Family! Yay!

The very last week of July was an exciting week for us. We actually have some Swecker family near us now! And by near, I mean within a couple hours. So exciting! Merle, Stacie and Morgan have been stationed at Fort Lewis just two hours north into Washington. To help with their move, Mom and Dad took the drive with them and the girls (Tess & Morgan).  Following Abi's sedation dental appointment in which she had two root canals and more than a dozen fillings (her enamal hasn't properly formed), we drove north and picked up Grandma and Grandpa from the Sweckers. Boy was that a hearty dose of Seattle/Tacoma traffic for us all! Annie had come up to watch Zach while we were at Abi's appointment so she hung around until we arrived home and we enjoyed dinner together before she headed south.

We enjoyed a great long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. We took in Damascus days. If you know Zach, you'll be shocked to hear he actually waited in line for 20+ minutes for his turn to fish in the little fishing pool. He hooked one, but lost it before they netted it. Regardless, he talks about fishing often. Who'd have guessed his patience!

 

We also headed up Hood and got a few miles in on the Salmon River trail. What a gorgeous day on the river! 

 

Monday evening of that weekend, Sweckers came down and stayed in the camper so that Mom, Dad and Tessa could fly back to Minnesota Tuesday morning. I had a work meeting and Steven knows the route to the airport so that morning, Abi and Zach stayed home with Merle, Stacie and Morgan. When I left, Abi and Zach were sitting on Merle's lap watching Monsters, Inc. This week, I hear, "Washington Washington Washington" coming from our back seat in the car. I asked Abi, "What's Washington?"  She says, "Its where Uncle Merle, Auntie Stacie and Morgan live Mom!" Yes, we're excited to have family close. And it warms my heart beyond words that within hours of meeting, my children took to Sweckers as if they've always lived a few hours away and not a few thousand miles away.

Harvest!

What a wonderful time of year! We've had two cuttings of broccoli and enough lettuce that I've given 6 heads of it away. The beans, tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, pumpkin, zucchini, basil, carrots, and peas are all growing great guns too.  The kids and I did just plant another crop of peas and lettuce to have ready when I pull these plants. I couldn't find Zach this afternoon in the yard... and there he was. Eating the broccoli right off the plant!

And we have our first egg! I heard quite the commossion coming from the coop as Abi and I were leaving to pick up Zach from our friend's house. So I later went to let the girls out and just thought I'd check the nesting boxes. And there it was! The reason Daisy was making SUCH an INSANE ruckus earlier today.

 

We're enjoying have the five chickens though Steven's said a few nice words having the luck of stepping in the "natural fertilizer" found around the yard when the girls have been allowed to range frequently. The two younger hens aren't quite full grown yet and likely won't start laying until mid-late August. 

Belle & Sticky

Daisy, Pocket & Rocket

Prineville Reservoir camping

Our friends Lashaunna and Sandor along with their 3 kids invited us camping at Prineville Reservoir in central Oregon last week. This is the 7th year they've gone in a row... And the first year they've had wind and rain storms every day we were there! Boy, were we grateful we had the camp trailer and were not tent camping. It was a quick learning curve for us on how to set the trailer and all the hook ups to go. I learned how fast my dishwashing habits contribute to a full gray water tank too. Despite the weather, we had an absolutely fabulous time! The kids could have camped for weeks more.  Steven and I not so much with the weather we had. We were awoken each night by down pours or wind gusts rocking the camper and the kids slept through it all! So each morning by 6:20 a.m., Zach would roll over in his bed, push our curtain aside and announce, "I awake! Chocolate milk." 

"We're mermaids!" Katy & Abi

Abi's little mime

Looking up to the camp from the lake... Abi make a "scoot" path with her tush the entire way.

Abi, Jake & Zach

 

Zach & Katrina

 

A boy and his cheetos

 Our camp was about 40 yards from the lake. We were surprised how well the kids did staying out of the water. As soon as they had permission, they were in at least up to their knees each day. The kids immensely enjoyed throwing rocks into the lake. It was amusing to watch the hard core water sporters that were there tubing, wakeboarding and skiing in the rain. One day broke into the 70s, but it sure wasn't balmy water sports weather in my mind!

Sandor & Jake

We lucked out and Shane & fam, Shaun & Michelle as well as Suzie and Larette were all able to drive over from Redmond to visit us while we were there also. There's just something great about fellowship around the campfire with a cold beer in hand!

Headed East

Months ago, I knew Mom, Caroline and Chris were cookin' up a road trip plan to surprise Merle, Stace and girls for Tessa's graduation in Connecticut. I was thrilled when Christine was going to be able to join the trip but sad to not be a part of the fun. Until 2 weeks before the trip that is! Steven said I could go ahead and book my airfare. We'd just been discussing how a break from the day in day out busyness of the kids, the house, my work, doctoring both my hip and Abi's fever and him being gone on shifts left me very ready for a break. 
It just got better from there. I got a flight into Hartford and Evi took the train up for NYC. She and Mom gabbed the night away waiting for my 12:15am arrival. After more gabs and a short night of rest, the Swecker clan headed to Morgan's fast pitch ball game to surprise them. Evi and I took our rental and headed east...to Rhode Island of course! My bucket list includes seeing all 40 states. As of this past week, I only have 10 to go. Evi and I enjoyed an amazing blueberry summer ale along with our bacon wrapped tater tots smothered in cheese, jalapenos and scallions. If we weren't full enough from that, we added a delicious pesto chicken pizza to it. Yes, Newport Rhode Island was definitely worth the drive! We enjoyed our afternoon there bumming around town and just enjoying some hang time.

 

 That evening after dropping our rental, we surprised Merle, Stace, Tess & Morgan when they arrived back at the auntie's rented 1800's house. This made my soul very happy as Stace had just posted something priceless on Facebook about wishing I was there as the aunties were getting settled in.

The rest of the 5 day trip included a day trip into Boston.  What an absolutely fabulous city! We grabbed a beer at Cheers Bar of course: Sam Adams Boston Red Brick is a great microbrew poured in Boston only.  We enjoyed lots of history, good food, a morning at the beach and soul refreshing time with Chris, Caroline, Christine, Tessa, Morgan, Stace, Merle, Evi and of course Mom. Several rounds of Bananagrams were played, lots of GPS directions were taken from my phone and several new wines and microbrews were tasted.

Headed South

Earlier in June, we headed south to help celebrate Papa's birthday.  If you look close, you may see that the 1 and the 7 are some how transposed on his birthday cake! It was a weekend of great weather so we headed to the strawberry farm. Lone Pine Farms has goats, sheep, a great play set, sandbox and of course fabulous berries and food. We picked almost a gallon and a half of berries and then enjoyed a picnic of fresh farm foods for lunch as well.

 Ray and Donna threw a wonderful Sunday morning brunch garden party for Papa's birthday! The weather could not have cooperated better for the gathering of friends which also included Ken & Kyong all the way from Missoula, MT.

Projects, visits, spring...Pooped!

Oh my what a wonderfully full spring we've had! In March, we had a visit from Grandpa Mike. Grannie & Papa visited each weekend. Then we got into April and Mom arrived for two weeks. Mom departed Saturday and we pick up Malcolm on Friday (a very rare wonderful treat!). With all the entertaining supervising by Gramma, we managed to get two apple trees (Fuji and Golden Delicious) planted in the back of the lot. The berry boat finally was filled and planted with nine strawberry plants (Quinault and Rainier).  Two yards of river rock have been spread around the lilac adjacent to the new deck and we're hoping to have the new gravel patio/rock wall done by mid-May.  With the weather getting nicer each week, I find we're back to spending more time outside than inside. What a blessing! God's great earth is so inspiring and relaxing! The tulips, daffodils and crocus are done blooming and the primroses and bleeding heart are in full swing. Today I saw more blossoms on the iris, honeysuckle and clematis burgeoning with growth.

 

The kids are growing too! I can't believe it but Zach and Abi can wear the same shoes.  There are a few size 5 1/2 shoes of Zach's that Abi likes and fits her feet into. Zach is putting together two and three words sentences. He really believes you should understand the majority of his talking. So, if he asks something and you correctly repeat it to him, he says, "K!" and off he goes to do whatever it was he asked!  Abi's class at day school is wrapping up the alphabet. This week we're learning about the letter V.   As a result of her great teachers, Abi often will point out letters and numbers she sees throughout her day.  So fun!

Investigate

I had the silly  idea to try to snap a few photos of the kids today... Here's the progression of Zach discovering he cracked the shell of one of the real eggs.

Abi has learned that if she laughs, Zach continues what he's doing!