Clammin it Up

Clamming in Oregon

Wait for Negative low tide

At least -1 or more

We left around 7 am to get there at the perfect time.

Grab a four prong rake

and a bucket.

 

Go under this bridge.

The Yaquina Bay Bridge 

And drag your rake across the sand.

When you hear a clink

You have found a clam

 FINDING CLAMS is so much FUN!!!!!

If it ended there, I would go every time the tide was really low.

Eating them is a little different.

The kids were SO excited to clean their clams.

Macey distributed.

Cody and Ben opened them.

I cleaned out the meat.

Mackayla observed.

(She actually came down with a fever sometime then but was a trooper.)

The advice of friends and the little youtube demo I watched had you clean out the meat from raw clams.

What they didn't show was the little clam waving its body back and forth trying to yell "don't kill me" while you cut it out of its shell.
I think if we do it again we would steam them first. It makes the shells easier to open, the clams are no longer kickin and it's probably less disgusting overall.

If they had faces I would have taken them back to the ocean. 

 We made clam chowder.

As far as clam chowder goes, it was dang good!

I shuddered the first time I bit down on a clam and pictured a slimy little tongue like body reaching out of the shell to try to stop me.

 Clam chowder anyone?:)

In all honesty, this was one of my top favorite things we have done as a family here (and it was free).

Cody is playing soccer this season!

Cody, Mackayla and I went to the river in town while Macey was in preschool and Cody had a day off.

Notice and appreciate the crocs with socks:)

It was such a beautiful day.

Cody found a little friend.

The Best Babysitters

We had a special treat this last week!

 This is what made a little mini vacation to time out for women possible.

Plus a few days to have fun together with them while I was here too.

My dad sent me the pics they took since my camera died:

 Macey read her favorite books to them. The Bob Books.

(They are great little beginning reader books that I got at Costco.)

 Mackayla played with her 47 dolls, dogs and cats that accompany her to bed:)

 My sweet mom volunteered to do nursery so I could have a week in relief society and sunday school (as if I hadn't just been to a couple days of classes already! I'm not going to say nursery is a hard calling but...it was so nice to actually relax at church!)

 This might be Macey's favorite part about her grandparents coming...their wireless devices:)

or maybe the candy.

It's a toss up.

I keep finding little pieces of evidence of my parents stay...new scrub brushes, new soap, a little butter dish for our morning toast.

Parents are the best:)

Thanks for your endless service~

Taking A Time Out

HIGHER

Time Out for Women in Spokane, WA 2013.

I didn't try to capture every thought from every talk that I loved, but I did write down some of my favorite ideas.

President Monson has DAILY journals beginning in 1963 about what he has done for others, and what others have done for him. He has captured the vision of the REASON we are here and recorded it.

These girls are all incredible and SO MUCH FUN!!

Staying up until 3 am has never been so easy:) 

Start modeling Impossible Beauty. Show your girls that you believe you are beautiful. Your children will not only believe you, but believe that they are beautiful, despite what the world teaches us about impossible standards of beauty. Start young. You ARE beautiful.

I have wanted to go to the Portland Temple since we moved to Oregon. Have I mentioned Ben works every. single. day? (twenty times? what?) Well, I jumped at the chance to go heading out to Pullman. I love seeing it right off the freeway.

FAN THE FLAME of your belief. 

Chelsea didn't make it to Time out for women, but I was so happy I got to hang out with her and Marilou before we went. 

God sees the bigger picture of what we can become and the kind of person we should become. Trust Him.

 I do better listening if I can mindlessly occupy my hands.

I drew this, because I'm clearly an artist, for my kids. 

We can't go two ways at the same time. 

Try making a six in the air with your hand. Now make a clockwise circle with your foot. Do them at the same time. 

If you're looking down you can't look up.

The lowest points in our life may prove to be the times we are closest to God.

Doing what you can is better than doing nothing. Even if it is not very good, it's better than nothing.

“Occasionally some individuals let the seeming ordinariness of life dampen their spirits. Though actually coping and growing, others lack the quiet, inner-soul satisfaction that can steady them, and are experiencing instead, a lingering sense that there is something more important they should be doing . . .as if what is quietly achieved in righteous individual living or in parenthood are not sufficiently spectacular.” 

The MUNDANE can be MIRACULOUS. Neal A. Maxwell has so many good things to say about that in All These Things Shall Give You Experience. 

DO MY DAILY ROUTINES REFLECT WHAT I CLAIM TO VALUE?

If the answer if yes...life will have greater peace and clarity.

Tulips in Bloom

Woodburn Tulip Festival is in full bloom!

I asked Macey to open her eyes for a picture.

 It was windy so she was refusing.

But after I got looking at these pictures it cracked me up that Cody was trying so hard to be obedient 

you can tell it was tough. 

 Not so gentle! 

 Wooden shoe ride. Afterwords Macey declared that it was so fun and it made her sick:)

 Cody assumed that mountain was a volcano about to erupt...

 Fun kid activities too

 And ROOM to RUN!

 We sandwiched it in with a day of shopping at the outlets in Woodburn. 

 Is it just Oregon outlets or can you get coupon books at all outlet malls? They give them out if you go to the office and ask for one.

We got 20% off all our purchases.

 And cute little matching tulip outfits.
This is after we got home. a little scraggly but cute:)!

Happy Spring!