Yes, It’s My First…

Frequenting the beach as much as we do had me thinking we'd seen it all. Boy was today full of firsts. My friend, Amy and I took our kiddos to the beach today.

First #1 The Seal

I was surprised today to see a seal gliding along the waves. It looked like a human body at first until the wave more fully formed and we got a good silhouette of its body high gloss waves today.

First #2 Annie Bannanie

She is finally back in the water for the first time since her scary roll of death in the waves a few months ago. She is loving life on the cautious side.

First #3 My New Pets

I never really got pets growing up and I just happened upon a little colony of clams/mussels/Bivalvia... whatever you want to call them. As the tide started to go out hundreds of these little guys, the size of my pinky, were left behind digging like crazy to get back into the water. I couldn't help digging them back up. Amy and I had 300 or so in our hands showing the kids the siphons and the foot that came out when they thought they were safe. Naturally, the kids all began collecting them and I took about 50 or so home. It's really fun to swish them around and watch them all furiously dig back into the sand. They are sitting in a cute crystal bowl until I get tired of looking at them. Then they will go back to the sea Nemo style by way of Australia or is that the toilet?

Since then, I decided to research them and have found the following intriguing facts:

Clams are in the class Bivalvia...they have an open circulatory system, kidneys, a heart, a mouth and an anus. What more could I possibly want in a pet?

Anyone up for an "eye-spy" can try to find the siphons (Siphons: two elongated tubes that extend out one side of the organism that act as filtering devices for food particulates in the water...yummy). They actually look pretty cool flower-esk. I find myself all too often sitting on the back porch swishing and staring. I really should find better use of my time(And yes, these are pictures of my little guys. I took the top and the bottom picture and Will was nice enough to take the middle one for me).