Picking Strawberries

You can't live where we do and not have the experience of going to the strawberry patch. It is one of our family traditions each summer. The kids love it, I love it, and I also love the photo opportunity it gives me. The above shot is of one of the full flat boxes we brought home. I ended up with two full flats and the berries are in the freezer now waiting for me to find the time to turn them into jam and other goodies. They make THE BEST strawberry smoothies! Here are a few more of my favorite shots from our picking this year.

Isn't he cute! I love this man!

 

The best part about the strawberry patch is that they actually encourage you to eat while you pick. Makes the outing so much fun and I don't have to stress about the kids eating before we pay. We might pay a little more but not much and these berries are sooo worth it too.

 Little Miss Em was in HEAVEN. This is what she looked like the entire time.

Kiera was good at helping Emma find some more yummy berries to eat. That girl didn't stop eating the ENTIRE time we were there. I was sooo sure she was going to get sick. She definitely got her dose of vitamin C for the day!

Ethan showing off a double strawberry

 I was taking pictures of everyone when Kiera came up to me and insisted that I needed to have my picture taken too. So, I handed her the camera and she took this one of me.

My little berry pickers. Although I am sure they ate more than they put in the crate

I think this was my all time favorite shot from the day! I am pretty sure I lost this boy a couple times because he was too busy sitting and eating. I just love it!

Final Boise Trip Post Milestones

During our Boise trip we reached two big milestones. Unfortunately I only had my camera phone to capture these moments, but at least I have something to document them. The first one was Emma finally taking to the water after dreading it for practically the entire trip. Here are a couple photos of her and I in the pool near my mom's house.

The second milestone was that Kiera, my sweet little girl lost her first tooth! She had ran into one of the neighbors while playing the week before and had knocked it loose. Dan was hoping her gums would tighten back up but there was no going back. The tooth was going to go. She ended up loosing it at grandma's so we had to call the tooth fairy to let her know she needed to make a special trip out of town to pick up Kiera's tooth. She didn't seem to mind though, and she left quite the surprise in exchange for this first tooth. Just check it out!

Since our trip, the tooth next to the one she lost has become loose as well. Kiera was pointing it out to me the other day. Hopefully we'll be home for that one so the tooth fairy doesn't have to make another special trip. We are going to be out of town quite a bit the next few weeks for some camping adventures and a trip to the Oregon coast. Can't wait!

And last but not least I wanted to share the view we found on our way home. Kiera had been asking to stop at a waterfall (a girl after my own heart!) And we found one! It is called Deception Falls. I don't know the history of it at all. We didn't stop for very long since we were pretty anxious to get home and didn't read any of the trail signs but it was beautiful! Waterfalls are the one thing that can bring me to tears just by standing and looking at them. Here are some of the shots I took.

It was a good family vacation and I am glad we went. It takes a lot of planning and can be tough driving for long periods at a time with little ones but the memories we make in the process are so worth it.

We are off to another adventure in a couple weeks for a Glenn family reunion at the coast. We'll be spending a week in a tent, in the sand, and hopefully some more sunshine. But sunshine or not we're looking forward to seeing grandma and grandpa Glenn and our cousins from Utah that we haven't seen since Christmas time. But until then I have some strawberries I need to turn into jam that we picked at our local strawberry farm. I'll post on that soon.

Boise Trip Part 3

The rest of our stay in Boise was spent playing outside and enjoying the sunshine! It was sooo good to get out of the gray, cold, and rain of Seattle. We went to the pool just about everyday. We had BBQ's, Picnics, and I even went to visit my Grandma Thornock (from my mom's side). I wish I would have taken more pictures but I was more caught up in being present rather than staying behind the camera lens. I still can't believe I didn't get one shot of us at the pool except for on my phone and even then it was only of Emma and I. But we had lots of fun and I enjoyed seeing my family, cousins and their families.  I think for this post I am mostly going to put up pictures from the trip and I will caption them as I see fit.

Went to a park and let the kids ride their scooters on the trail and play on the playground but it was a tad too hot so we sat in the shade and decided to head back to grandma's to get cool again.

At the splash park for a picnic and a community movie in the park night. Dan had fun trying to get me wet in the fountains. I got him back later by emptying the picnic drinking water cooler down his front. We both were soaked by the time the movie came around. Made for a chilly evening.

On this trip I got to meet my mom's husband for the first time. He is a great guy and I am so happy my mom and him found each other. And Kiera pointed out that now she has "two grandmas and two grandpas!" This is a shot of Emma letting Grandpa Clint hold her for the first time.

 Emma after the cousins did a number on her hair. They tried making her look like Cindy Lou Who from Dr. Suess. No one with golden locks gets past the cousins!

Kiera LOVED the splash park even with the breeze there was no pulling her away from the water unless it was absolutely necessary.

Emma wasn't quite keen on the idea of getting wet, and it was a struggle to get her to do anything in the water at all. But on our last trip to the pool she finally warmed up to the idea and got in the water with me! Again, that picture is on my phone. I'll have to see if I can add it later.

 

Kayla worked wonders and got Emma to touch the water without screaming! Way to go Aunt Kayla!

 

After a visit with Great Grandma Thornock, the 5 of us went out for lunch at Denny's. The air conditioning felt good.

Before we left we made sure we paid a visit to the new frozen yogurt shop "Yogurtz". Its a pay by the ounce, pick as many flavors as you want. then top it with anything you could imagine kind of place. They had a whole wall of soft serve machines that dispensed flavor after flavor of frozen yogurt. Then when you got to the toppings it was almost an all you could eat buffet in itself. They had anything from gummy bears, to pop rocks, to sauces, to wedding mints. The kids loved picking out their flavors and were hyped up on sugar for the rest of the day.

 Our last night we had everyone who could come over. My cousins, their spouses and kids, my aunt with her kids and a few others. It was the sort of family together time I have been missing. I love it when everyone gets together. It doesn't matter if we have anything planned, we just hang out and love being together. Here's a picture of a few of us throwing pop-its  before the kids headed off to bed.

And I just had to add this one too. Here's my cousin Courtney with her daughter Riley. Her and Emma are just a month a part. It was so much fun to see them together. They were just infant infants when they were together last.

I will post one more time about our trip and the site we stopped at on our way home, so stay tuned.

Boise Trip Continued DETOUR!

  We camped over night at a random campground just after Leavenworth. I don't even know what it was called or how we got there. But it was a nice little place and was right next to a bathroom! Gotta love that with 3 little ones.  I didn't get many pictures of the actual camping however this is from when we were leaving and the tent was already partially taken down. The kids were finishing up their cold cereal breakfast and I took a couple shots.

As we were leaving we drove around the campground to explore the possibility of stopping here again in the future. It looks like a pretty nice place. The water was really high though. Check it out...

Not exactly the best place for a picnic at the moment. But I am sure it is beautiful when the water is where it should be. There were also basketball and tennis courts, a playground for the kids, a nice looking dock for boating and a really nice covered amputheater/eating area. Not as forested as we're used to but really nice.

The drive was pretty good. The kids did really well and were very pleasant for the most part. It was a long day though. We drove all day and couldn't figure out why we weren't getting anywhere we recognized. We then decided it was because the last time we drove to Boise was when it was dark. So we drove on. However, our world came crashing down when we saw a sign that said in the next 10 miles we would be in Coure de lene'!!!! WHAT! Where on earth did we turn off wrong? We now had about another 6 hour drive added to our trip. It was not fun! So to make our trip bearable we stopped A LOT. We stopped at a river and let the kids get out and throw rocks. We stopped at a rest stop just to walk around and roll down the hill. We stopped at a park and played on the playground, We stopped at a drive in for some burgers. We stopped a lot and it may not have been the funnest of circumstances but we made due and made the most of it.  And I don't think I would change it much either because we got to give our kids some fun memories along the way. And that my friends is what it's all about.

 

 

 After it was all said and done we pulled into Weiser, ID and stopped again for chinese for a late dinner and then drove one more hour to my mom's house. We pulled in about 10:30pm. It was a LOOONG day. But it was oh so good to see my family! Just that alone made it all worth it.

I do want to mention however that the next day we sat at my mom's computer and bought this... No more unplanned 6 hour detours for us.

Boise Trip and The Alps Candy Store

On our way to Boise last week we made our 1st stop at one of our favorite candy shops, The Alps. It is located just out of Leavenworth, WA on HWY 2. And if you've never been and are ever passing through there you really should stop. It has become our family tradition. I always get my old fashioned sanded lemon drops, the kids pick out their giant lollipops, and Dan always gets something with chocoalte. This year he got milk chocolate seafoam. We love the prices and they have awesome candy. You should see their line up of fudges in all sorts of flavors and they make it there too! We love stopping at The Alps. We don't just do it for the smiles mind you, we also do it for our sanity. It is amazing how long one of those suckers can keep a kid happy and pleasant in the car!

Ok ok, I guess we do do it for the smiles too.

Excuse my absence

My life seems to have switched to crazy mode lately. I am teaching zumba classes 4 times a week, and I just got back from a week long trip with the family tonight. It was a great get away. I will post our activities soon. So please excuse my absence. I am still here.