Sunday, August 24, 2008

Starwars, the fair and late summer stuff....

The boys finally got to watch Episodes IV and V of starwars and Nolan has been playing some of the Starwars games on the Hasbro website and looking at ships. Caleb still loves the Spiderman and Transformers games.

The boys also got to use some of their allowance money to buy Starwars toys and we made some ships out of tinfoil, cardboard and recycled cans/bottles.

We've been doing some other crafty things like playing with vinegar, baking soda and food coloring-a messy yet highly entertaining affair. We've also painted a bit. Caleb painted his hands green and chased after me saying he was the hulk. The boys also had Olympics week at school and got little awards and metals. They were both talking about Michael Phelps for a week.


Many of the wildflowers I planted are up and blooming now on the mound. There is lots of California poppy, lupines, clarkia and nemophila. The hanging baskets and childrens garden are full of flowers and everything else is filling out.
The ducks are still enjoying their pond.
We've only been able to get to the blueberry farm once and the ducks ate all of my blueberries this year, but I got one batch of syrup made. The apples are getting ripe so apple cider time will come soon.


I started my new job and took a few pictures. Here is a comical one of Trever pretending to tell Stephen something very important about the Trinidad planning department and Trever and I collecting beach water samples near Trinidad head.


We finally got the laundry post back up and I've been able to use the sun again to dry clothes.

We spent some time at the beach and the boys enjoyed their wetsuits. I find that it is fun to go back to a time when one can just be completely amused for long periods of time throwing sand, rocks and sticks into water.


We took a quick trip to the fair and went on some rides and ate some junk food. Caleb went on the Dragon Roller Coaster all by himself.







Saturday, August 09, 2008

San Fran Marathon Photos

Here are some pictures from the 1/2 marathon we did. I got most of them from the Rickstrews site and one from the marathon site. I had a great time and am so excited I did it. My time was a lot slower than the avenue of the giants run, but I took it easy and enjoyed myself and there were also a lot of hills. I don't think 5:30 in the morning is my favorite time to run either. Good job everyone and thanks for a great weekend. I hope we keep training and I want to do the full race this fall!

On the bridge


After the race we all got metals and blankets
Annabell and Riley at home.
Annabell and Riley waiting with Garrett in the stroller. Garrett loaded up all three kids and kept them while we raced and also took photos!



Tom
Tracey
Happy to be done!
Mary Beth
Jason
Bethany



Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Fermented food! I've been dabbling with a lot of fermented food lately. In addition to trying to get back into apple cider vinegar shots in the morning (using the cider I made last fall), I've gotten some sourdough starter, some kefir and some kombucha. It's not too tricky. I just have to remember not to use metal for any of it because it isn't good for the cultures, and to keep everything really clean so I don't culture bad bacteria.



Sourdough

Kefir

Vinegar

Draining kombucha
Kombucha mother
Kombucha tea

Otherwise it's business as usual....

Playing bingo with the boys.
Loren getting blasted with the hose by Cole and Nolan.

We went to Wolfsen farms and picked blueberries too. Our friend/neighbor Niko came with us. We got about 8lbs! The boys are great blueberry pickers so we should have lots of syrup and jelly this fall.




We drove up to Kneeland to say goodbye to Kari and Kendall. It was nice to see their home they just put so much work into, but sad to see them go. There were a lot of big dogs there. This drool shot go me laughing. Same with the puppy trying to sneak one of the kids hamburgers. The kids made mischief in the woods.


The most amazing thing was going to the Williams house for a BBQ. We had 8 boys total (4 pairs of siblings) and they didn't fight at all! We were so proud of them!