A Blueberry Pickin' Mornin'

Tuesday morning we were up bright and eairly to go blueberry picking with two other families. It was something that I had never done before, but it was quite fun.

I don't care for the taste of blueberries myself, but I had a wonderful time picking them. The bushes are fairly tall, making them easy to pick off. 

It wasn't long before we reached our goals. My family ended up with just over 8lbs of berries.

Summertime

Ahh, summer is here. We've been having a lot of cloudy and rainy days, but we've been getting some warmer, sunnier days sprinkled in as well.

Some of the things I've been doing this month:

Sewing things like aprons and pajama pants...

...baking things like chocolate chip cookie dough truffles...

...watching Emma, the 2009 version, for the first time...

...reading Tintin...

...guest posting on a friend's blog...

... and photographing (and editing!) my friend, Sarah's, wedding.

What have you been doing this summer?

Dandelion

Something as simple as a weed can become a really cool photo. Who knew dandelions looked so neat close up? It reminds me of my favorite Pixar movie, A Bug's Life.

Tulip Photos Are Coming!

We had a wonderful time at the tulip fields yesterday with four other families. After we all arrived, we spent two hours talking, walking, and taking lots pictures. I've got most of the photos I want to share edited, but I have several left to do before I write up my post, but for now here's a little preview.

The Tulip Fields: Take 1

Last Friday we went to the tulip fields with some family. My aunt was visiting from out of town and my cousin had never been before, so we thought it would be fun to do. We're also going again tomorrow, but with friends. That shall be lots of fun as well!

My cousin Callie with her daughters Elizabeth and Emelia.

These white ones were some of my favorites. They look so pretty!

Cousins!

Winter Frost

It's that time of year when the rooftops and plants are covered in frost in the morning. 

Project 52: Week 39

{39/52}

Fall is here. It's getting colder outside and the leaves are beginning to change from green to bright shades yellow, red, and orange. 

An Afternoon Walk

Sunday afternoon we decided to go for a walk on a trail near my dad's work.

I thought this wood bridge looked neat.

We passed by a pond with a few dozen ducks that quickly swam towards any people they saw. 

Lavender

The lavender bush in my front yard has been blooming the last week. Every time I go out there, I always find lots of bees buzzing around from flower to flower. They rarely sit for long, which can make it hard to get a close of shot of them.

"Flowers appear on the earth; 

the season of singing has come, 

the cooing of doves is heard in our land."
Song of Solomon 2:12

Summertime

Saturday we spend the morning doing yard work, but then later in the afternoon Daniel had tons of fun playing with water balloons. He would fill them up, then my dad would try to hit him while Daniel ran around.

Last school year I took a French class at our homeschool co-op. This year we're not doing any co-ops, so I've started teaching myself French. I've checked out all sorts of books on the subject in our library system and have been trying different books out, figuring out what works best for me. I'm really liking the Easy French Reader, that I picked up at Half Price Books (one of my favorite stores). 





Tuesday afternoon we had my friends Carrie and Rose over and we had a fun afternoon walking all around the neighborhood, along with my siblings. Then we went to Starbucks before browsing around Fred Meyer, where we listened to all the birthday cards with music, looked at the toys, and tested out all the furniture.





I'm not usually a big reader, but lately I've really been enjoying some of Agatha Christie's book. We discovered the Poirot movies and TV shows earlier this year and really enjoy them, so I decided to give the books a try. So far I've only read the books with Hercule Poirot, the Belgium detective, and right now I'm currently in the middle of my fifth one, The Mystery of the Blue Train. Christie does a marvelous job of keeping the reader guessing who the murder is throughout the book.

What have you been doing this summer?

Camping at Mt. Rainier

Monday afternoon, we arrived home after spending three days camping at Mt. Rainier. We stayed at a group site in the Cougar Rock campground with two other families. We had stayed at the same site back in 2008 with several different families and we have also visited while staying in one of the other campgrounds in 2006.

We arrived there early on Friday, the first day. I didn't take us too long to set up camp, so we had the rest of the day to enjoy. Everyone had fun playing a game of capture the flag, even though no one found any flags.
Daniel and Rose got caught and were stuck in jail for a long time... Oh, and that rock reminds me of the one in A Bug's Life for some reason.


Behind our campsite was this rocky area, which was perfect for climbing around on.

Some of the kids were playing Mafia and where coming up with a word to use instead of "Dead Body". I suggested "Kentucky Fried Chicken", which we decided  to yell at every car that passed by our campsite. See?

Getting our first campfire of the trip started.


Saturday morning the weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. So we decided to head out early and do some sight seeing. We stopped at one of the viewpoints on the way up to Reflection Lake then to Paradise.
At the viewpoint, we decided to take a group picture with the tripod.


At Reflection Lake, we had to walk around on the snow a bit before we found somewhere with a reflection of Rainier.


On our way back to the campsite, we spotted and dear.


We passed over a bridge while going back as well and I shot this one out the car window.


Later in the afternoon, we all hiked 1.5 miles down to Longmire.



Once we arrived in Longmire, we saw that the mountain had these really neat clouds around it.


We all got an ice cream or a popsicle at the gift shop while we were there. Here we have the awesome Lilly.


And her sister, Mary.


The rest of our trip was spend relaxing and playing games back at the campsite.