Long Beach

Last weekend (as in a week ago, now!), we went to Long Beach for another clam tide and to see the family--my dad came into town to dig clams, and Brenda, Tom and Zellie went, so of course we had to go, too!

We had a lovely trip, as we usually do. Chris got two limits of clams AND a limit of oysters, Tom brought his spring salmon to share--I think the kids and I have more than exceeded our mercury levels for the next year!

Only an hour after we got there, my dad had to park the tractor back in the warehouse, and invited the kids all along for a ride:

That probably made Danny's entire trip, right there!

My grandma had bought another ping pong table (they had one quite awhile ago, she got rid of it, and has now decided that it would be good for my grandpa to have to play on--and hot damn, he's pretty good at ping pong!!). Chris and Tom played a lot; I tried to see if Danny could do it yet, it was hilarious how he "played"; Zeus had found yet another ball that he loves--I'm not sure what's wrong with him.

Saturday, it rained almost all day. Brenda and I managed to get the kids out for a trek through the woods, which I didn't bring my camera for; we planned on going back with the camera, b/c the kids all loved it so much and there were a million good photo-ops, but we never made it back. So we spent the rest of the day trashing the house,

letting Zeus lick clean the windows and walls,

and then going downtown and buying a ton of candy and ice cream. I didn't take pictures of that; I'm hoping I'll forget it happened! I like to think we sort of offset it by coming home and eating salmon, salad and sweet potatoes...

I guess someone felt sorry for us, b/c Sunday was gorgeous.

Chris and Tom didn't return from clam digging and oyster picking/shucking for quite a while, but we were able to be outside, and my mom stopped by for awhile.

Danny worked on digging like a dog:

These next pictures are all of the same iris in my grandma's yard. My grandma dug up these roots from an iris HER mom had in their yard in Yakima. I think my grandma said she planted it five years ago, and this is the first year it bloomed. She was very happy, it was very pretty. I'll have to dig up some of her roots in a few years!

 

And I finally remembered to take a picture of my grandparents with all of their great-grandchildren!

When Chris returned, we headed down to the beach, for some bike riding on the Discovery Trail, lunch, and flying kites and building sand forts. If you're ever in Long Beach, take bikes for the trail! It's beautiful; I can't wait until we finally get a bike for me, and a bike trailer and we can bike the whole thing (hopefully this summer?). I have to brag, the trail was my dad's baby while he was city manager in Long Beach--I heard a lot about it, and it's neat to see it finally completed.

And then the camera batteries died. That beach photo is the only one I got--at least I made it pretty good! Chris, Isaac and I all ended up getting slightly pink from our time on the beach, it was that nice. We didn't get home until late, and poor Chris cleaned clams until after 10 pm--while yours truly sat on the couch watching Desperate Housewives.

Hey, it's hard work, photographing the family weekend.