A Whidbey Island Shellfish ADVENTURE

Matt and I have been talking about getting a shellfish license for a while now. We've been watching the tides, watching the weather, and just waiting for the right weekend. This weekend was IT!

So after much research regarding the safe beaches to collect nontoxic, non polluted, non mc nasty mussels, we stopped by our local Ace Hardware to pick up a 5-gallon bucket and a license. That part of the shellfish adventure went fairly smoothly, other than the fact that the current shellfish season CLOSED in less than 20 days so Matt was forced to purchase a DAY license as well as a license for next season. DOH!

 

Upon arriving at the beach area, we realized that just to park in the small gravel lot on the side of the road we DID, in fact, need our Washington State discovery vehicle pass we left on the kitchen counter. Two licenses, and now this. Matt and I both agreed that this could potentially turn into one of those REALLY expensive adventures should the friendly park rangers decide to leave us something not so friendly.

 

I left my phone in the car, so unfortunately I don't have photos of the "harvesting" process, but it was fun. We had to carefully step across this "stream" to get to a sandier, easier digging spot. Matt had ingeniously suggested we bring a small pail and garden shovel for Fin, so he had a lot of fun collecting his own bucket of broken shells, mud and other lovely goodies. He had fun... until he either tripped, or stepped into one of our holes and fell into the water. :) It was sunny, but not exactly a day to take a dip in the Puget sound. By this point, Matt had only dug up about 6 clams, but regardless, I gave him the universal "we gotta wrap this shit up because one of our kids is about to LOSE it" look.

Still, going home with a hungry baby, a wet toddler and 6 clams didn't seem acceptable. So while I headed up to the rocks to start plucking some mussels, Matt started another hole. SNAP. The shovel broke. Classic. Yeah, we were pretty sure that was God telling us it was time to head back home.

Thankfully, we were able to pull off a few small patches of mussels all at once, so it took us a matter of seconds to have MORE than enough for the 3 of us.

 

Once back at the car, I got out my phone and made Matt reluctantly pose for a photo with his broken shovel.

"This is a little embarrassing," he said.

 

Back at the house we started the cleaning process. Unfortunately, the low tide was at 3:44pm, so that meant cleaning started at exactly the WRONG time: dinner time. But that's ok. We fed Fin a simple pasta dinner (just to get food in his belly) and then focused on the mussels. We decided during the process that although clams are a little harder to find and harvest, mussels are much harder later! The mussels required a lot more work than the 6 clams we got. The mussels need to be de-bearded (sounds dirtier than it is), scrubbed with a brush, soaked...etc.

 

Starting the cleaning process:

 

We found a couple little friends along the way. Tick or crab? Don't worry, all the friends we found we threw back in the bucket of bay water and later returned to the ocean.

 

Whoops, pretty sure this mussel is NOT of legal harvesting size.

 

All clean!

 

The sink, and the faucet, and the window... not so clean!

 

Our large clam harvest :)

 

So I'm chopping tomatoes for the broth, and I feel something on my shirt, TWICE. I look down... the damn clam had squirted me! Poor little guy wasn't going down without a fight.

 

All ready to start cooking!

While Matt finished up cleaning the mussels, I ran out and grabbed a fresh loaf of bread and a chilled bottle of chardonnay. Because dinner would not have been complete without bread to sop up the amazing juices and a refreshing white to wash it down.

Matt and I waited until Fin was in bed before we cooked the mussels and ate. It was the first meal we've had just the two of us since August. :) Pretty sure we need to do that more often.

 

Stop taking pictures, woman! I'm ready to eat!

 

It was a lot of work, but it was a fun, eventful, educational and DELICIOUS Northwest adventure here on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound. Can't wait to do it again. PS. We saved Fin some mussels and bread for lunch the next day and he gobbled them up and asked for more. Poor boy! Don't worry Fin, we'll go out and get more soon!

POD "Didn't Give a Hoot"

I've been meaning to post a picture of this guy! This blog post has been written since the FALL of last year and I forgot to post it! Whooooopsies. HOPEFULLY now that our desktop is up and running again (and my babies are sleeping better!) I can get back to some blogging.

Anyway, we were driving down this small tote road on our way to one of Matt's coworkers' family party... (Don't ask about the dirt road. Gotta love reliable GPS directions.) and this guy was sitting right in the middle of the road! It wasn't even dark! Aren't owls nocturnal? Shouldn't you be SLEEPING?!!! Anyway, I was super (borderline excessively) excited! I'd never seen an owl in the wild before! 

As we drove closer he casually swooped up to a branch just on the side of the road. He didn't seem to give a hoot we were right there. (Ok, ok that was cheesy.) Perfect photo op!!! Of course, I made Matt stop and take pics for the blog.

He was so beautiful and even though the "most direct route" was a little sketchy, it was worth it! ... This time. 

Valentines Times Two

So this blog post is one of those last year versus this year posts.

2013 versus 2014.

Valentines times two.

 

As I mentioned, in my last post, February was a very busy month as we had JUST received our household goods and moved into our new place on the fourth. Still, we had to do something special for my little guy. We surprised him that morning with some balloons, a color-your-own cookie (I can only imagine how bad that thing is for you) and m&m pancakes.

 

 This picture is not the greatest but I had to post it to show you just how crazy our house was that day. Oh, and the kitchen was the first room I tackled. This was GOOD. The rest of the house was baddddddd.

Later that day, Fin colored his cookie and then helped me bake up a big batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. I would have loved to make heart shaped cookies, but I still hadn't found 1/2 of my kitchen supplies, including my cookie cutters. You'd think that moving box labels could be a LITTLE more specific than "misc." But I digress...

 

 We are not very tidy when we bake.

 

 Not very tidy at all.

 As a side note, this batch of cookies was the first of MANY goodies that we would share with our new neighbors Dick and Shirley. Fin and I decided it would be nice (since there were so many) to bring a few over as a "Happy Valentines Day" treat. I had no idea what a fun food exchange this would turn into. Since that day, Shirley and I share almost everything that comes out of the oven. If it's got sugar in it... we share. We send a few cookies on a plate over to them, and a few weeks later, they send the plate back with a couple pieces of cake for us. It really is a lot of fun. We lucked out big time with our neighbors, but that's a whole other blog post. :)

Ok, one more thing about Shirley. She was actually the one who gave me the idea to turn my meatloaf that evening into something much more fitting for a Valentines dinner. Ironically (VERY ironically) she was making meatloaf that evening as well, and suggested I shape it into a heart. I think we might have a new beefy valentines tradition. :)

 

 

So that was 2013. Now onto this year. Since we weren't being swallowed alive by a mountain of cardboard boxes, we had some time to make Valentines. While Kai took his morning nap, Fin and I worked tirelessly (for days) on Valentines for Dada, both sets of grandparents and our neighbors Dick and Shirley.

 

This year we were actually able to make those cute heart shaped sugar cookies. :) And of course, we brought a few over to our favorite neighbors.

 

 

The card holding dog made an appearance again this year. He's cute. He makes an adorable little "grrrrwoof woof" sound when you take the card out. Of course, Fin's still not that into cards, so we shoved a matchbox car in his mouth. Not into cards, but definitely into matchbox. Left this little set up on the table for the boys to find in the AM. There were a few small things for Kai and even our hairy four-legged boys received a little Valentines love.

"Woooah, wat is dat?!!"

 

We had pancakes again this year, but had to up my game a little. Strawberry-banana heart cakes with chocolate chips. Nom nom.

 

And then came the big surprise. Actually it was a fairly last minute decision! A couple weeks prior, I had emailed the local fire department, asking if they ever held open houses or allowed kids to see the trucks/station. They were great and responded that we could come by anytime! So, I called that AM JUST to make sure it was a good day, and they said come on by! When I told Fin we were going to see the fire trucks... he was VERY excited. :)

Running into the station.

 

Scoping out the gear.

 

Looking at all the buttons and gauges on the trucks.

"CHEESE!"

He didn't smile much while we were there. I think he was in disbelief that this was all actually going down.

The guys and gals at the station were absolutely great with us and it really made our Valentines Day 2014 extra special.

 

POD "Bringing in the Wood"

When Fin is in good spirits (remember... he's two...) he loves to help. He helps sweep, dust, wipe windows, clean the counters, cut veggies, cook dinner and bake cookies. His new love is helping to start the fire. He helps crumple up the scrap paper, hands me kindling, and even "bwow"s on the fire to get it going. 

He also helps us bring in the wood. We take our wheelbarrows over to the woodpile, fill 'em up, and wheel them back to the house. 

There is something just ridiculously cute about children copying mom and dad using small, toy versions of the adult things: wheelbarrows, lawn mowers, kitchens... Etc. 

 

Gotta love having a big helper!

Happy Halloween!

It was a great Halloween. I spent the entire day pumping Fin up for an evening of fun and throwing everything together: finding the kids costumes, packing a bag for the evening, throwing dinner in the crockpot and deciding what (if anything) Matt and I could wear! 

Hmmmm, what should Kai wear? Spider or Robot?

At about 1pm while the boys were napping I called Matt and asked if I could wear his old uniform. He gave me the go ahead. So, this year, I got realllllly creative and dressed up as Matt Thomsen. :) I continued to prepare during naptime and got my hair pinned up and slicked down with gel. Hehe. You should have seen Fin's grumpy, confused stare when he saw me after he woke up. Then, when I showed him the wig, he started to lose it. "No! No!" :) It was then that I realized I was going to have to eaaaase him into the whole costume/wig thing. He got over it eventually.

Matt Thomsen Selfie:

Matt also had no costume lined up, but wanted to do SOMETHING if I was dressing up. Well, I scrounged up some old parts to a devil costume: horns, a bowtie, a tail and red fishnets. I don't think Matt was that impressed, but he didn't have many other options. "What am I????!," he asked me. What if someone asks me what I am???!

"Tell them you are a hot mess,"I replied.

The happy family. Matt Thomsen, She-Devil... something, Tiger and Robot. :)

Poor Kai Guy was less than impressed with his outfit.

This photo is titled: "Ok, I need to go get a beer if I'm going to wear this..."

And we're off!

We hit a few neighbors, but we decided we needed more than our quiet dead-end street. Fin needed to see all the other kids, the decorated doorsteps, the streets bustling in the dark. So we packed 'em in the car and headed downtown to some busier neighborhoods.

My lil guy was very happy... that is, once he got out of that silly costume and got a snack. 

Fin got the swing of it after just a few homes. "Mo. Mo houses," he would mumble after every stop. :) It was a great night and the candy was deeeeelicious!