What am I Growing?

I'm gonna have to do some improvements in the garden next year.  The strawberries are taking over everything and while I try and hold them back, they sprout starter shoots out faster than I can rip them off and I swear when I rip off one, two more take it's place!  In the beginning of summer, there was plenty of room next to the strawberry patch to plant my cucumber and cantaloupe plants.  We were just going to let the vines intermix and grow all over each other.  Well next year, I am so doing my vine plants vertically.  The strawberries are choking out the cucumbers.  The cucumbers are trying to squish the few carrots I have left, and I caught one little vine sneaking along the backside of the garden trying to reach my fantastically big basil plants.  While I was trying to do some weeding and maintenance in the garden along with trying to talk some discipline into my out of control plants, I found these huge cucumbers hiding under the leaves.  I'm going to have to go back and check my seed packets to see what I am actually growing here, but these things are ginormous!  And the sad thing is they are super delish, and I know this is going to make me sound old, but cucumbers give me the worst heart burn.  Cucumbers of all things!  Aren't they mostly water???  It totally depresses me that I can't eat something that I grew from a tiny little seed, so lucky for my friends and neighbors they are going to get to eat these fat suckers!



And just so you have an idea of the size of these things, here's one next to my key!

The Heat is Following Us...

We left a hot, hot, Wichita in hopes of getting to have some cooler weather for a couple weeks, and now we are down in Kelso and it is sooooo hot.  I watched the weather report last night and it is suppose to be in the upper 90's, low 100's up until Wednesday where it is going to cool off to 78.  Of course, Wednesday is when we are flying out of here and back to Kansas.....

We've hit up the local sprinkle park and we set up a slip'n'slide for the kids along side the house, so we don't have to stay inside all day.

Longbeach

We left my parents house on the lake on Wednesday and headed down towards Longbeach to meet up with Royal's family.  We left lovely, sunny weather and headed into cloudy, rainy weather.  What a bummer!  But it didn't stop us from playing on the beach, but wouldn't you know that 2 days after we left they had a sunny 90 degree day there!



The cold weather and water didn't stop Jayden from getting in it!  He did take a long hot shower back at our cabin when we were done though!  :)







Walking around we kept noticing clam holes showing, so Royal thought he'd dig one up real quick to show to the kiddos.



Royal was obviously a little rusty (he blamed it on the flimsy plastic shovel he had), because it took a couple tries before he actually caught up with the digger.  The first 3 holes we got nothing, then Royal chased down this...

...a lovely sand worm!



And then the next 2 holes he managed to dig up a couple baby razor clams, which we quickly put back in their holes because it's illegal to dig them up and there was a ranger who kept driving by.  :)

Hiking Mt Elinor

Royal and I got up yesterday morning and left the kids with the rest of my family, and went and hiked Mt Ellinor.  We hiked from the Upper Trail where we started at 3500 feet and hiked up 1.6 miles to the top where it is 5944 feet.  Usually this time of year, right near the top there is a big field of wild flowers that you walk through, but since it has been such a cold and late summer here, there weren't any flowers because there was still a bunch of snow at the top.

Here are Royal and I at the base.



And here is where we were going to be hiking to.  The summit is the peak right above the line of snow.



The beginning of the hike.  Hello Trees!!!  I love Washington!



Starting to get above the tree line.



We hit the snow and found out from a couple we met at the top, that just 3 weeks ago there had been 3 feet of snow up there.



Lake Cushman down below



There is the parking lot way down there to the right.  If Jayden had been with us, I'm pretty sure he would of said, "Look, those cars are so puny!"



We got to the top and had this view...



...and this mountain goat waiting for us!



It took us about an hour and a half to get to the top and about an hour to get down.  You can't hike anything like this in Kansas!  :)

Mason Lake 2010

We are back on the Mason Lake and the weather is perfect!  We've left 100+ heat and come to 80 degrees, no humidity, and cool lake to swim in.  I actually sat on the front porch under a blanket with some knitting this morning, and watch all the fog blow off the lake.  But better than all of that is that our family is here.  Kaylee and her family drove up from Phoenix, Joanna and her husband Jon have taken a few days off, and Jordan will be here in just a couple days.

Willow is really interested in Easton, the baby who is almost the same size as Willow at just 4 months.



When the sun came out, the boys all put on their swim suits and life jackets and got ready to go for a ride on the rocket behind the boat.





Papa was driving the boat and making some big waves for the boys to bounce over and he managed to sink one of the rocket's wings and flipped all 3 of the boys out.



They were a little freaked out, but all have gotten back in the rocket since, some with strict instructions to go fast and straight!

Now, nobody call CPS on me.  I swear the can isn't open.  A couple beers got brought in the boat and Willow was just sitting on the seat and she was getting really hot, so I gave her an unopened can of beer to hold to help cool her off.  What she did with it was all on her...This is for you, Uncle Jon

Water Balloons!

I should be packing for our trip to Washington, but instead I'm putting up what should be my last posting from Wichita for a couple weeks!  I'm so excited to be cold enough to have to wear a sweatshirt!

We all went to a birthday party last weekend where the kids got to play with water balloons, and they loved it.  I am not sure why I hadn't thought of water balloons before, because they are great for hot weather!  But when Royal and I (mostly Royal) were cleaning the house this weekend, we ran across a baggie full of water balloons that had been lost on the top of our fridge.  I mean, really, anything that gets put on top of the fridge is lost to me because I can't see that high.  :)

Jayden started out with wanting to pelt Royal with them.



But he couldn't throw them hard enough to make them pop on Royal most of the time, so lucky for Royal, Jayden went to just throwing them at the house and on the ground.

Jayden wanted to see how far he could throw them



And how high.



Willow couldn't even throw hers down hard enough to make them pop on the cement.





They would just bounce off the ground and then roll down the driveway.



Jayden was nice enough to chase Willow's down and give them back to her.



Jayden says, 'Look I'm so cute, I have to pinch my own cheeks!'



Once all the water balloons were popped and Royal said something silly about us picking all the pieces up, Jayden decided to take action and hose Royal down

Jayden Sings :: Jesus Loves Me

Jayden is still singing all the time. I have yet to capture the new songs which he makes up on the spot about what he's doing right then, like "IIIIIII just spilled my waaaaaater, someone should bring me a toooooowwwwwel" They are hilarious and hopefully my camera will be in the right place at the right time!

This song is what Jayden often does for Willow before she takes a nap. Jayden always asks for me to sing Jesus Loves Me to him before he goes to sleep and when I'm not home, he'll let Royal do it. Now, Royal and I sing different versions of the song, and as you'll hear, Jayden puts them both together. :)