You Know it's Hot When . . .

. . . Nolan asks you , or rather, begs you, to go to the pool. Once there, he spends 5 consecutive hours in the water and repeats it several days in a row. This might not surprise you, considering the heat wave we are enduring (which I love, by the way). However, this is a boy that usually does not care to go into the water, or that really does not care about water related activities, unless it involves fishing. Not this week, though! We have been around water as much as we can, and are all enjoying it, including Nolan.

SPLASH!!

COUSINS

These six boys had so much fun! It warmed my heart to see how much they enjoyed each other.

So many great memories were made!

Whether it was camping . . .

. . . or cooling off in the pool and snacking on grandma's yummy cookies.

After all that play, they slept hard . . . . . . which resulted in great bedheads the next day. You can never have enough goggles . . . . . . when you are looking hard for treasure. Christian was a great captain as he took his cousins and uncle sailing. But, as all good things come to an end, we had to say goodbye.

We love you

We will miss you!

Let the Good Times Roll . . .

After much anticipation, the "Winnipeg" Buhler family arrived. Mixed them all together and you have a band of 6 boys, ages 4,6,7,8,9 and 12. Lots of energy, lots of noise, lots of creative play and lots of fun. Just take a look . . .

Summer Snapshots

We love fishing

We love throwing rocks We love kayaking We love fishing with friends

We love the pool

We love to see who can stay the longest in the pool

We love the berries

We love otudoor cooking WE LOVE SUMMER

Lost in the Beauty

Ann and I got out on our first Mt Baker hike of the season. As always, the views were amazing and the conversations never stopped. Well, this time we should have paid a little more attention to where we were going. With all the chatting we were doing, we took a wrong turn and ended up on a dead end facing a huge precipice! OK, it was just a little rocky outcrop, but none the less, we were momentarily lost. I have to say to our benefit, that the trail was covered in snow where we had missed it. We were armed with maps and compass, so we did not worry, we did however have a real good laugh. We retraced our steps, found some other hikers who showed us the way, and headed down the mountain safely!

Bread Anyone?

I was out of whole wheat flour and oatmeal and went to C&C to get a bag of each. Pretty simple! When I get there I realize the store will close in 3 minutes. I say hi to my friend Larry who is also shopping there and who told me that he would make sure the cashiers don't leave before I get my stuff. So I race to the flour aisle and use my muscles to transfer two 50# bags of goods to my cart. Mission accomplished. The next morning as I get ready to cook oatmeal for breakfast, Shawn informs we have only a lit bit left. Oh no I tell him, I got a whole new 50# bag. "Uuhh, I don't think so, there are 2 bags of whole wheat flour." Nooo! In my rush I read the label on the shelf but did not double check the bag. Now I have 100# of whole wheat flour! As Shawn put it, "Well, I guess you will be baking a lot of bread!"

Sunshine and Thunder

This past weekend we went camping to one of our favorite spots, Fort Ebey on Whidbey Island. We had a beautiful Saturday with blue skies, blue oceans and beautiful mountains on the background. It was great camping weather, but if we were glad, the couple getting married that afternoon on the bluff, must have been even more thrilled with the beauty of the day. That evening we felt a few drops and Shawn and I went out to the bluff to get a better view of the weather system coming our way. We were able to see nice pink skies with the sunset on the west. Looking to our right we saw dark skies and at first thought it had passed over us, since that is usually the route the weather takes. After a few seconds observing the skies, Shawn suggested we stay there for 5 minutes to see which way the dark clouds were moving. Well, we got our answer before the 5 minutes were up. All of a sudden we felt strong rain drops and had to sprint back to our camper in order not to get completely drenched. Once everybody was tucked in, warm and dry in our sleeping bags, we read The Hobbit, as we heard strong rain, thunder and lighting in the background. It was quite a treat! Of course, part of the experience was packing wet stuff the next morning!

We were joined by our good friends, the Davis'. Whittling was a favorite activity among the kids, although playing around the bunkers and "German spotlight", was closely behind. Ann and I were able to get some hiking in, always a favorite activity for the two of us. I believe if I ask Shawn what he liked best, he would say that taking in the sun while reading (and snoozing) on the bluff is always a great way to spend time.

Grace found an interesting way of solving the problem of burning eyes due to smoke.

We used our new dutch oven to cook most of our meals. Here Shawn is preparing our mountain man breakfast. It was very yummy and might just become one of our camping traditions.

I'll sign off with this beautiful sunset over Admiralty Inlet.

Celebrations

Seventeen years of marriage deserves some great fireworks. Having our anniversary on July 4th always brings us a beautiful display. It's been a great journey and I could have not asked for a more wonderful man to be on my side. You are are one of a kind, my hubby, and I'm looking forward to many more firework celebrations.

Since we enjoy spending the holiday with the kids, we always try to sneak away on another day to celebrate the blessing of our marriage. With Christian being at Firwood and Nolan & Ethan being cared by my dear friend Ann, we headed to Lummi Island to enjoy each others company riding our bikes on a beautiful sunny day.

And this is how we celebrated hte 4th, with our friends the Masons, savouring some good summer food and watching the fireworks amidst the crowd. Happy birthday USA! Thank you Amy for letting me use all of therse great pictures you took.

Yes, there is a kid missing. Although Christian returned from camp that morning, he just repacked and headed off to a friends overnight birthday party. He was able to experience the fireworks over the bay from his friend's sailboat. No matter how tired I would be, I would not miss such a party either.

July is sure proving to be a month of celebrations. On the 1st day of this month, my aunt Ursula got married to David. It was a beautiful celebration with the happy newlyweds. I wish you both many years of a blessed marriage.

Rocking and Jamming

It's that time of the year again, where the berries are plentiful, juicy and delicious. That also means that it's picking time, to eat, to freeze and to make these beauties into jam. I wish I had taken my camera to the berry farm. The sight of bright, red raspberries in their bushes were sure better looking than berries in a dish.

Now I can stock our pantry again. You might be asking why the "rocking" on the title. I have to tell you, to endure making this much jam, I have to listen to some good rock'n roll. It sure takes the edge off of all this "jamming"!