Bargains and Crabs

I am known to be a very successful bargain hunter/shopper. Saturday Royce and I were out and about and found these two dresses that would fit Janelle and Malia perfectly. They wanted their picture taken yesterday and Zachariah wanted to join his sisters in the shot..the sun was shining through the cloud haze making them all squint, they sure look nice.We bought the two dresses together and spent less than $10.00 we both were very happy with our find and the girls were thrilled and of course wanted them ready to wear to church for Sunday. I think we got an excellent deal.

Janelle and Malia both wanted their hair put up as well and enjoyed getting ready to go.

Last week one of Royce's patients brought in a bag full of rock crab and gave him 8 crabs to take home and cook up. We set up our camp stove (it's a beast) outside to cook up the little guys. I suggested this knowing that doing a crab boil makes for very stinky aroma's. Here is Royce cleaning them up with the garden hose before putting them in the steam basket. We opted to steam them verses boil, it just seamed easier with the same result..cooked crab yumm.

Here is one of the small ones. We actually got two meals out of the 8 crabs. One was of us just eating crab, bread and salad, Elise and the boys were gone that night. Then on Sunday we took the rest of the crab meat and made a huge chef salad with it. Both were delicious meals and everyone got to enjoy some crab. Royce and I both have some of the nicest patients around and they are so thoughtful of us at different times of the year, this was a real treat and one that we all enjoyed. Royce and I have never cooked our own crab nore have we cleaned them. I taught Royce how to rip the top part off and clean all the gunk out inside..I guess I have watched a few times and over came my issues with doing this, Royce was helpful to do this part too. Malia says she does not like fish or anything fish related even crab, she is the only one who simply would not eat the crab. She also didn't like that we had to put them in the pot alive and could hear their legs clinking against the pan and lid, maybe this was a tad traumatic for her to witness. However she has claimed for some time now that she does not like fish so that part was already established before she witnessed her parents cooking stuff alive. Hopefully she is not scared for life, then she watched us crack them and get the meat out and didn't say a word so hopefully it all made sense once she began to see the results, regardless she didn't want any and stuck to her story that she doesn't like fish, poor kid she doesn't know what she is missing. She used to say she didn't like artichokes, that has finally changed she now loves them.

The boys went rafting Thursday through Saturday, they got home late Saturday eve. They had a lot of fun and enjoyed the zip line that dropped them into the river they were rafting on. The Freemantles have a really nice cabin on some property about an hour away from Eureka and they are so kind to let people go out and use their place. The boys went with their scout troop and simply had a fun time. They were so very tired when they got home on Saturday and were happy to be home.