Travel & Vacation: Clamming and Playing at the Beach!
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!!!
Clamming near Boston! During low tide we all went to the beach to go clamming! What a fun gooey adventure – Karlie’s explanation of clamming!
They found one - Daddy and Karlie digging up a clam! Daddy and Karlie found a clam and are digging it out of the mud!
Such a great adventure, searching for clams! 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.
Got another CLAM! YAY!!! Daddy and Karlie got another clam, oh boy! This is FUN!
Karlie covered in mud but so proud of the clam she found all on her own! 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!
Basket full of delicious clams! 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!!!
Every kids dream (at least kids like Karlie) mud, digging for clams, low tide, and fun at the beach! 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.
Most unusual door handle for a gate! 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!
Brina having fun in the sand at our "private" beach! 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.
Floating along together! Super fun! 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 own private beach area! Perfect spot for the kids to play, have a BBQ, and relax! 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!
Tide is moving in and covering the sandy island, Brina and Karlie are having a blast digging in the sand as the water continues to rise! 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!
Neat little town on the island! 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)!
Karlie with a full dump truck of sand, life at the beach is so much fun! Digging up the sand to fill up the dump truck! It is amazing how entertaining a toy can be on the beach!
Brina digging in the sand at 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).
She cracks me up! Karlie thought it was hilarious when the waves flipped her dump truck full of sand! Karlie tickled silly by the dump truck being tipped over with the waves. Fun times at the beach!
Brina building up her castle moat! It takes some serious concentration to build a castle and moat, however it can entertain for hours!
The girls had so much fun with their cousins and friends at the beach! 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!
Travel & Vacation: Family Fun – Boston, MA
Going to church with our cousins! The girls had a blast spending time with their cousins in Boston. They thought it was great getting a chance to go the early service at their church!
Beach time! The girls having a blast at a Boston beach. Their first exclamation after getting out of the van was “BEACH ROCKS” and then proceeded to collect all the beach rocks they could carry. The beaches in the South have seashells but not beach rocks so they were convinced these were amazing commodities and should gather them all. They quickly learned that the New England beaches contained MANY beach rocks. I think we still managed to collect a few but not nearly as many as they initially intended.
Jen picked up some fun Red, White and Blue Star Marshmallows for S'mores! Both the kids and adults had a blast roasting these cool marshmallows over the fire! They made awesome S’mores!
Daddy and Beanie watching the waves on the edge of the water! The water was MUCH colder in Boston (compared to South Carolina and Georgia). Everyone had a grand time swimming in the water. I was actually surprised how long the kids stayed in the water with it being so chilly!
Brina concentrating on roasting her marshmallows. It’s not every day you get to roast marshmallows on the beach in your swimsuit, life jacket and covered in sand. What a great day!
Karlie roasting her stack of Red, White & Blue marshmallows! Karlie talking and roasting. We had to make her go wash off before doing the marshmallows because she was covered in sand from head to toe, she loves playing (digging) on the beach!
Brina at the beach! Brina being festive at the beach. It was a lot of fun playing at the beach for several hours!
Karlie hanging out at the beach! Karlie stopping only for a moment for me to snap a picture. She was enjoying her time swimming and playing the in sand!
The base to a bonfire near us on the beach! It was hilarious watching the guys carry out the jungle gym, it was the base to a big bonfire next to us.
Karlie contemplating her next sand project! Karlie was frequently found creating a castle, a big moat, or some other creation in the sand.
Beach chickies! They love the beach so much it is such a chore trying to get them to pause for a picture! Jen picked up the snazzy head bands and stickers, super cool!
The jungle gym is now buried under all the other stuff, it's going to be a big bonfire! The bonfire is getting bigger! There were HUGE bonfires up and down the beach. This was one near us. From where we were located we could see 12 other ones!
The jungle gym bonfire is up in flames! It was amazing how big the bonfires were on the beach. You could look down the beach and see rows of them!
We had a blast spending time with our family up in Boston! Thanks Matt and Jen for sharing your weekend and family with us. We had a lot of fun relaxing and seeing the area with the whole family. Thankful for the opportunity to spend some time with everyone. It was a lot of fun hanging out and exploring the area. Many amazing memories were made over the weekend!
“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!
