Thursday, December 11, 2008

Crabs and tidepools and cheese, oh my!

Today we took a little day trip over to Tillamook to explore some tidepools, partake of "cream cones" a la Tillamook and of course, pick up some seafood for my starving husband who can't eat most food anymore.  

While Chris was in rehab, my family tried to get out and about with the girls quite a bit.  With us living in a somewhat new and unfamiliar place for them, they sought out what they knew.  This resulted in quite a few trips to...Tillamook.  This was quite evident this morning when I asked Elise if she wanted to go to the beach in hopes of enticing her to get dressed, which she never really wants to do.  I repeated "Do you want to go the beach and see the cows?", to which she quickly responded to by telling me that she wanted cream cones.  I guess Tillamook Cheese Factory made a little bit of an impression on her.  About 10 minutes later, Chris went to the store for a quick compact flash card run (YES, my husband can run errands again!!!) and Elise had a gigantic freak out because she was just positive that Chris was going to go see the cows, the beach and her cream cones without her!

A few hours later (can you tell that we have 6 kids?), we were off.  We made perfect time to enjoy some tidepools (which we've never really done here) near Tillamook Bay.  The girls loved finding purple crabs a plenty, fish, 2 anemones, and many, many shells which were each collected like they were the only shell that my sweet little girls had ever seen.  All of this exploring despite the slight drizzle and cold weather proves that we have become true Oregonians.  That and the fact that we held our own little beach clean up as we left.  :)  Chris maneuvered along the slippery rocks quite well, but he did have an altercation with a rebellious group of barnacles that resulted in way more blood than I personally like to see. (ask my parents about how much that is.  None.  Still not quite as gross as when Autumn got her tongue stuck to her braces the other day.  I was SO grateful that I had Chris at home to take care of that gross moment.)  

Ok.  So here is where I put in writing just how much I love my husband.  I'll preface by saying that he has been extremely diligent with his diet.  He has now lost 20 lbs since his stroke and although he is on a very low dose of cholesterol and blood pressure medication, he has lowered his blood pressure to 120/75 (from 220!!) and his Cholesterol to 139 from 270.  Ok.  Back to how much I love my husband.  I *hate* seafood.  Blah.  Gross.  Yuck.  He loves it.   Slightly allergic to it, but he loves it.  And he can actually eat seafood right now!  So we went to a little shop with very fresh and very cheap crab and oysters.  Dinner for the whole seafood eating portion of our family (everyone minus me) for less than $18.  Here was the catch: First of all, I had to go into this store that stunk to high heaven of this seafood that I hate.  Then, I had to drive in a car that stunk to high heaven of this seafood that I hate.  And last, but not least, my house smells like crab now instead of Christmas trees (which I love) after cracking open all of this seafood for my dear, seafood loving husband who cannot open it when his weak right hand.  Oh....and I haven't gone around complaining either.  I saved it all for my dear blog readers, mainly because I want to turn to this when Chris tries to say that I don't love him.  Here is the proof, honey. :)  I love you more than I love my hands not smelling like oysters. (which is a lot!)  

Sorry, got way off track there.  It was a wonderful day with lots of fun.  It doesn't seem like we have fun outings very much anymore.  It is either a therapy day or a school day.  Today was....a great little family field trip day.  Another cute kid moment from today?  I commented to Chris how crazy it was that we had this nice little haven behind the rocks, among the tidepools while the waves were crashing on the other side.   All of a sudden, Hannah was urging us to leave quickly and was almost in tears.  She was pretty sure those waves were going to come over.  I guess she isn't my dare devil in all things.  

2 comments:

Patrick and Paige said...

I love your blogs, They are so fun to read.

Annalia said...

Sounds like fun, Sarah! I'm putting that on my list of things to do - minus the seafood (I love Chris, but not that much!) next time we come to visit!