too-small Superman pajama shirt and red sweatpants that I found in Harrison's diaper bag. When we arrived at the restaurant for dinner, the waiter commented on Hutton's cool outfit. I didn't know if he was being sarcastic or not, but I figured he may have thought Hutton was one of those children who really like an outfit and continue wearing it long after they've outgrown it. I decided to let him think that rather than go into a long story about vomit. Never a good thing before eating. Hutton told us he wanted to eat, so we ordered him a corndog and he ate it, though he told us his stomach hurt. He didn't vomit again, though, thank goodness.

We saw another deer, a young buck, crossing the road as we drove up to the lodge, and then two more deer grazing in the field behind our cabin. We watched them for a few minutes, then went inside to get the boys in the bathtub.

At bedtime, Nana read the boys some books. Harrison wanted to nurse before bed again, and I obliged him. Shortly after Harrison and I had fallen asleep, I awoke to the sounds of Hutton grunting and rolling around in the bed next to ours, that he was sharing with Nana. The grunting was followed by a spine-chilling gurgling sound. I jumped out of bed and carried Hutton to the bathroom, but there was already a little trail of liquid non-refreshment on the floor and in the bed. Nana woke up soon after this and helped me get a still sleeping Hutton cleaned up and in a new diaper. After the second episode of trots around 3 am, Nana made Hutton a bed of towels on the bathroom floor. Poor little guy! Things were still iffy in the morning, so we decided to head home, after replenishing our diaper supply for the road.

We dropped Nana off at the Purple Haze Lavender Farm in Sequim to meet her friend, and Hubby and I joked as we drove by a small field of lavender that that was probably all the lavender the boys could take, anyway. Then we took the long way home through Tacoma, as Hubby didn't want to risk a long line for the ferries back to Seattle. Hutton drank a bottle of water in the car, and asked to stop to use the bathroom twice, but both times were just for pee, thank goodness. After lunch, he remained continent of bowel, and that continues to be the case, knock on wood.

So, all in all, the good times outnumbered the bad. Which is pretty impressive when you consider there were foul-smelling bodily fluids involved.

*I'll add pictures (none of bodily fluids, though) tomorrow when I bring my camera upstairs. Come on, people, I'm lazy!