Merit Badge Round Up, the Ballet and Busy Sunday!

March 14th - David had a merit badge round up. So he was gone most of the morning. Aaron was busy in the yard. He loaded up all of the dead brush into the truck. Melanie and Amy wanted to go with hm to the dump, so he brought the girls along with him. Then he dropped them off at home and helped Daren load up his woodworking tools out of the shed and into a moving truck. They don't leave for good for a couple more weeks, but it was still sad to see that moving truck in front of their house. Aaron picked up David while he was out there.

Here at home we worked on chores and cleaning the house, and weeding in the strawberries. When Aaron and David returned we had some lunch, and then I put Melanie down for a nap. David unloaded the wood Daren gave to Aaron into the shed and then I took him over to the I*'s to do some more yard work. I got to work on an early dinner so I could pick up David, then we could eat and then Amy and Aaron had a Daddy Daughter Date. We bought tickets to the BYU Theater Ballet. We had a hard time convincing Amy that she should dress up for it, eventually we got her to put on a casual dress. Aaron had a hard time convincing her to take a picture too.

 And there was no way she was going on stage to meet the ballerinas before the show.

They enjoyed the show although it was rather long. They still went out to Dairy Queen afterward for a little treat. She was exhausted when they finally got home.

While they were gone I played a game with the boys, Munchkin I think, and Melanie "helped" me. That's about it. Oh I made a pie, a really yummy pie, (for Pi day) but it wasn't ready in time for us to eat it that night, so I saved it for Sunday.

Sunday was a good day. We were running a little behind in getting ready because I started dinner in the crock pot, so I didn't get the chance to watch Music and Spoken Word, but we did make it to church on time. There was fighting about who got to sit next to me. Oh boy. The fun part was to see the entire chapel filled, and having to open the overflow. It was Whitney's homecoming. Lots of family visiting, and friends from other wards. It was great to hear her speak and the music was beautiful. It was a great meeting. Melanie loves having David drop her off at nursery. Sunday School was great, and so was Young Women's. My lesson went well, and Aaron had to come get the diaper bag so he could change Melanie's diaper. The afternoon was really busy. I had made some chili in the crockpot so we could eat before the afternoon's festivities. However I decided to add two whole jalepenos seeds and membranes, and didn't realize it was going to make it quite that hot. I knew Aaron and David would love it, and I could tolerate it, but I didn't think the other kids would eat it. Aaron and David did some home teaching while I made cornbread and Melanie napped. It was getting later and later, and eventually Aaron called and said he'd meet us there, and we'd eat dinner afterward.

At 4:00 we went over to Carol P*'s. She was hosting a farewell for the K* family. I told the kids that there might be a lot of people and we'd have to park a little further away. Amy said, "Why does everyone like the K*'s?" I thought it was a great question. I answered, "I think it's because they are just great people." And it's true. They are kind to everyone, always serving, not to mention smart and talented. There were a lot of people there, and it was great to talk to a lot of them. As always Carol provided excellent food, and a few others supplemented with more delicious food. I wasn't sure I would need any dinner after that. Eventually we needed to head home. Amy spent most of her time outside playing and didn't eat more than a few grapes. She wasn't happy about leaving and even less happy with the chili we served for dinner. At least there was corn bread and honey butter.

At 6:00 Aaron and I went over to the church for the Young Women's New Beginnings Program. We had a slight delay to start, but the program Julianna found was beautiful. We were sad to miss some of the girls. I had a small part toward the end of the program, We welcomed our new beehive (we'll only have one come in this year) and then some of the leaders spoke, and Aaron too. It ended right around 7:00, and then there were some refreshments. They continued with the Embark In the Service of God theme, and since embark refers to a boat there were gold fish, and gummy sharks, and gummy rings "life savers", then ocean water (blue koolaid), and a cake. They had a little photo booth set up in the hallway, and they took some great pictures.

When Aaron and I came home the kids asked if they could have the pie I had made. I was so full I declined, but they all had a small slice of the caramel chocolate pecan pie I made. Melanie didn't eat all of hers, so I snagged a small bite when she was done. It was delicious, but I couldn't eat a whole piece. It was a busy weekend and lots of fun

Weekly Update, Nothing Too Exciting

Saturday (March 7th) was fairly busy. Aaron went up to the state tournament early to see the rival's girl's game. They were playing for 4th or 6th. They ended up losing and getting 6th place. Aaron stuck around for our boys' and girls' games. He had some work to do.  After chores were done I dropped off David at the high school, and then came home and finished up my work. I did a lot of weeding out in the strawberries.

Aaron and David were there for the games, the girls lost and got 5th place, and the boys won and got 3rd place. Of course David went on the bus with the band and they went out to eat afterward. So he got home a good 2 hours after Aaron.  By the time I got back from picking up David at the high school Aaron had received a call from Jadon, a friend of David's. He invited David to go to a movie with him and his brother. It sounded like a good movie, and so we let him go. It started later than we thought, and he'd already had a long day, but these are good kids, and David doesn't get to do stuff like this often. We let him take the phone with him.  At home we made pizza and watched "1000 to 1" on BYU tv. I'm glad we let David take the phone, because they wanted to get something to eat afterward, and we reminded him that he'd been gone all day, and it was daylight savings time that night. They were already at Taco Bell, so I told him to get it to go, and get home ASAP. It was a late night for all of us. Aaron and I wanted to go to bed early with the time change, but now we had to wait for David. Oh well.

We were lucky the kids slept in, although Aaron still had to get up early for meetings. Again, I don't recall many details. We went to church, and I can't remember what else. I had to cut my lesson short as they did a short testimony meeting for the youth about youth conference which was the day before. That's about it. I don't know what we did after church, but I do remember that it took Melanie forever to go to sleep that night. It was close to 10:00 when she finally crashed.

It was hard to get up Monday morning, but we did and went on with normal life. The only thing out of the ordinary that I can remember was that I got a call while I was in Fred Meyer in the afternoon from Br. C*, asking if David could come for a practice for the scout breakfast the next morning. He was planning to pick up the scouts at the church about 5 minutes after I usually arrive home after Timothy's drama class. So I asked if we could drop David off at the lodge. We got there early and waited for the rest to arrive. Then we drove home, unloaded groceries and made dinner. Eventually David made it home and ate a late dinner.

Tuesday Aaron and David went to the scout breakfast fundraiser. Aaron had been asked to give the opening prayer, and then had to go to work. He was on call. After dropping Timothy and Amy off at school, I picked up David and dropped him off at the high school for band. He was just a little late. Then I went home and got my exercise in before going to Amy's class. Have I said how much I enjoy doing that? It's just 30 minutes, but I love it. It's a small enough group I can manage it, and short enough I don't get overwhelmed. It's perfect.

I remember it was a busy, call week for Aaron. I don't remember detail of days and times, but he got called in twice in the middle of the night or early in the morning, and took several calls in the middle of the night. Lots of back and forth between the clinic and the hospital.  He didn't get much sleep, but got a lot of walking in.

Wednesday was a day off between semesters. The night before we planned what park we wanted to go to, and the fun things we wanted to do, and then we woke up and it was raining :(. So instead of the park we decided to finally spend Target gift cards the kids hadn't used. David had cash burning a hole in his pocket. He's been bugging me about buying his own ipod or kindle fire. He has almost enough to cover it, but he was coming up about $10 short. He said, "Why can't you just buy it for me and I'll pay you back when I get the money?" I asked him why he couldn't wait until he had all of the money. It was $10 off at Target at the time. I told him he could wait for a better sale, or until it came on sale again. I reminded him that if he hadn't spent money on a movie, or food at the state tournament he'd have enough right then. He wasn't happy but agreed to wait to buy the ipod. Then he spent $25 on an itunes gift card! I guess he didn't learn anything after all!

On the way out of Target Melanie started to run into the parking lot, but I scooped her up and she was furious. She always wants to do things by herself, and was not happy that she couldn't walk by herself to the van. I told her it wasn't safe to run in a parking lot, and that she had to hold my hand, and walk, or I would have to carry her. Of course she didn't understand that either. She wanted to go back to the store and walk to the van by herself. I ended up having to force her into her seat and buckle her in. Yikes! While I was carrying her to the van I saw Krista C* in the parking lot, we laughed about the situation and she let me go so I could deal with Melanie quickly. After that we went to Costco I think. We did some shopping, and then I told them I would treat them to lunch at Costco. They were excited. So we ate our pizza, hot dogs and soda. Then I told them I had another treat for them. I had a coupon for 50% off at the frozen yogurt shop, so we all got a treat. I let the kids pick within reason, and then I shared with them. I didn't get one for myself, because I was fairly certain they wouldn't finish all of theirs. I was right, and I sampled a bit of each of theirs. By then the sun was peeking through the clouds, but it was windy, and nap time, so we headed home.

Melanie fell asleep, but I was able to transfer her and the kids helped me unload the groceries. It was a quiet afternoon, playing outside, games and screen time I think, but not much else. Aaron was able to make it home in time for dinner, and was planning to take the boys to scouts, but then he got called into the hospital. He was only home for about 20 minutes, but at least he got to eat. So I took the boys to the church, gave the girls a bath, and then picked up the boys. That's about it.

Thursday the kids were back in school. I had a Dr appt. Aaron was working in his office and offered to keep Melanie in his office until I was done. I had to get some labs drawn before I left (have to check my thyroid every year), so I picked up Melanie first since Aaron needed to go back to the hospital. We stopped by Safeway on the way home and then ate lunch, and then I put Melanie down for a nap. After school Amy and Timothy came home, but David decided to do track this Spring, so we picked him up later. Piano lessons got changed to Thursday for that week, so I had to drop Timothy off, pick up David and Tae and then take David to his lessons. I'm taking Tae home Tues and Thurs and David is going to Tae's on Mondays until I get back from Timothy's drama class. Tae's dad texted saying he was ready to pick him up, but we still had 15 minutes of lessons, so I said I'd drop him off when we were done. It was a little busy, but it all worked out.

That evening we had the new residents over for dinner, plus Victoria and Andy (and Leo) and Amanda L*. With the beautiful Spring weather we were having we decided to do a BBQ. We had Argentine chorizo, and hamburgers. I made a bean salad, and other brought salads, bread and dessert. Everything was delicious and it was fun to meet the residents and see little Leo. Although it was a beautiful day, the sun isn't up as long as the summer, so we had to move inside after a while. We put the kids to bed a little late, and talked with the residents and Amanda a bit longer before our guests left.

Friday was normal as far as I remember. No piano lessons, but otherwise normal. There was a mix up with pick up after track, but it got worked out quickly. That's about it. Nothing really exciting! I still have 2 more weeks to catch up on, but who knows when that will get done. Sorry no pictures this week!

A Pain in the Neck, and State Tournament

Saturday morning Aaron was on call and went in to see patients at the hospital. After David finished his chores I drove him over to the I*s. He's helping them with some yard work. The kids worked on their chores and I worked outside in the yard. I did more weeding in the raspberries (that's what I worked on Thursday and Friday - that's why I don't remember what I did). I got lunch ready and then picked up David. He had just enough time to eat some lunch before I dropped him off at the high school for pep band. They were playing for the girls' and boys' basketball games which were at 2:00 and 4:15 or something like that. Both teams won their regional game, so they moved on to the state tournament. With Aaron on call it didn't make sense for him to go to the game, and I didn't want to take the 3 kids with me. I was already tired enough. So we waited for David to come home. He used a friend's phone to let me know they were going to eat at Burger King after the game. Aaron was at the hospital and came home a little before I expected him back, so he drove over to pick David up. Our day at home wasn't too exciting.

Sunday it was fast Sunday, Aaron had to wake up really early to see patients and then make it to his meetings. It's his month to conduct sacrament meeting. When he opened the meeting for testimonies I could see him fidgeting a bit, and when he closed he walked right out of the chapel. He later confirmed that he got a call while he was up there in the middle of his testimony. I had to take Melanie out when she had laid down on my lap, and then came up quickly, and too close to the pew in front of us. She hit her forehead pretty good. I got her to calm down pretty quickly, and and we went back in the chapel. I can't recall much else. Again I waited too long to write.

Monday was pretty typical. The exception came when David decided he wanted to come with us to shop during Timothy's drama class. We ended up just going to Fred Meyer I think. Of course that meant he wasn't home to help with dinner prep, so we did something quick like taco salad when we got home.

Tuesday was a little crazy. David woke up saying he was nauseous, and debated going to school or not. Eventually he decided not to. Amy was getting ready for school, but hadn't come down for scriptures. I found her up in her room with pajamas still on and she was whimpering. She said she couldn't get dressed because her neck hurt. I was fairly certain it was a wry neck like I had in high school. I'd never heard of a 6 year old getting one though. Basically the muscles in her neck tense up and won't release. It didn't seem quite as bad for her as it only hurt her if she tried to move her neck. I couldn't even move mine to the right at all. Anyway Aaron and I tried to calm her down and convince her that the only way it was going to get better was for her to relax. So I had two kids out of school for the day. I drove Timothy to school all by himself. Amy was asleep when I got back. I had to call in sick to two schools, and let Mrs. W* know I wouldn't be in to help in Amy's class that morning.

It was rather a lazy day for us. I got my exercise in and after I showered I checked on Amy and she was awake and needed help getting out of her bunk bed. There was a lot of whimpering. She went to the bathroom, and then I asked her if she wanted to watch a movie. She walked downstairs. I had convinced her to take some ibuprofen, and it seemed to be helping she also had the rice bag which I heated up for her every hour or so. She was fine on the couch as long as she stayed still. David was fine in the afternoon as usually with his stomach bugs. So he wanted to watch a movie too. After I put Melanie down for a nap they watched something together. Yep, pretty lazy! 

Amy was still hurting in the afternoon, and didn't really eat much. She fell asleep right before dinner. I had book club that night and Aaron wasn't going to be home. So I asked David if he was up to taking care of the kids and he said he was. So I went to book club, and told Amy she could sleep on the floor, if she wanted to because getting up in her bed would be hard. She took me up on that offer. I enjoyed book club, but didn't stay too long. We had a great discussion. I haven't even started the next book, or even picked it up yet. I might want to do that soon.

Wednesday David was 100% better, but Amy was still wary of her neck. It still hurt to move it, so I let her stay home again. She wandered down for scriptures and ate breakfast with us, she was worried about riding in the van and the bumpy ride, but it was OK. Then she watched Blue's Clues along with Melanie while I exercised. Afterward I encouraged her to get dressed, and she was able to do that but she took her time. After lunch they ended up watching more TV while I got things done around the house. I went down to get Melanie and put her down for a nap and she was fast asleep on the couch. I have no idea how long she was asleep, but she woke up at 1:45, much earlier than her usual nap.

The afternoon went well. After the boys got home from school, they got a snack, and I left Amy and David home while Melanie and I dropped Timothy off at the church for his Cub Scout outing. They were visiting a local Native American Museum. I picked him up a little over an hour later. Then we put together dinner, and then took David to scouts. Amy seemed to be doing better. She and Melanie got a bath, and she was worried about laying down in the tub, but I think it helped her relax a little. Eventually we picked up David and then it was bed time.

Thursday Amy was well enough to go to school, although she was concerned about moving her neck too much. She just walked stiffly for a while. She was fine. Since I couldn't go shopping Wednesday, I did it Thursday instead, but I don't remember details. So, pretty boring day I suppose. David on the other hand spent most of the day at the state basketball tournament. He enjoys playing in the pep band. The girls and the boys both won their games. The band went out to eat afterward, and we ended up picking David up later than expected. He sure had fun though! Aaron made it up to the boys' game and sat right behind the band.


Friday I don't remember much except that I took pictures of more springy things in the yard.

 narcissus blooming

 daffodils

 

 new raspberry shoots

 narcissus by the raspberries

 the raspberries all cleaned out

 I was trying to take a picture of new leaves on the red raspberries

 rhubarb, still needed to be weeded

 buds on the apple tree

new growth on the roses

I also ran an errand to the bank that morning, and a quick stop by the grocery store, and that's it. David had another pep band outing, but it started later. He wouldn't make it home off the bus in time for me to take him to the high school, so I had him ride the school bus to the high school, and wait there for the pep band bus. Aaron and I had a date that night. Madelyn babysat for us since David was at the game. Somehow Aaron was invited to come to an interview dinner for an administrative position. We knew it would be cutting it close with Aaron getting home, and then they moved up the dinner. So we were a few minutes late. We enjoyed the dinner. I had a fantastic ravioli. I met some great people and enjoyed the conversation. The husband of one of the ladies from the clinic is a police detective and had some interesting stories to share, and we all ended up talking about parenting techniques, and how so many parents don't discipline their kids etc. Anyway, it was a great evening, and afterward we were trying to decide whether or not to go to the boys' game. The girls' game was over and they lost, so they would be playing for 3rd or 5th the next day. The boys' game wasn't going well, and it was almost halftime by the time we got there, so we decided to not go to the game, but stop by Target and window shop. I can't remember if we even bought anything or not. The boys' lost their game, and would not repeat as state champions, but had the chance to play for 3rd or 5th. We got home long before David, and eventually he called to let us know to pick him up. I was so ready for bed way before he called. It gave me a taste of what the teenager years will be like when we have to wait up for him after stake dances, and eventually dates yikes!

Districts and Band Concert

Saturday morning Aaron took the car in to another tire shop to get their opinion on whether or not work needed to be done. They verified it did, but Les Schwab could do it cheaper and that morning, so after running a few errands he drove over, and dropped it off. I finished mopping the floor and went to pick him up. He had started walking and got further than I expected. That morning I also got most of the raspberries pruned. The car got done pretty quickly, so immediately after lunch, Aaron and I picked it up, and then got ready for the temple. I out Melanie down for a nap, and changed clothes. Madelyn came over and Aaron and I left. David would be playing in the pep band for the district finals that night so I asked if Kyle could pick him up. We picked up Michele on the way to the temple and Aaron sat in back while he finished up some work. We got there fairly early and had plenty of time before the session. It was a special session in preparation for ward conference the next day. I think we had about 20 people there from our ward. Afterward we went home and Madelyn had gotten all of the kids ready to go. Aaron and I changed clothes quickly, then loaded everyone up. We dropped Madelyn off at home on the way down to the basketball games. We were about 30 minutes late for the first game. The girl's championship game was between the two rivals, girls from our ward were on both teams. Aaron and the girls sat on one side, and Timothy and I sat on the other. Aaron's team won. It was a fun game, but their team certainly played better that night.

Aaron went in search of better seats for the second game and found them. So we sat closer for the boy's championship game. Honestly the other team made hardly any mistakes and lead most of the way, but we kept fighting our way back. We ended up winning 50-52. It was close, but a win is a win.

 

Melanie had fun dancing to the music

It was pretty late and it was almost a 30 minute drive home. So rather than have David ride the bus home with the band we took him home with us. He wasn't pleased, but I was glad I didn't have to wait up for him longer and go pick him up. It was straight to bed when we got home.

Sunday started early for Aaron with all of his meetings. The morning was fairly normal as far as I can remember. We got to church on time and I knew sacrament meeting would run long because of ward conference. Aaron got to speak for a bit, and so did Pres. B*. I have this picture to remind me that during sacrament meeting Melanie was drawing in her notebook and she said, "I draw a 'q'." And then she proceeded to draw this:

Not bad for a 2 year old!

I had to go up and show Aaron right after the meeting, even though Pres. B* was sitting right there. I don't remember much else other than that we went to a short Sunday School lesson, and then I stayed in the Relief Society room for the combined youth meeting. The Stake Young Men's presidency issued a challenge to go with the year's theme of Embarking in the Service of God. They challenged the youth to find a personal service project, a class service project and a ward youth service project. It was a great meeting.

I can't recall exactly what we did that afternoon. I remember that Timothy had planned a week of meals for a cub scout requirement, so it was nice not to have to worry about what I was fixing for dinner. I really need to get back to meal planning again. It's so much easier. I think that was the night Aaron went to the mission prep class. I can't remember anything else specific.

Monday was fairly normal with back to school, and Timothy's drama class. I think I went to Costco during the class. Tuesday was normal with helping in Amy's class. However that evening was the boys' Band Concert. So we had an early dinner, and got to the high school early enough to find seats on the right side of the auditorium and close enough to get good pictures. Melanie and Amy didn't want to stay seated, and David wanted to hang out with his friends. I ended up changing Melanie's diaper before it started. Aaron joined us about 10 minutes before it started. With David with his friends, there was enough room for Odessa to sit with us.

5th grade band went first. Timothy is on percussion now, so he got to do snare drum and bells.

Partway through the last song Timothy dropped his mallet, but somehow recovered. They did a great job.

Then it was sixth grade band, and then a break before the middle school band. Timothy joined us to watch David. It was easy to take pictures since he was on the end.

Afterward Aaron took the boys out for a treat, and I took the girls home to get ready for bed.

Wednesday was also a pretty normal day. I ran up to the city for shopping, and made some Greek yogurt, and then using the whey I made some bread. Timothy had put clam chowder on the menu for that day, and then we discovered it was National Clam Chowder day! Unfortunately Aaron had to go straight from work to his meeting at the church, so when I dropped off the boys for scouts/mutual I left a container of clam chowder and some bread for Aaron to enjoy and share. It was especially good since we used the clams we had harvested just 9 days earlier. Of course we had frozen them first, but they were delicious!

Thursday, yeah, I've got nothing. Nothing to remind me of the day, so as for Friday... Nothing sticks out either. So that's it for the week.

Spring Already, and our Last Pinewood Derby

After a late night it was hard to get up Tuesday morning, but we did, and did our morning routine. Aaron had to go in a little bit  early, and I was on call in case the car didn't make it to the garage. I failed to mention that after we got back from our getaway Aaron went over to the clinic and the car died. He got it jumped, but then it died again. He had Les Schwab test the battery since they replaced it last time. The battery was fine, it was the alternator that was dead.  He dropped off the car at our favorite repair shop, and walked to the clinic. He had them take it back over to Les Schwab to do an alignment and they discovered more issues! Great just what we need!

I got my workout in and then got ready to help in Amy's class. Melanie loves going to Amy's class. I love going as well. I can't recall exactly what we did, but we always read a book, and then do some sort of cut/paste/color worksheet with letter sounds. Afterward I took the time to clean out the van. There was a lot of sand. I ended up vacuuming it out and setting our shoes out to dry since it was a beautiful day. As far as I remember the rest of the day was normal. Aaron had a meeting that evening, so David was in charge when I went to Relief Society. It was a fun activity with some chocolate at the end - yum!

Wednesday was fairly normal as I recall. Timothy and I had an appointment that afternoon, and David watched the kids. Timothy didn't have cub scouts that night, but David did have mutual. While he was gone there was a knock at the door. I was changing Melanie's diaper, so it took me a minute before I came down, opened the door and found a bag of candy and hearts attached to plastic knives stuck in the grass. I went back inside to grab my camera. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I decided to take a picture with my phone. I opened it just in time to see two girls run out of the gate and into two vehicles waiting. I quickly turned around so I wouldn't be able to figure out who they were.

I took a picture and then brought them inside so Max wouldn't chew them up. From the clues on the heart notes I think it was the young women, but I couldn't tell you which ones :)

That's all I can remember. Although that was the day our fitness bands arrived. Aaron and I got each got one. It tracks your steps, and your sleep, and gives you pointers and advice etc when you get the app. It's been interesting to see how not active I am during the day, and much I don't sleep at night. So hopefully we can fix some things to be healthier.

Thursday I took the van in for an oil change, and paid off the alternator since Aaron picked up the car after the shop was closed. When Melanie and I got back, I decided to go for a walk outside. I took pictures of the signs of spring. Already! It was only February 19th!

 narcissus emerging

 daffodils

 buds on the cherry tree

 rhubarb coming up

 buds on the apple tree

 new branches on the maple

our lone tulip

I decided it was time to trim the raspberries and rose bushes, but I didn't get to it that day. Other than the normal stuff for that day, Aaron and Timothy did last minute finishing of Timothy's pinewood derby car.

Friday was fairly normal, although I got a call from Crystal saying her kids had a stomach bug, so I decided to skip piano for that day. It made things go a little smoother anyway. We ate dinner at about 5:15, then loaded up the van and headed over to the church. Weigh-in started at 6:00 with racing starting at 6:30. Aaron texted to say he was on his way, and to wait to weigh in Timothy's car. It's a good thing. The scale was slightly off from ours, and we had to add a little bit of weight. Then the races began. Timothy won his first two heats. And then came in close second on the next one. I can't remember how many races they did in all, but Timothy was either first or second in each one he did. I took a few videos and a few pictures.

Timothy and his car

Now for a more serious one.

He ended up getting 2nd over all. He was pretty pleased! It was sad thinking throughout the evening that this would be our last Pinewood Derby. I suppose there will be more, just not with my sons as cub scouts. It was a fun evening with some delicious healthy snacks. Fruits and veggies etc. I made some hummus and brought a bag of pita chips. A few people asked for the recipe. Unfortunately I couldn't remember exactly what I had done. I ran out of garlic and lemon juice and added garlic salt to make it taste better. I didn't measure the tahini paste, or the olive oil. So I wish I could recreate it, but I'm not sure that's possible. I'll have to try again. It was our turn to clean the church so we stayed late and did it after the event was over. Then it was home to bed.

Clam Digging at Twin Harbors

Monday morning we took our time getting up. I hung out with the girls on the couch. Aaron took a picture from the top of the stairs.

Eventually we had breakfast and got ready, and packed our stuff up. We had to strip the beds and wash the sheets and towels. However we had the option to pay a cleaning service instead of sweeping, vacuuming cleaning the bathrooms, countertops etc. So we decided to pay the fee which was cheaper than one night in a hotel by far. We made sandwiches ahead of time, and then loaded up the van. We pulled the clamming equipment out of the shed, and loaded it up as well. Then locked everything up, set the alarm and took off for Twin Harbors. One of the reasons we chose to come this weekend is because it's clamming season, and with the low tide being in the afternoon it would be great to take the kids. We were glad the conditions were right. It was about an hour drive to get there. We had to drive around Gray's Harbor to get there. 

 We saw a clam and oyster company with tons of shells sitting outside

Going over the bridge crossing Grays Harbor

We arrived just before noon, and drove around to find beach access. We stopped at an area with bathrooms before we found the beach we were going to set up shop at. We saw people fishing, and wake boarding, and just walking on the beach. We also saw a few other people like us, just sitting and waiting. The rules state that you can't harvest clams until after noon, but the best opportunity would be 1-2 hours before low tide. That day low tide was at about 4:30.

So we had a while to wait. We ate some lunch and then let the kids play in the sand. We went for walks and played in the waves. Aaron had rubber boots on, but the rest of us were in regular shoes, ones we were OK getting wet and sandy. It was fun just to relax and take pictures. The weather was perfect. I never would have guessed it was February on the coast. Sunny, and only a slight wind. Still jacket weather, but not too cold.

This is about how far we parked away from the shore, because we wanted to make sure we didn't get stuck in the wet sand.

 We found lots of clam shells all over and sand dollars too

 from the shore to the van

 Timothy worked on a sand castle for a while

Eventually the tide went down so much I drove the van about 100 yards closer to the water. We had seen a few you tube videos about using clam guns to harvest clams. We tried to figure out what to look for to dig. We were basically just waiting for others to start digging to join in. We had no idea what we were doing. We had 3 clam guns, and 4 nets. There was a limit of 15 clams per person, and each person needed their own net. Aaron and I needed to purchase licenses, but since the kids are under 15, they didn't need a license. We only had 4 nets, so we figured Amy and Melanie wouldn't be interested anyway. We only borrowed 3 clam gun because I figured one of us would be watching the girls at all times. It worked out pretty well.

Around 1:30 we started seeing people bring their equipment down to the water. So we joined in. Suddenly everyone was coming down. It was crazy how many people there were. We looked for the "dimples" in the sand. At first it was hard because we weren't sure what we were looking for, but after Aaron caught the first one it was fun.

 The first razor clam

We tried different techniques of finding the dimples and how many times to pull sand out.  The clam guns are basically a round metal cylinder that you push into the ground then cover up the air hole with your finger to create suction and pull the sand out. Sometime you get the clam on the first try, sometimes it takes 2 or 3 times, any longer than that and it probably dug too far away.  One time David put the clam gun in the sand and hit something bigger than a clam. It was a crab! We had fun watching it crawl around and dig its way back into the sand.

We didn't know the rules on catching crabs, so we let it go. We found out later, we could have kept it!

While David, Timothy and Aaron were clam digging, Melanie was a little fussy, it was well past her nap time. Eventually she fell asleep. She was getting heavy, so I ended up turning the bucket over and sitting on it. When Aaron caught his limit we switched and he took a sleeping Melanie.

Amy had fun wandering around and helping us find the dimples. Aaron gave me some good pointers, and pointed some dimples out to me. Eventually I got the hang of it.  I took pictures occasionally. After a while I didn't even care that my shoes, and pants were soaking wet, and I no longer ran away from the waves. I caught my limit and soon after David caught his as well. Timothy had only a few left to go to reach his limit.

 It was amazing to see how many people were out there. This picture doesn't do it justice.

 Aaron and Timothy getting the last of the clams

 This is how far away we ended up from the van as the tide went down

We were done by about 4:00, still 30 minutes from low tide, so we packed it up which included filling up the bucket with sea water, and putting the still alive clams inside. The ones with cracked shells that looked dead we put on ice. One of the rules is you have to take the first 15 no matter the size or condition. Sometimes the clam guns would crack the shells, but we had to keep them. We got our 60 clams! Everyone changed socks and shoes, and some pants, then we loaded everything up in the van, and headed for home.

Melanie was wearing Aaron's hat and being silly

We saw Mt. St. Helen's on the way back

Amy fell asleep in the way, and we had to wake her up before we stopped for dinner. We picked up dinner at Burger King, and took a bathroom break, and then got back on the road. We got back around 9:30, and put the kids to bed, Most of them were already asleep, so it was easy. Then Aaron and I stayed up to process the clams.

We had to place them in boiling water until the shells opened up and then plunge them in ice water. Once that was done we removed the meat and cleaned them out. Then we chopped and froze them. In all we got just under 4 lbs of meat. It was about 11:30 when we finally went to bed. Late night, fun vacation.

A couple more memories: We saw a lot of deer. I thought it was unusual being so close to the ocean, and not close to mountains. But it was several times we saw deer. The house had a nature cam set up outside, and there was an obvious trail for wild life running through the yard, We even saw a racoon, in the day light!

Also it seemed that everyone there had the same idea for decor - buoys. A large number of houses had buoys in their yard. Some were artfully placed, however one house had about a hundred strung along their fence, and it was rather tacky. One house we walked past had way too many lawn ornaments, and I'm not just talking about gnomes, but 5 ft long pencils - 4 of them! However it made me think about how people around here decorate.  After we got back I noticed a lot of people have old farm equipment in their yard. Rusty wagon wheels, or old plows, or wine barrels. Even we have a wine barrel! I guess when you live in wine country and farm country, it makes sense, so if you live near the harbor, it makes sense as well, there are a lot of buoys.