Sidewalk Chalk

I have the immense pleasure of watching my nephews once a week.
This past week we decided it was time to introduce our drive way to the wonderful colorful world of sidewalk chalk. Jude and Levi are well versed in the use of sidewalk chalk thanks to their fabulous mother, but for Owen it was a first.
For the most part Owen simply sat and observed his cousins drawing circles around him (literally) and pondered the colorful residue left on his chubby hands and toes. When the boys had tired of drawing circles we moved on to engaging our imaginations...funny how a line of chalk can suddenly change in to a race track. I'm sure this will not be the last time our driveway will be alive with color.

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July this year up at the King family cabin on Lk Roesiger. For the first time in who knows how many years we were blessed with an absolutely gorgeous and warm 4th. As a result, we spent most of the day outside enjoying the shallows of the lake with shovels, life jackets, buckets and beach attire galore. Owen had a blast and as usual walked fearlessly in to the water to look at the lilly pads totally unfazed by the chilly water.

We spent the day with family and friends and lots of good food and enjoyed a spectacular fireworks show put on by various people around the lake. I'm not kidding you, they are intense about their fire works shows up here. We even saw someone light two fireworks off the top off Mnt. Pilchuck which was totally illegal but also made me slightly jealous of the view they had of all the fireworks.

Summer time Salmon

A tasty summer dish when a bbq is required and a stove is forbidden.

I made this a week or two ago on a delightful sunny evening.
It perfectly reflected the way I felt about the day and left us feeling full
of delicious summer goodness. I was a little skeptical about trying a new recipe while using my coveted fresh copper river salmon fearful that the unknown would waste my tasty fish. Fortunately, it blew us out of the water with it's light flavor and ease of preparation. The other delightful part is it only requires one dish so clean up is over before you've started really!

Salmon and Veggie Packets
Grilling Book by BH&G
Makes 4 servings

Foil
*4 cups of your favorite veggies chopped in bite friendly sizes
(I used: broccoli, summer squash, red pepper, carrots and onion)
*1 lb of fresh fish in 4 pieces (I used Copper River Salmon)
*1/2 dry white wine or chicken brother
*2 tsp fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp dried crushed rosemary
*2 cloves minced garlic
*1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TBSP butter

1. Tear of an two 8 inch squares of foil for each piece of fish. Coat one side of the bottom piece with cooking spray.
2. Divide veggies evenly among the four foil packets. Top the veggies with the fish and squash.
3. In a small bowl combine the wine and spices. Drizzle over the fish and veggies; top each piece with a 1/2 TBSP of butter.
4. Place top piece of foil over fish and secure all four sides making sure there is a bit of a tent like shape in the middle of the packet on top leaving space for the steam to build.

5. For a charcoal grill, grill foil packets on a grill rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium coals for 12-14 minutes per 1/2 inch thickness of fish or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. For a gas grill, preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium, place foil packets on grill rack over heat. Cover; grill as above.

Pillow Wars

Two cute boys. Big fluffy couch pillows.
The freedom to jump unrestricted.
This is heaven.

Heather Lake

Summer came to Seattle on July 2nd. It was glorious and not to be wasted. Knowing we had a long weekend with the promise of sunshine ahead of us we intended on taking full advantage of it. First on the agenda was a hike. I bought Josh a fabulous book for his stocking this past year called Best hikes in Western Washington with kids. We perused the pages and settled on Heather Lake off the Mountain Loop Highway.

A moderate 4 mile hike (round trip) ascending through old growth forest, crossing beneath a cascading waterfall, traversing rocky slopes all to arrive at a pristine glacier lake nestled beneath the rocky cliffs of Mount Pilchuck. It was sublime to be outdoors and to see that even with a 24 lb kid strapped to my back I could still breath hiking up that mountain! (Thank you YMCA bootcamp class.)

Owen thought hiking was pretty fun, especially when Josh was behind me on the trail. He would squeal with delight, straining in the baby strap to see his Daddy, as he was certain that Josh's sole purpose in walking behind him was to play his favorite game: "I'm gonna get you..." He also had a blast testing out his own hiking boots once we got to the lake, rocks, mud, sticks, and snow...it was like heaven. I wish the camera had still worked on the way down because about five minutes in to our descent he passed out gripping his favorite stick.

I can't wait for more hikes with my two favorite people.

Cozy cabin day

A couple of weekends ago we spent the gray rainy June days at the King family cabin on Lake Roesiger. It was a rather impromptu trip and we were so glad that the Bustamante and Izzard families could join us. Generally we meet once a month (sans children) as couples to pray together for our families and marriages, and since our monthly gathering was upon we decided to spend the day together with all our crazy children.

Trying on Daddy's glasses

Since the weather was nothing but wretched we spent the day inside playing games, watching movies (well the kids did), and eating food. It could have been a miserable rainy Saturday in which we pined for warm rays of sunshine but being together turned it into a lovely and delightful day. We are blessed to have such great friends to be with.

A boy and a box

Our house is older, the kind of old where puke green linoleum (which was discovered under the equally stylish blue linoleum flooring we pulled up in our bathroom) and concrete aggregate benches in front of fireplaces in the living room were considered fashionable. The bathroom flooring was a quick enough fix, the concrete bench however remains in tact.

(Pre-move in shot...I really should do a before and after of our house)

This little bench has one redeeming quality about it- instant seating when company is over. Otherwise, in the world of "life with an almost toddler" it is simply brain damage waiting to happen. Once you add a wooden coffee table with pointy corners in to the mix, the living room transforms into a death trap. Okay, I might be slightly exaggerating BUT, our living room was not a place I felt completely comfortable leaving Owen unattended in for fear that his furniture cruising would end up in some severe facial bruising. So, we finally purchased a leather ottoman in an effort to remove at least one of the pointy obstacles in the room.

The arrival of the ottoman resulted in relief for us and a large box for Owen to play in. It's amazing how something as simple as cardboard can change the rhythm of an afternoon. Owen thought it was glorious, and after a good romp in the box, we flipped it over, cut out some holes in the end and produced an equally entertaining tunnel. Sometimes, it really is the simple things in life.

Don't you wish you had a box?

Moving furniture is tiring.

So sneaky...

There...

it...

goes.