04 | July | 2013 | boof & monk-monk

Remember when I, somewhat tongue in cheek, mentioned Seattle’s heat wave being correlated with divorce rates? Well, I happened across this article a few days later: Heat Waves Lead to Hot Tempers: Here’s Why, with it stating things like:

And as the temperature gets hotter — so do our tempers. Summer heat waves make us act like cranky, whiny toddlers, experts say, and studies have even shown that as the degrees tick up, so do crime rates.

Well, crime rates in this family, in the form of yelling at my sweet toddler, have certainly increased. Husband-wife contention have also increased, too, but, this explains it:

An increase in body temperature causes an increase in physical arousal – your heart rate goes up and your blood pressure rises as your poor body tries to cool itself off, explains Dr. Jeff Borenstein, president of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation in Great Neck, N.Y. And that can be bad news for your behavior, because increased physical arousal is known to be linked to aggressive behavior.

Ugh. So aggression has an uptick in the summer months, but that is NO excuse for yelling at my kid, or cursing out my husband, right? Riiiigghht? The study also mentions dehydration and the increase in iced coffee and how that effects anxiety. I guess I’m totally guilty of that, drinking caffeine to help with my sleep deprivation, but it’s increasing my anxiety. Sigh. What a cycle I get caught in!

Potamus, Boof and I met up with my parents on Camano Island at the lovely Cama Beach State Park. We stayed in their pet-friendly cabins, which were RIGHT on the water! While the shores of Puget Sound can’t really compare to the majestic Oregon Coast, in terms of magnitude of waves and loveliness of sand, it was really nice to be within a stone’s throw of the water! While our cabins were in the 2nd row, we could still see (and hear!) the water from our front porch!

Our days were spent swimming, drinking beer, watching Potamus climb driftwood and collect rocks/shells. He slept great the first night and crappy the second, but who said vacations were supposed to be relaxing for parents, anyway? The weather was amazing, and it was lovely to beat the heat of Seattle! Since it’s only 1 hour and 30 minutes from Seattle, I think the consensus was that this place will be an annual trip, while we’ll save the big years for the Oregon Coast extravaganza! So, here you go, a few pics from the trip: