Alder Lake

4th of July '11

We celebrated a day early due to the man having to work this morning,

here I'll include a few pictures of us out at Alder Lake, WA.

It's such a great State Park, very nice, clean, complete with everything, volleyball, parks, tables and bbqs all along the lakefront, swimming zone, boat docks, tons of tent and RV spots that also had lots of room, table and a prebuilt fire pits.

We were only there for the day but want to definitely go back for a weekend trip.

Taste of Tacoma

It's Sunday. Lily & Jimmy flew out today.
Before they did though we hit the Taste of Tacoma at Point Defiance Park
Sadly no pictures of this. The big boys choose not to attend with us.
There was a ton of vendors both food and crafts.
I would really enjoy going again next year with a bit more money and time.

Wolf Haven

Today is our first real day with Nonna, Rich, Lily & Jimmy.

Hubby is still tied up resting so he wont be able to travel around with us the next few days.

We went to Wolf Haven a bit down south from us.

The drive was pretty quick. We arrived had a picnic did a small tour and headed out on our way.

I got more flower pictures than wolf pictures but it was a nice day all in all.






Lily & Jimmy cooked up dinner. There where a few things I'd never had so now I know how to cook them I will be adding them into our menus.

Dash Pt park & pier

Today was perfect for the beach. The water was way low but it was still so fun.
No argueing, yelling, hitting, complaining. :)

Zoo Pictures

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

J's class had their last field trip Thursday.

The weather held off perfectly,

in between the 5 days of constant rain we didn't get 1 drop the whole time we were there.

It's a nice little Zoo.

The best part for me~I could see the Ocean peaking through the trees from the walking trail.

The day before our trip there the Tiger had 2 babies, we could see her resting under the trees but not the babies.

The Monkeys gave us a show for a few minutes.

We even got a pic of the white one.

The Porcupines where huge!

I've never seen them old & full grown I guess,

just the random straggler by the road and those are still pretty small.

We saw Penguins & Polar bears of course.
And Otters! Yes, Sea Otters like in Monterey Bay. They were so cute floating around, IMO I think they needed more kelp/seaweed in their habitat but what can I do?

I know there's way more but the pics will show a few things & of course J & L will get a scrapbook page of the trip.

Pics to come soon.

date night

We were invited to ComedyUnderground in Tacoma last Friday night

by a few guys here that we also knew in Stewart.

How fun to have a date night.

It wasn't fun that we were the two not drunk.

I so don't miss those days-I guess I'm getting old.

There were a few comics in the lineup.

The head liner was Rick Pulido.

He was way to funny.

We got there early so we walked around a bit.

How pretty Old Tacoma is.

We agreed we'd need to go back to fully walk it

and get lunch someday.

There's lots of little shops

and restaurants in between all those business buildings.

last weekend w/ Nonna

WOW!

We had super duper busy and long day Friday.

(I know its Wednesday and I'm now writing)

Mom (Nonna) left Saturday

so we were trying to get a great last day together.

We hit the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim,WA

How neat to have such close contact with the animals on the drive through trail.

L & J had a hoot with the goats in the petting zoo.

We were allowed to feed bread to the animals so we brought our own with us.

Go figure-they wouldn't eat our fresh wheat baguette type bread.

They would only eat the Wonderbread the place sold.

Theres no way I'm posting all the pics but here are a few.

Then we hit Graysmarsh Farm.

It's a wonderful U-Pick Organic Berry and Lavender Farm.

We got a big bucket of Loganberries that we all picked together.

Of course I picked up 2 bottles of Lavender Oil and a baggie of Lavender.

Oh what to do with the oil....

With the dried Lavender I mixed it with Epson Salt and made sachets for our drawers and closets.

Recipes to come for Loganberries-trust me I had to figure out a way to use them all up.

Poor L had a reaction to them.

Well maybe 2-3 would be ok but not handfuls all day everyday 2-3 days in a row.

Lastly we went to Silverdale,WA

to their Whaling Days .

We didn't stay for fireworks cause it would have been way to late but we did get the kids on some rides.

It's a cute little town right on the water.

this weekend

Friday mom, myself and the two big boys went hiking.

Seriously....We did 3.8 miles in the

NW WA Temperate Rainforest Quinault.

I'm still sore and it's Sunday.

It was surely nice to enjoy a day with C & A alone with no babies.

Next Friday we're hitting a Game Farm a few hours away.

We'll take the whole family for that trip.

Then mom leaves to go back to TN.

I've really enjoyed having her nearby again.

Well here's some pics of course.

Here's a gift set I did for a birthday party that we went to on Saturday,

It's a sz2T dress w/ shorts and scarf,

I love it so much I'm working on a 6m dress in the same print.

I hit the Market today!

Oh and I found a great little taqueria on the way back.

Lunch was so yummy.

Carnitas tacos w/a side of rice and beans,

I'm talking traditional tacos w/fresh onion, cilantro & lime,

yum, yum, yum, my favorite