NEW EXPERIENCES

After our vacation on the lake, Andrew and I met up with Jeff, Andrea, and their cute kids in Ferndale, Washington. Our first day, they took us crabbing{for crabs much bigger than this one}! It is one of their favorite past times, and I, having never lived near the ocean, had never been before. I enjoyed experiencing life as a North-Westerner. So different from Idaho!

We dropped the boat in Bellingham Bay under grey skies...

Then, our traps were lowered down to the bottom connected to a buoy

Next, we went back to the beach for an hour to eat lunch and wait for the crabs to go after the bait.

Adelle content with her potato chip

I loved Braxton's rain coat. It kept him dry from the ocean spray as we pushed against the waves in our boat to check on the traps.



There were crabs in every trap. But we had to throw back the females, those smaller than 6 1/4 inches, and the red ones. When all was said and done, we had one little fellow to take home and eat. It was very Yummy.



That night was Jeff and Andrea's 6-year anniversary. They were kind enough to take us out to the coolest sushi bar for dinner.


Andrew and Jeff both went to Japan on their missions, and so they were not new to the whole idea of raw fish. I on the other hand, had never eaten sushi before in my life.




The plates of food went around on a little conveyor belt, directly in front of where we were sitting. As soon as something looked good, we would just grab it from our seat before it went by.


The first plate I snatched for myself was a cheesecake. It was the only thing I had seen that looked remotely normal. But then I got brave and ate some delicious sushi wrapped with rice and seaweed and cream cheese, giyoza, and even octopus! {I only ate that bite of octopus to be able to say I had. It wasn't all that bad. It tasted like chewy...cheese. The whole suction cup thing-ys just ruin it for me though.}


We ate til we were stuffed and then took a walk out by the ocean. That was a good day.


The next day, while Andrew and his brother Jeff worked under the hood of a car...



And drooled together over dream trucks on Craig's List...

...Andrea and I went blueberry picking! I've never lived anywhere near many blueberry bushes, so this was also a new experience. It was SO fun! We could hardly bring ourselves to stop. When all was said and done, we had 18 pounds of blueberries to bring home!



And what did Adelle think of our spoils?




You tell me. {Isn't that such a sweet shot?}


They gave her the energy to be Spider Baby all weekend! She ran all over the place in that hood and cap...I could hardly get a picture of it she was darting around so fast! =)



Braxton is my very favorite nephew. He is so much fun!
{Can you see Adelle in her outfit back there?}

As for this new experience...I really have no explanation. We just all had the sudden urge to prove our ability to fit through that plastic basketball hoop.
{Yay Jeff!}

Hooray for me! I was so proud.


The only one who couldn't get through was Andrew. His muscles are just too dang big. ;)

Since we are on the topic of new experiences, Andrew attempted to change his first poopy diaper while we were there. It was really rather pathetic. He very nearly threw up on poor Adelle before Andrea had to take over. {He is going to get over it soon I hope. I have zero intention of changing every single one of our kid's poopy diapers.}

We all played a lot outside in the evenings

Andrew and Jeff even got schooled by the girls in a game of T-ball!

And one last photo just because it's cute: Braxton pulling his teddy bear around the backyard on a sled. {Everyone else was too heavy.}

We had such a nice time visiting the family!