As summer comes to an end, I am enjoying the fruits (or veggies) of my labor! I can now say that I have successfully gardened. However much of a novice as I am, I planted, grew and ate from my own backyard! What an accomplishment for me considering I never had one inkling of an interest in gardening I must admit.
When Jason came to me last winter and said, "I want chickens and a garden", I thought he had gone off the deep end. I am a girl who enjoys the finer things in life and will gladly admit that I am high maintenence. I guess that he has finally worn me down. It has now been years since I have purchased a pair of designer jeans or had a pedicure. I am not sure if it has more to do with me changing as I get older, or the fact that I am BROKE not working:) Oh well, I will gladly accept my hippie status. Just don't think I am giving up Make-up Jason!!!
Cheers to my sunflowers...

Girls night '09

My parents being the ever gracious and giving people that they are, let me host a small girls night on the boat last Friday night. We all brought food, drinks and our ever flowing sense of humor to share with eachother. I am blessed to have such a great group of girlfriends that can come together from all different areas of my life and have such a great time together!
Here are a few shots from our night...just a little taste of our drunken debauchery
(I edited some of the more risque shots:))

I do love them, I do, I do, I do

This morning I decided to load the girls up and go to one of my favorite stores, JoAnn Fabric. I thought I went in with my guns loaded so to speak. I had snacks, water and my Ergo. I strapped Payton on and went it. Little did I know that neither girl were going to cooperate. Reese wanted everything she saw and threw a fit over not getting any of it. Payton was just crabby and scratching my neck and yelling at me. So after 5 or 10 minutes of HELL, I left empty handed (My Husband will be pleased). I called Heidi on my way home to complain. I confided that 2 kids is very difficult sometimes. I wouldn't give up either one of them, but 1 kiddo was a sinch! I told her that at one point I was standing in line and accidently said out loud to the girls, "I am going to sell you two to the highest bidder." Granted two Mommies in front of me thought it was hilarious, I was mortified! I really do love and adore my girls, but every once in a while, can they not just cooperate? Long story short, I was humbled this evening while making dinner. I was standing in the kitchen and got to witness this...

These two love eachother so much. I guess I can go to JoAnn's another time:)
And here is one of Payton's "after dinner hair"

Crab, Crab and more Crab...

I had to share this picture with you! On the last day of our trip, we were able to crab and caught 12! So, needless to say, we had our neighbors over and ate crab for 4 days. I was also able to freeze some meat. Here is our crab cakes that I made (for the 1st time) and also some lovely Yukon Gold potatoes from our garden. Yummy!!!

Circa 1980

My Beautiful blue eyed girl wearing my t-shirt from when I was one. How cute huh? My Mom kept ALL of my baby clothes for me. I went through them and kept a few things and this one of them. How funny huh?

San Juans 2009

Every year my loving and wonderful parents share their beautiful boat with Jason and I and allow us to take it to the San Juan Islands for a fantastic trip. We look forward to it all year. This was our first time taking it with 2 children, and although it was a little less relaxing and a little more stressful, we had a wonderful time. We are so lucky to spend a little time in the beautiful islands in our own backyard! There is a never ending amount of beauty up there that even left Reese staring out the windows for more.
The boat is mored in Olympia, so on Friday we left and just headed to the Tacoma waterfront. They put out a log boom and put on a great air show, street fair and have fabulous fireworks. Since the weather was so great, is was the perfect way to spend the 4th. We were able to anchor right in front of The Ram, and dinghy into shore to go the street fair. We made Reese's day when we found some pony rides and then finished with letting her stay up for the firworks! 11:00 is even late for me these days, she was tuckered:)
Anyways...here are some of the pictures! Enjoy, it is good to be home!!!

Bon Voyage

This is where Jason, the girls and I will be calling home for the next two weeks! We leave tomorrow for our annual San Juans boat trip. I am exhausted from all the prep work, but it will so worth it as of tomorrow around noon when we get to take off.
So, I hope you all have a wonderful and safe 4th, and we will see you in a couple of weeks:)