Family Gathering

On Friday we drove down to Shelton/Olympia area to spend the weekend with Todd’s family. Todd’s brother, Keith, flew up from Arizona for a visit, the first in two years since we last saw him. On Saturday we went to Tommy (Tom’s son) & Krista’s house on Black Lake in Olympia. We had fun on the giant water trampoline with the water being surprisingly warm! Afterwards, we gathered at Tom & Cindy’s in Shelton with Kali & Brandon (Todd’s sister and her husband who live nearby) and played the Wii that we brought down. We all crashed at the house which I think is the first in a long time Cindy has had all her kids under one roof.

While we were there I took pictures of four baby birds in a basket next to the front porch. The next day they had moved out of the nest and were preparing to fly. The parents were encouraging them to get moving through their chirping. One of the babies didn’t quite get the hang of it after he flopped out of the nest, so the mom flew down to get the baby to follow her to safety. It was neat to see!

On Sunday, after church, we walked down to the creek behind the house and watched Jasmine (their dog) entertain us. She was cleaning up the creek by pulling out all the sticks she could find and laying them on the embankment, then going back for more. She’s a funny dog. We packed-up soon after but stopped in Olympia to play a few holes of disc golf with Cindy & Keith. It was nice to get away for a couple days and see family, hopefully we will get together again soon!

Red & Gold

I get about this many raspberries (large tray) every few days, so I have to freeze them or use them within a day of being picked. The golden raspberries are pretty good, but I think red is my favorite flavor :)

Chuckanut Footrace

My friend Jessica and I were walkers in the Chuckanut Footrace this weekend.  Jessica encouraged me to sign up and walk with her, so I did (it was capped at 1,000 people). The walk was beautiful through the trees and overlooking the bay. We were on the Interurban Trail for most of the 7 miles which started at Marine Park and finished at Larrabee State park. It actually was pretty fun, mostly because I had Jessica to laugh and talk with. It took us about 2 hours, which is not too bad for this being our first race. My feet were extremely sore afterwards but now I know to buy a better pair of shoes for next time. You can see our action shot by a professional photographer by clicking here. We took the one below after we got back to Jessica’s a couple hours after the race.

Strawberry Jam

Yesterday, my friend Jessica and I made some old-fashioned strawberry jam. We bought our strawberries from a local stand and spent several hours making five batches between the two of us. Mine had a few variations like strawberry-rhubarb & strawberry-raspberry (the raspberries were from our yard). I think they all taste like strawberries and sugar, lots and lots of sugar :)

It definitely was a fun experience and I am looking forward to our homemade apple sauce in the fall Jessica!

  

Backyard Creatures

I keep finding beautiful creatures in the yard. The camouflage frog was sitting in my strawberry plants, posing.

The moth looks very vogue dressed in a snowy white fur cape with zebra accents (antennae and legs).

Mr. snail also looks snazzy, especially in black & white :)

Happy 4th of July!

Leafy Green

I noticed this cool looking moth near our front door the other day. He was still there this afternoon so I thought I would get his picture before he flew away. I think he looked like a leaf, he was very green!

Summer Berries

On Monday I had fun picking strawberries and raspberries from our yard. I was amazed of how many we had growing. The previous owner had planted a row of raspberries and filled in below with strawberries. We heard the raspberries are ever-bearing so we should get another crop in the fall.  They sure are good, but don’t have a very long shelf-life…so you have to eat them all in one sitting or freeze them :)

New Friends, Fireworks & Fuchsias

Todd & I had a nice weekend despite the 90° plus weather  :) Ok, so it’s not as bad as growing up in California…but it’s hot with no air conditioning! Saturday evening we met up with our new friends from Christ Group (about 11 of us all together) to watch the fireworks in Sumas. It’s about a 10 minute ride from Everson and they have the show every year a week before 4th of July. Our friend James (Todd’s work) told us about the event because he was one of the helpers to light off the fireworks. I have to say, it was a great show. They did a good job and the finale was amazing. I hope this becomes a tradition for us.

One of my fuchsias just opened up on Saturday too. I am very excited! It’s neat to see something you planted come to life, especially beautiful and exotic fuchsia blooms. I have five planters on the front of the house with three different fuchsia types. Only one, (Lena variety) has fully opened.

Poppies

When these were beginning to sprout we thought they were weeds. So we sprayed and pulled and sprayed some more until most were gone or shriveled up. Thank goodness we still missed quite a few because they turned into beautiful poppies. I grew up with the California poppies but never realized they came in more colors than just orange. The red and purple are opium poppies :)

 

House Tour: Part 2

Here are a couple photos I took awhile ago of our master bedroom. I posted a few other decorated house pictures back in March (kind of embarrassed of the floral couches, someday soon I’ll get new ones)…I guess I am a little behind with the updates.

This is the best angle of our room. The slider gives lots of light…when we have light ;)

The dresser is in front of the wall that Todd built...it used to be a closet opening from our room into the office. The closet now only opens in the office…if that makes any sense. Remember this post?

In the Garden

I am really enjoying my garden and am so very thankful to the previous owner for planting everything and making it all so wonderful. I hope she doesn’t miss her flowers too much. I think of all the wonderful flowers in the garden, peonies are my favorite. They are just so big & beautiful. Roses are a close second.

I also wanted to share a few pictures of our patio. It is in the shape of an “L” with 31 rose bushes lining it. The picture with the shoes is looking out from our dining room slider (the short end of the “L”). Roses make for such a lovely view at dinnertime :)

*Lately, I haven’t allowed pictures to be clickable because sometimes a different picture pops up instead of the one you thought you were enlarging. I have no idea why my computer (probably camera issue) does this. I will try to remedy this, or at least allow a few that can enlarged.

*Can anyone tell what the yellow flower is at the end of this post? It looks like a daisy-type bloom, but not sure exactly.