We had an amazing trip up north to see family in the New England area. Our family were blessed to have an opportunity to spend a few days with Jake’s cousin and his family! It was a wonderful weekend full of awesome memories and fun times together. Thanks Matt and Jen for sharing your family with us!  We went clamming for the first time ever!!!

During low tide we all went to the beach to go clamming!  What a fun gooey adventure – Karlie’s explanation of clamming!

Daddy and Karlie found a clam and are digging it out of the mud!

We walked around barefoot in the sticky mud looking for clams.  When your feet hit something hard (like a rock) you would reach down in the mud and pick up the clam.  In less than 30 minutes we had a basket full of fresh clams for our evening meal.

Daddy and Karlie got another clam, oh boy!  This is FUN!

A child’s dream event…..walking around in sticky mud in search for dinner!  Karlie had a blast finding clams and was so excited to get a chance to eat the food she caught!  It was a neat experience and gave us an opportunity to explain a little bit more about the ocean, high & low tides, and clams.  Brina chose to stay on shore, she wasn’t into the sticky muddy mess!

Matt made two amazing clam recipes for dinner that night – one dish was baked clams and the other was fried.  His homemade tartar sauce was out of this world!!!

Karlie thought it was the best adventure!  She just giggled at the muddy mess and had a blast trying her hand a clamming!  I didn’t get as many pictures of Brina because she decided clamming wasn’t something she wanted to do (all the sticky mud didn’t appeal to her I guess) and since the rest of the family was out clamming I was able to get a couple pictures of Karlie and Daddy splashing around in the mud.

There was a race in town so we had to stop a few minutes by a bridge to let the joggers pass.  As were were stopped we had a chance to check out the town a little bit.  We were next to a nice house with this cool outside gate that lead into their yard, it is an arm holding a hammer, the girls thought it was hilarious.  Pretty creative!

Matt found a super cool beach area that we had to ourselves.  There was water, sand, and plenty of fun for all the kids!  Brina thought it was pretty cool sitting on the “island” (or sand bar in the middle) and playing in the sand.

The kiddos had a blast floating on their boogie boards!  It was low tide when we arrived and as we swim, grilled out and played the tide slowly kept coming back up.  The kids discovered that they could get on the boards and the current would take them away.  Sometimes they would race each other and other times they would link together so they could float along as one big team.

Our “private” beach, it really was a neat place to play!  See our pile of shoes, line of beach chairs, water to splash in and sand to play around on.  The sand in the middle was a sand bar with water flowing on either side making it a little island for everyone to enjoy (or at least until the tide rose high enough to cover the entire sand bar)!  We had a super fun time exploring and playing with cousins!

The girls love a chance to play in the water and sand!  As the tide was rising and the current was picking up they decided to spend some time digging on their island to help make the water goes faster!

We could see this cute little town and light house on the island from where we were swimming!  The island is so tiny they don’t have running water or electricity (even in the winter)!

Digging up the sand to fill up the dump truck!  It is amazing how entertaining a toy can be on the beach!

Brina built a few good moats and dug some big holes on the beach!  One hole was so big that if you weren’t careful it could wipe you out going through it (you don’t expect for the ground to drop several inches on shore).

Karlie tickled silly by the dump truck being tipped over with the waves.  Fun times at the beach!

It takes some serious concentration to build a castle and moat, however it can entertain for hours!

Fun time at the beach with their cousins and friends.  You never know who you might run into while playing at the beach!

We are thankful for the amazing opportunity to spend a few days with extended family!  We truly are blessed with a wonderful family.  The cousins played together so well and had a blast.  It became obvious that Jen and I hit the same sales during Vacation Bible School week because we managed to buy the exact same swimsuits for the girls.  All four girls had matching suits and we didn’t realize it until we were pulling them out for the kids to wear!

We started out that morning clamming followed by swimming and playing so we had a chance to explore three different beaches near Boston all the same day!   Thanks Matt and Jen for showing us how to gather clams and for a fun day at the beach!  What great memories!

“A Vacation To Remember” series is a reflection on our recent trip and ways we relaxed.  Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away.  Go with a good attitude and looking for fun and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories.  It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine.  Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn.  You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!