A Party at the Beach

Naomi’s best friend forever, Carmen, turns one year old today. Happy Birthday shout-out to Carmen! On Saturday her parents threw a pretty fantastic party at Saltwater State Park near Kent. The park is right on the Puget Sound, and below the picnic tables is an embankment of gigantic rocks that tumble down onto the rocky, tide-strewn beach. The park smells aptly of saltwater, and the view across the water to the forested hills on the other side is, while not breathtaking, simply and pleasantly beautiful. The weather alternated between warm, cold, dark, bright, threatening, cajoling, delightful, glary, calm, and gusty. And yet, it never rained. Hooray.

Carmen’s parents have a lot of friends, many with kids, some with a lot of kids. So there were easily twenty kids there, maybe more, all running around with the punching balloons and bubble solution my friend had packaged into beach pails (shovel attached). I learned some things about kids and parties. They are all going to want the cake with the pink frosting, no matter what the other choices are. When it comes to certain activities (blowing out the candle on behalf of the baby), they are total team players. I also learned a couple of good jokes. Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven eight nine! And what did the zero say to the eight? I like your belt!

The food was plentiful and delicious. The gifts were reasonable and appropriate (we brought this awesome moose, and had our irrational gift-choice pride rewarded by the loving attention of the birthday girl).
The kids were jovial and appreciative. At one point, a certain little Julio saw Naomi walking toward him with her arms out, and he thought about it for a moment, then gave her a hug. Hee! Besides the unexpected hugging, Naomi’s sleep-nazi parents lightened up and let her stay at the party a full five hours without a nap (completely unprecedented!). She also got to eat her first small bite of hot dog, some potato salad, guacamole, cake, of course, and some grilled corn on the cob.

Carmen’s parents have said this is the last of the big giant birthday parties. But I hope they relent. I would go to a party like that every weekend if I could.