Chalk it up to Experience

Ben and I were fortunate enough to get to go clamming with the Munyers yesterday. Ben was supposed to work, but asked to get the day off. His manager pulled out his tide book and checked, said it was a good day and to have fun. And we did! Ben was out way late the night before at a young men's activity, so neither one of us got the sleep that we needed the night before. But we both really wanted to go clamming. I think we got out to Clam Gulch around 10:30. First we had to get all of our clam gear ready. I borrowed some big rubber boots and
Ben just wore his $15 Wal-Mart find waterproof hiking boots. It was a lot colder than I expected, but luckily we were advised to dress warm and we were prepared. We spent the next few hours wandering around in the mud trying to find divets- the signal to dig for clams. We had no idea what we were looking for. Finally, I saw something that I thought looked like what Cameron was calling a divet. So I told Ben to dig, and sure enough, it was a clam! Unfortunately, we broke it, because Ben is such an enthusiastic digger. We kept looking for more divets, but we didn't see any, but Ben was anxious to dig and was digging anywhere he could. None of the other diggers on the beach seemed to be having any luck either. We found some sea aninomes and shells, and some dead clams. I got pretty tired from walking in the mud, and the boots were really hurting my feet. And then I got stuck in the mud, Ben started over to help me out, but I was determined to get out myself- which I did. Then I decided it was lunch time. On our way to our lunch, we started seeing divets, which distracted us for awhile. The clams were all too fast for us though. I think we ended up with 8 clams between 11 of us. It was fun to see how quickly the tide came in, by the time we were done with lunch our clamming area was under water. Both Ben and I were exhausted! Later that night we went back over to the Munyers to learn how to clean and cook the clams. Cameron was the instructor, Ben and Jacob were the laborers. I watched. It took a long time, especially for only having 8 clams, I can't imagine how long it would take if we had all 50! I'm not a big fan of seafood, and I was weary of the clams because oysters are pretty gross, and clams are pretty ugly when they are alive. The clams were pretty good, but not good enough to be worth all that work! I kind of knew that before we went, but it was well worth the experience and it was fun! (Cameron and Berenice took all these pictures, we only got off one before the batteries died on our camera!)

We got home just in time to get a call from Dan- he got his mission call! We got to be on the phone when he opened it- he's going to Des Moines, Iowa, Spanish speaking. We are so excited for him and glad we will get to see him before he leaves.

In other news, I am going to girls' camp next week! From Tuesday to Saturday. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing there. They needed someone that could stay overnight, and I don't have kids and I don't have a job, so it works. I don't know if I'll be in a tent or in a cabin and many people have volunteered to lend me their air matresses, so I don't think I'll be roughing it too much. I am wondering if my husband can survive without me for an entire week. We haven't spent a day apart since we've been married, so this should be a challenge for us both. In fact, there's no cell service at camp, and you can't make it there without 4-wheel drive, so we probably won't even get to talk. I'll miss him! I am hoping that he might get to go fishing on Friday, because he really wants to go, and I could go without it, so it would be the perfect chance for him.