Snowy Owls!

One day at work I was walking around with Wesley, not getting any work done, and Jen was sitting at her computer.  I walked around the back of her desk to see that her computer had pictures of white snowy owls on it.  Me: “Why are you looking at pictures of snowy owls?” Her: “I am going to take my kids to Ocean Shores to see the Snowy Owls this weekend.  Want to come?”  Me: “Sure!”

This little exchange was the start of our joint New Year’s goal – we are going to take our families on one new adventure each month this year.  The adventure doesn’t have to cost money, doesn’t have to be extravagant, doesn’t have to be far away, but DOES have to be an adventure!  The snowy owls would be the designated adventure for January!

Jen read on the internet that the Snowy Owls have been migrating to Ocean Shores for awhile now.  The owls sit on the drift wood and in the grassy areas next to the beach to find warmth.  The owls can be small or can have wing spans up to 5 feet.   The pictures showed beautiful white owls, and lots of them!

So… we packed up the cars with the warmest clothes we could find, lunches for the kids, rain boots (just in case) and headed south on the 3 hour drive to Ocean Shores.  When we arrived to Ocean Shores, we headed to Damen Point (this was said to be the location of the Snowy Owls by our friend, internet).  We drove to the beach to find FREEZING wind, sunny skies and excited kids.  We were a little skeptical that we were going to actually see owls and it was so cold we easily could have abandoned the mission.  However, we collectively decided we didn’t drive all that way to turn around AND, what kind of New Year’s goal would it be if we said, “for January, we loaded up the car, drove 3 hours, ate peanut butter sandwiches in our seatbelts, and headed home!”  No… we were going to do this. 

With the babies snuggled in blankets, coats, hats and/or helmets :), and nestled into the double stroller, we started the walk to find the owls.   The wind was so cold it was hard to catch your breath, but the kids were so excited to find sea shells for Kiki, they didn’t seem to notice!

 

After walking for a about 10 minutes, Jen and I decided it was not good parenting to keep our little babies out in this weather and sent Steve and Greg back to the car with the little ones (this was done with much protesting from Steve – even though his hands had no circulation and he seemed miserable.  He apparently was so excited to see snowy owls that he was willing to resort to a small body check to keep me away from the stroller, but that is a story for another day, I suppose).  :)

When the boys turned around, I picked up Evan and trudged ahead with Owen to find owls.  Jen was a little bit behind us with Muffy.  Ivy had a job to find Kiki shells and was not going to stop until her bag was full.  No, OVERFLOWING!

As we rounded a small bend ahead, Owen and I spotted something white sitting on a piece of drift wood.  Was it really an owl?  Yes!!  We saw one!  We came all this way and actually saw an owl!  I was a little worried that Ivy was taking a little bit too long and Jen wouldn’t make it to the drift wood in time to see the owl (considering this was her idea, her research, and basically her trip).  The owl flew away before she got there, but luckily, right up ahead we saw another one!  Two!  (We still don’t know if it was the same owl that had relocated to the new spot or a new owl, but who cares?!  In my book, total owl count = TWO!)

 A nice bird watching lady had a fancy telescope that she let us use to see the owl close up.  Through the lens we could see it was an actual, snowy, white, OWL!

Luckily, Santa had brought binoculars for all the kids this year and we were able to see the owl through the binoculars as well.

After seeing the owls, I decided I should go and find Steve and Greg and let them come out to see the owls.  I ran back to the car to find them sitting on a bench with the babies still in the stroller, asleep.  Apparently they didn’t mind the cold all that much.   I told Steve and Greg where to go to find owls and then sat on the bench and relished in the wonderfulness of our first adventure!

   

After looking at owls, we drove back to the quaint little town, found a hotel, drove on the beach (you can do that here), took pictures, ate dinner at a local fish and chips restaurant, ate ice cream cones, swam in the pool and remembered our childhood as we watched our kids run through the hotel with their cousins!  (They spent the whole time switching from room to room and being amazed at the fact that our room was just like theirs, only switched around!)

All in all, 1st adventure = SUCCESS!!!!