Our Week at the Beach

We spent last week at the Oregon Coast.  We rented a great big house and had a family reunion with my Mom and her boyfriend and my brother and his family and my sister.  It was great to have us all together in one place.  Several years ago we all spread out and moved away from each other.  It has been over four years since Haley and her Big Sis had seen their cousins.

We decided several years ago that renting a house is so much better for Haley than trying to stay in hotels.  Haley tends to get a little stir crazy cooped up in one little room.  Hotels work well if we are staying for one night, but any longer than that is not worth it.  We also like to rent a house so that we can cook and have the foods we are used to.

We were surprised that Haley did not want to go on to the beach on this trip.  She would step down on to the sand and then kind of whine and want to turn back.  I managed to get her to sit on a log and hang out while everyone else spent time on the beach.  We couldn't tell if she was cold or she just didn't want to get sand on herself.  It was windy.  She usually likes wind, one of her therapists had told me that wind against her skin is one way that she can feel her body in space.  She just was not into the beach this time.

We brought her laptop and she played on that a little.  She was a bit put out that she couldn't get on the internet.  We brought her videos and she watched a few of them, her little cousin enjoyed her videos as well. 
The highlight of the trip for Haley was the hot tub.  She got to get into the hot tub several times.  I only let her be in it for about fifteen minutes at a time, but that seemed to be enough for her.   She got into a pattern.  We would spend some time on the beach and then come back to the house and sit in the hot tub.  Then we would put her pajamas on and she would hang out in the living room until bed time.

Haley slept really well at the beach, she never woke me up the whole week.  She even slept in.  The first day I actually checked on her because she slept about three hours past her normal wake up time.  Haley and her Big Sis shared a bed and when I checked on them they were both fast asleep.  They slept in everyday of the trip.  That helped me enjoy my trip even more because I could sleep all night long and then get up and go for a walk on the beach and come back and shower before she even got up.

We had a great vacation.  Seeing my family was wonderful and seeing the cousins play together was a real treat.  I hope we can get together again soon.  Four years is too long.