The Farmers Market

I am ashamed to admit that after five years living here, we have never checked out the local Farmers Market before today. I have meant to, even tried to, many times, but for one reason or another, we never got there. Now I know what we've been missing - a lot! The market was quite good sized, held in the parking lot of a huge church downtown, and there was so much wonderful produce, flowers, and various other specialty items. The kids and I had a great time. I picked up $20 from the ATM on my way there, since I am usually an all-credit gal (miles!) but I knew that cash would be king at the Farmers Market. Needless to say, I came home with zero. We got a bag of salad greens, a huge cucumber, a pint of mixed cherry tomatoes, a pair of beets, and four enormous peaches - all organic. Oh - and a gorgeous bouquet of flowers!

The moment I got home (dinnertime) I snapped into gear, making tacos, and chopped up our own two little tomatoes - my first and maybe only harvest from our own garden this year, and made a salad with the FM greens, tomatoes, and cucumber. The greens were too firm and bitter for my taste, but the tomatoes and cucumber were fantastic.


If you haven't checked out your local Farmers Market yet, get thee down there ASAP, the season is almost over (ours goes for three more weeks before winter hiatus.)

Do the Puyallup!

For those of you not from the Northwest (or even not from the Seattle area) you may not know what a phenomenon The Fair is around here. A small town called Puyallup (pronounced "pew-AL-up") hosts a truly awesome fair for three weeks every September, and it's the best one I've ever attended. I grew up loving the fair - my grandfather worked the refrigeration systems at the Oregon State Fair, which was only a few blocks from my grandparents' house growing up, so we made it a family tradition to go to the fair with them every summer and the memories are sweet. I really enjoy everything about the fair - the rides, the animals, the demonstrations in the exhibit hall, and best of all, the food. So it's no surprise that I want my kids to learn to love the fair as much as I do - and I think we're on our way. Yesterday, Justin and I took the kids to the Puyallup Fair and we all enjoyed ourselves tremendously! The weather was incredible - 78 or 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We get like 3 of these days per year here in the Seattle area so when it happens, people get crazy!

Last year, my friend Marie came up from Portland for the fair and we took Brooke, then 2, and Justin stayed home with Jack, then 3 months old. Brooke had fun, but there were a lot of rides she couldn't really go on by herself because she didn't really get it. This year, we have clearly turned a corner. She couldn't get enough!! She is a thrill-seeker just like me.

Clean, dressed, and excited, ready to go to the fair...

Moments before slamming her head into the mirrored wall in the fun-house. Oops.

The carousel. Finally, a ride that Jack can go on with us! (At least he could after I fibbed and told the operator he was 2...)

That's Brooke on the yellow airplane, white sunglasses and curly hair are about all that you can see. She grinned at us and gripped the steering wheel every time she flew around the corner!

One of the best rides of all is the Giant Slide. You can see in the top pic how big it is, you have to climb over 100 steps to get to the top. Justin and I each took a turn on this one with Brooke.

Self portrait. Jack will have a lot more fun next year when he can go on more rides.

I caught this little lady with my camera through a window while we were eating lunch. I thought she was awfully cute and patriotic and check her out, partaking in the Krusty Pups (aka corndogs) and curly fries. You go girl!

Of course, an elephant ear was eaten by THIS little girl... who worships elephants!

And so it ended... two tired kiddos who came home and took bubble baths, ate dinner, and fell asleep by 6:30pm. What a day!

The Circus! (and I don't mean my kids)

Today, we went to see the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus in Everett. I think I was a little surprised at how much fun we had! Those guys put on an amazing show, and tickets cost less than $20 each, so I have to say I was impressed! Brooke is WAAAYYY into elephants, so I knew she would be thrilled to see the elephants in the show, and Jack was captivated by the lights and music and clowns for about 45 minutes and then he decided he just wanted to get OUT OF MY LAP. And Justin's lap was not cutting it either. At one point Justin had to just get up and take him to the aisle, he was so squirmy. Oh well, I guess you can't expect too much sitting still from a 1 year old.


Brooke thoroughly enjoyed a $12 bag of cotton candy, which was soon ALL OVER her face and hands. We escaped with only one crying fit (Brooke apparently wanted popcorn, REALLY BADLY, but forgot to mention it until we were in the parking garage. Oops.) We had dinner at Chevy's, which was not as good as Justin and I remembered it from years past, and Brooke spilled two huge glasses of ice water on our table which was actually quite comical. But it was fun nonetheless and both kids crashed instantly in their beds when we got home.



Oh, and if you are looking for a funny online circu game that kept my 3-year old laughing hysterically for 1/2 hour the other night, check here.

First day of pre-school!

Wow! She did it! Brooke had an excellent time at her first day of pre-school. Justin followed us in his car so he could come in and see the classroom and kiss her goodbye. We got there and she dove right into an activity (there was Play-doh out on a table with cookie cutters, one of her favorite activities). She didn't even care that we were leaving. We stole a quick kiss and walked out the door and I don't even think she noticed. I would have been sad except that she was so looking forward to this day and she's been ready for school for a long time now, so the whole experience was 100% positive. When I picked her up, 2.5 hours later, she walked out of the room a little glazed over, but within a minute she was excitedly telling me all about her day. Over lunch she told me that one girl cried and her mommy had to come pick her up. Brooke said she didn't miss me (I asked) and she can't wait for Monday. Awesome, I'm so proud of my girl!

In other news, I am thrilled to say that I just hired a housekeeper! Woo hoo. Every other week, starting next week, and the price I was quoted was $30/month less than what I was prepared to spend (the amount freed up in babysitting dollars now that pre-school has begun). And, they can come while we're out of the house on one of the pre-school mornings, which is perfect. I didn't want to have to get out of the house just because the housekeeper was here. I am doing the happy dance right now!

Labor Day Weekend

We celebrated Labor Day weekend with a day trip to Mount Rainier. I can't believe that we've lived here for 5 years (and Justin grew up here!) and have not been yet. It's a truly phenomenal and gorgeous place. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

On the way there, we noticed the temperature dropping. Little did I know that this photo would not be the end of the low temps (at the lodge, it was 36 degrees and snowing! In August!) Can you tell by Justin's face that we were pumped up to get out of the house for the day?


Jack was decked out in his new Chuck Taylors (and a bag of cheese ritz bits, apparently) for the event. Must look snappy.


We stopped for lunch at one of the visitor lodges. The kids met a bear.

A short walk was taken, rocks were balanced on, nature was inspected.


The highlight of the trip was Christine Falls - absolutely gorgeous! Above the falls, the river comes crashing around a corner and has carved a graceful arc out of the rock. Really spectacular. I spent a fair bit of time freaking about how easy it would be for someone to fall off the cliff though, as Justin pointed out. Hands were held tightly.




It was a lovely day, we'd do it again in a heartbeat. Next time we'd like to camp out one night so we can spend more time there and see more! The wildflowers were still in bloom at the higher altitudes, so I'm sure in mid-summer the park is unbelievably beautiful when they are in bloom in the meadows.

Snoqualmie Falls

Today, we had the pleasure of meeting up with our friends Dandy, Sophia and Gavin, who are visiting from North Carolina. It was a gorgeous day, mid-80's and sun so we went to Snoqualmie Falls. The views were spectacular and the kids had a blast running around on the grass and climbing on rocks. It was really nice to see Brooke and Sophia playing together - they are only 3 days apart in age and both are tall girls, and it was fun to see how much they have in common! They are both very articulate and bright, so it looked like they had a lot of fun playing together. We convened at a local restaurant for a nice lunch afterward, and then came home so Jack could crash. Fun day!

Our Trip to the Dairy Farm

My good friend Marie came up from Portland for a visit this weekend. We had pedicures and lunch out on Saturday, and when Jack woke up from his nap, we packed up the whole family and Marie in the Family Truckster and headed out to the country. Marie has a friend who runs a dairy farm with her husband about 45 minutes from our house, and she had invited us to come for a visit. We had a fantastic time! We had no idea our visit would be so fun and educational. Leann and Mike are two of the most gracious people I've ever met - they took 2 hours out of their day to show us around the dairy farm and explain how everything works. We asked a LOT of questions and Leann was happy to answer them all. It was a very impressive operation - almost 800 cows, mostly Holsteins and also a few Jerseys. They are in production 24/7/365 - which translates to a whole truckload (around 7,000 gallons!) of raw milk every day. Some interesting factoids that we picked up:

• A milk cow can have a career of 16 years or more
• Cows weigh about 125 pounds at birth.
• A cow produces on average 7-10 gallons of milk and per day.
• Cows like mariachi music. In fact, when these cows hear it playing in the milking room, they begin to "let down" their milk!
  
• For every gallon of milk they produce, they also produce 3 gallons of manure :-)
• Investing in the cows' comfort pays big dividends in higher milk production.
• Cows get 2 months paid sabbatical each year to graze and frolic (who says happy cows only live in California?)
• The two biggest times of year for milk demand are back to school time in the fall and the Superbowl (because of all the cheese consumed on pizza!)
• Cows don't have teeth in front on the top, instead they have a leather-like pad that enables them to grasp blades of grass with their bottom teeth.
  

Our kids were absolutely fascinated by the whole thing. Jack kept pointing and yelling streams of unintelligible "words" when he saw the cows, it was hilarious. I have to say, I have so much respect for the very hard work that is done by people like Leann and Mike to put milk on our table every day. As big consumers of milk (our kids drink about 1/2 gallon of whole milk every day) I really appreciate what they do. It is not an easy job or an easy lifestyle. So thank you to the dairy farmers of America!

The "ladies" lining up to be milked.

You have to imagine the mariachi music blaring to get the full picture in the milking parlor.

Check it out - a calf that had been born the very same day we were there!

The calves live in these interesting pods known as "igloos."
They seemed quite comfortable in there... plenty of room to move around and stand up or lie down.

We all got to experience a baby calf sucking on our fingers. Brooke and Jack were both brave and gave it a try!

Brooke was invited to "drive" the front loader and jumped at the chance!

That's my girl, piloting a $200,000 John Deere.
She kept raising and lowering the bucket as she and Mike tooled around the yard.

And they have a to-die-for view of Mount Rainier from the farm!

Thanks again, Mike and Leann! We really enjoyed our visit.

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day this year! Our tradition on Mother's Day & Father's Day is to do an excursion or day trip as a family... it usually involves one or more meals out and we try to go somewhere new. Today we started out early - we were on the road slightly before 9:00am which is a real feat for the four of us. We were heading to the Washington coast, so we stopped for breakfast at IHOP in Olympia, where they served up a scrumptious and inexpensive feast. The kids were ravenous and we enjoyed every bite. What's not to love about pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream on them?


Then, we drove west on a very scenic drive through timber country to the town of Westport, WA. Not much happening there - we barely got out of the car (kids did not). Turns out Westport is a fishing town and it was D.E.A.D. So we backtracked to Aberdeen and headed to the north side of Gray's Harbor to Ocean Shores. Now that was a cute beach town with a fantastic beach! There were a bunch of very cool gigantic "kites" (or windsocks?) that were being flown on the beach and the kids were FASCINATED. Even Jack saw them through the window as we drove in and started pointing and yelling. Leo had his first taste of the beach. Too bad we only had an hour to enjoy it before we had to head back! Justin did accomplish his one big goal for the day - to fly his own kite, with some help from his little assistant, Brooke.

Dad and kids on the beach - look at those kites!


Mom and kids - that's a rainbow slug behind us!


Brooke loved this penguin.


Justin and Jack - My two handsome young men


Kite flying from the back of the car!

Our kite!

Our plan was to go straight to a very cool new(ish) Mexican restaurant at U-Village and meet Justin's dad, Jim, there for a Father's Day dinner. However... due to the rollover accident on the freeway, we spent over an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic and missed our reservation (we first called and moved it an hour later, then realized we were going to miss that too and the littlest family member was grouchy having skipped his nap). So we canceled it and met Jim at our house for Chinese takeout, which was delish.

A nice day indeed. Happy Father's Day!

Brooke loves to "drive" the car.

Jack enjoyed exploring the back of the car (and getting out of the wind for a bit).

Our guy, Leo, on his first trip to the beach.