She caught a fish!

We went to Clear Lake on Saturday to go canoeing and fishing.  There is a church camp called Camp Zarahemla that you can rent canoes for free.  Our friends parents are on a mission up there which makes it even more fun to visit.  When we got there we decided to give the paddle boats a try since there would be more room for Jane to move and not worry about tipping.  Five minutes after we got in the boat Evelyn caught a trout!  Wahoo!  She was so excited!  Most fishing excursions I have been on don't start out all that exciting so that was fun for her to experience!  So glad I got to be there and take the pictures.  I was actually not planning on going and almost stayed home to clean the house.  Happy I went!

Daryl had to go out of town that night which left me to clean the fish and barbecue it.  Hhhhmmm never done that before...well thankfully YouTube had!  It was more delicious than I expected.  We sat outside on the back porch and shared all of it.

Greta's Visit part two

On the way up to my house we stopped at the Chukar Cherries factory in Prosser.  I am obsessed with their Chocolate Honey Pecans dusted in powdered sugar mmmm so good!  You can't actually have a tour of the facility but I feel like the store front has better prices than what the gift shops around town sell them for.  They also have a pretty good selection of other treat items and samples!  Our next stop was the Yakima museum where we ate at the old-fashioned soda fountain.  I love soda fountains and their real ice cream sundaes.  I have always thought It would have been fun to live in the 50's!  The museum was actually pretty neat--the children's section might have been my favorite part but there were a lot of really neat historical artifacts and a fascinating shoe exhibit.

Chukar Cherries factory

Soda Fountain

Aunt Greta and Evelyn

Keeping her store stocked up in fruits and vegetables.  She ran a tight ship--very organized!

Shoe Exhibit--over 600 pairs of high heels collected from one collector and sorted by eras!  Pretty awesome!

 After the museum we rented "The Vow" and picked up some veggies at the store for our kabobs for dinner.  When we got home Evelyn wanted to show Aunt Greta her favorite chicken named Oreo.  Greta kept laughing because she had never seen her little sister "me" chase a chicken!  There really isn't a graceful way to chase a chicken!

Oreo is on the left as you might have anticipated he is black and white like an oreo;)

The next morning we had a friend over for lunch along with her two girls.  She is a friend of Greta and I from high school Erica "Litchfield" Anderson.  She lives fairly close to me which makes me SO happy!  We ate lunch and chatted all afternoon.  We tried to snap a picture of us and had three little photographers taking our picture but their age experience might have limited the photo quality:) 

me, Erica, Greta

After visiting we drove back to Tri-cities to hang out with our Mom.  We went to a hot air balloon festival in Walla Walla.  Evelyn thought the balloons were HUGE!  She got to play on some of the toys that were there and went down the huge slide on a potato sack with Greta.  She also got to help put a hot air balloon away with Grandma Harvey.  After the festival we went to this nostalgic toy shop downtown, and then ate dinner at Olive which was really good!  We had an Asparagus bacon pizza that was delicious and then sampled their desserts and lavender truffles.  Jane was pretty tired at this point so it was a little difficult to relax and eat but we did our best to enjoy all the good food.  Walla Walla is  a cute town!

Walla Walla Balloon Festival

Putting the hot air balloon away

Greta and I

Playing at the toy store

On Mother's Day we got to go to church with our Mom.  She teaches a primary class and has always brought sugar cookies for her kids to frost and decorate for their Mom's on Mother's Day.  It's tradition!  It was so fun to see her class.  She is an amazing teacher and the kids are glued to her every word.  What a lovely Mother we have!  And what a "sweet" week we had--literally sweet like lots of sugar sweet but worth it! 

Mother's Day

Greta's Visit part one

I was so lucky to have my sister for the week!  She is the best sister anyone could ask for and my only sister.  Even though we may be different in some aspects I still think we could have been twins in that we just "get" each other.  She can just look at me and I still know what she is thinking:)

She came to my house for the first couple days and then we spent the weekend at our Mom's house for Mother's Day Weekend.  We went, saw, and ate a lot!  Here is our trip through pictures...

Queen for the day!

On the grounds of Maryhill Museum

One day we all went to the Maryhill museum by Goldendale, WA.  If you are ever driving to Portland you always see it from across the river and wonder "What is that?"  At least I always did!  It is a beautiful mansion that Sam Hill a wealthy road builder built to live in but later decided to turn it into a museum with two other friends.  He also built the Stonehenge replica down the road from the museum as a World War One memorial and was later buried there.  

On the other side of the house is a large view of the Columbia River and Mount Hood

Dress Exhibit

My Mother and I

Bird of Paradise statue--many beautiful displays outside the museum

I couldn't help myself the sun just felt SO good!  Maybe only a stay-at-home Mom could understand the joy!

Sisters

Stonehenge memorial and replica

After touring the museum we went to a Greek Orthodox Monastery where they have a bakery called St. Josephs.  My Gyro and Baklava was AMAZING!  I would say the best baklava I have ever had.  We then drove home did some fun shopping and then went and saw The Hunger Games at the theater.  After the movie we called into Casa Chapala Express for our burrito orders so we could get it before it closed!  We are die-hard Casa Chapala fans.

Reptile Man

Do you know the guy that travels to all the local libraries called "the reptile man?"  That is my husband Daryl!  Well ok no he is not the one that travels to all the libraries but he does walk in the house with a lot of reptiles to show the girls.  One afternoon I was taking a nice nap when I hear "Hey check out the snake I just caught!?"  Of course I woke up really fast and opened my eyes to a huge bull snake Daryl was holding in our bedroom!  Not gonna lie--not my most favorite moment!  I do NOT share the same fascination with snakes that Daryl does.  Daryl has many childhood pictures of him holding snakes...

I do like some reptiles though.  Daryl has brought home a lot of lizards from outside.  One we actually decided to keep in a glass terrarium.  It is a horned lizard and is pretty awesome!  It is small right now but should grow much bigger.  He has his own heat lamp and favorite rock to sun bathe on.  

Hikes and Visitors

A couple weeks ago Tyler and Tess came up for a visit.  They had a podiatry convention to go to and "trusted" me with their kids while they spent the night a few hours north of us.  It was my first time having a little boy to watch over and needless to say I LOVED having a boy in the house.  It might also be because he is the sweetest little guy.  He kept me good company and would repeat anything I said.  For some reason I didn't take many pictures but when Tyler and Tess came back we went to the river and took some.  A couple days later we found some neat hiking trails and I am bummed we didn't know about them until after they left.  The next weekend Jake and Marie came and visited on Friday.  They are always fun friends to visit with.  The next day my Mom came and helped me plant some flower pots around our house outside.  We then went on a hike with everyone and out to dinner at Evelyn's choice which is always Red Robin.

Jane loves water and just walked right in without question

Evelyn and Kassidy

Tess and Tyler so cute!

In the middle of planting I got my "first in a while"  bee sting right under my eye.  OUCH!  It hurt but Daryl says that is one of the worst spots to get stung.  Anyways we still wanted to plant so we threw on the bee face masks!  Turns out getting stung under the eye gives you a little bee-tox--my under eye looked perfectly smooth the next morning;)

Two Daddy's girls in our house

love Evelyn's thumbs up she throws out every once in a while

walk, skip, run, walk, carry, skip is usually the order of our hikes

Country Living

window from dinning room--just eating my morning cereal :)

I get asked a lot if I like living out in the country.  I think it is too early for me to answer it honestly, but we have had a lot of interesting-turned-funny experiences that have taught me a lot about myself.  We came from living 4 minutes from Costco to now 30 minutes.  The nearest grocery store is 15 minutes away.  I have learned A LOT about chickens, turkeys and even ducks--from what they eat to what they...well...poop!  I love the peace of living in the country, it can be so quiet that when a cow "moos" I think my cell phone is vibrating.  We have had a variety of baby birds that have been raised in our living room over the past two months.  There has been a permanent "chirping" sound through out our house!  I have also learned that even though we have a well on our property that it still requires electricity to pump the water.  Daryl had a kick out of helping me understand that one.  Our electricity hasn't been high but I just had never  really "thought" about how the water got to our house!  At night it is REALLY dark.  The first week we moved here we were coming home from an errand at night and actually missed our house!  It was so dark we couldn't even see it!  The stars are beautiful at night.  When you try to log in to your wireless internet you are the only name that pulls up.  The UPS lady knows you by name and honks the horn when she drives up the hill.  Although she might only know us by name because Daryl orders all his shirts online:)  Since we don't really know a lot of people yet Evelyn and Jane have become the best of play mates.  When we go to the store Evelyn holds long conversations with the check-out lady and tells her all about her life...it usually goes like this "excuse me...hi!  My name is Evelyn and my birthday is on August 25th and I will be going to kindergarten."  The check out lady kindly nodds.  "My dad is a beekeeper and he takes care of bees...we live really far away and have chickens that will lay eggs in September."  Check out lady starting to get a little more curious and then Evelyn continues to answer any questions she might have about country living.  It is actually pretty hilarious and happens almost every time we go to the store.  Usually the "my dads a beekeeper" line draws the most hilarious responses.

Our newest addition--introducing "Lucky Duck"

All of our chickens have finally grown feathers and our now living outside.  Just when my house was getting quiet Daryl and Evelyn bring home two baby turkeys and two ducks!!!  YAY!  Actually that was not my response!  I was really frustrated because I had just gone through the chick phase for the last month and was kind of happy to have them outside and done with it.  But then something happened!  The baby duck started following Jane around where ever she walked and it was pretty heartwarming.  So I had a change of heart!  I guess country living can do that to you. :)

I am His daughter (video)

 I have always loved this song and recently found it in video format.  Click on link below:

I am His Daughter

When we were living in Richland the Young Women sang this song in opening exercises.  It was beautiful.  I loved serving in Young Womens and miss it still.  Watching all the faithful youth always inspires me to teach my girls of their worth while they are still living in our home.