Summer Bliss

Last week it was my birthday. My mom and Ann made me a dinner of home made friend chicken and potato salad. We headed to Golden Gardens, a local beach that we often go to and had a sunset picnic. It was perfect. Good friends, good food, good. It was one of those summer nights that leaves you feeling so happy. We are heading back again tonight to do it again!
Happy summer!!

The Garden

The garden is in full swing. The sun has been shy this year so we may never get any tomatoes but everything else is doing quite well. Cooper has been helping by picking the raspberries (about 2 pints a day!) and doing the "chicken chores". No eggs yet, but we expect them to start laying in about a month.


"Road Street" enjoying some free range time. (Cooper named her)






A proud farmer.


Checking his pickings.


Enjoying her first summer of eating summer fruits.


Tiny tomato plants and basil.


Lettuce, lots of lettuce.


Sage


Rhubarb, LOTS of rhubarb. My favorite thing to do with it lately is to make rhubarb soda. I usually add strawberries or raspberries. Click here for the recipe. I follow this but add the strawberries or raspberries.


Rainbow chard. We pan fry it with a little olive oil, fresh garlic, and red pepper flakes. Yum!


Mint


Grapes. So beautiful.

Gardening brings me peace and brings togetherness to our family. Love.

Orcas Island & Two Little Boys

These two. Birthdays only 3 days apart, they are quite the pair. They fight and bicker like brothers and play like best friends. They are so much alike it is a little nutty. They had so much fun exploring the beach and running like crazy boys.

















Beautiful boys.

We sure are lucky to have friends like the Schell family.

Doug and Craig have been close friends since they were little boys. They were so excited to light a tree on fire on the beach! I guess little boys never grow up. Needless to say, Sarah and I thought it was a questionable decision.





I feel lucky to have met Sarah. She has become one of my dearest friends. It is the perfect match. We all have a buddy. Now, lets hope Fina and Jonas can play soon too!


Orcas is such a beautiful place!

Orcas Island

Doug's family has property on the beautiful Orcas Island. Doug took me camping there when we were only dating and now we have been back many times. We took Cooper there 2 years ago for his first camping trip. Click here to see. Doug started camping here when he was a baby with his parents so this is a very special place for him.
It was beautiful and peaceful. The kids had a blast. They were very dirty at the end but it was worth it. As I mentioned earlier, Cooper did a 3 mile hike entirely without complaining or needing to be held! It took longer then it would have if it were just Doug and I but that was because he was so observant. He wanted to look closely at the flowers and climb all the logs and rocks. It is always neat to slow down and go at the pace of a child. This was so great for us because we have been in a tough point hiking wise because he is too small for the pack but too young to hike the whole hike by himself. Or so we thought! He is such a little trooper! We are so happy that he has come to love the outdoors too!
We met up with the Schell family the second night and camped on their property. Total coincidence that their family has Orcas property too, just another way our families are intertwined. I will post photos from that night later.
It was such a fun camping trip. 3 days unplugged was so relaxing. We had so much fun we may to back this Wednesday.
I have to say, our schedules ROCK! Me only working 2 days a week and Doug having the whole summer off is such a blessing! This summer has been nothing but bliss.

*as you can see, I am in many of the photos. Doug has taken the camera and I am loving it. Don't worry, he will be in a few on my next post :)


This is my attempt to catch a shot of him on the log chair, the same chair that we have a photo of him on from 2 years ago. He is quite the jokester now.








These are from our hike. The stunning greenery is our reward for all the rain.:











A little mid hike snack for all :) Nursing is very convenient for camping. No bottles to clean, no milk to pack.