Sunny Summer Days in The Northwest

It's Sunny! and Beautiful! Funny how quickly I forget the rain, and just relish how beautiful the Northwest is now that summer has finally arrived. We got out the kiddie pool this week and set it up on the back deck. I had to empty it and put it away the same day because Devin would jump in it every chance he got regardless of what he was wearing. They would want to come in, so I would bring them in, dry them off, and get them dressed; and the next time the screen door opened, Devin would run out and jump in the pool. We had a lot of wet clothes that day. :)

Yeah Me! I ran my first 10K!

My time was 56.42. That is less than 10 minute miles! Damon ran it in 48.16. He skunked me, but that meant he was free to take the pictures at the finish line. The real rockstar is my friend Heather, who I ran with most of the way. She is 12 weeks along, carrying her 5th baby, and she ran the 10K today. Hats off to her. Then we went home and took naps. :)

Actually today is the town's birthday celebration, "Maple Valley Days". Damon and I came home after the run, hurried and showered, and left again with the kids to catch the town parade. We just made it to the end of the parade, but we were on our bikes (Damon was pulling the kids in the bike trailor) and they let us ride our bikes up the length of the parade while it was still going on so the kids could see it. It's pretty cool living in a small town. There weren't any huge floats or anything, but there were horses, and the kids liked that.

Then we came home for lunch, Damon and I were both starving, and really tired. And everybody took a nap.

Our trip to Utah

My younger sister, Liz delivered a beautiful, little boy 6 weeks ago. We went to Utah two weeks ago to visit the little guy. He is tiny. I think he was 5.5 lbs when he was born, but now he weighs 7 lbs. We had a good time and enjoyed the sunshine. I was able to run the Provo river trail and go for a bike ride with my dad. The man is a machine. He is 71 years old and bikes around 100 miles a month. We got hit with a hail storm while we were riding, but we took refuge in a bread store. The hail and rain stopped after about 10 minutes, and we were able to continue. We also went bowling with the kids and some of their cousins, and to the Bean Museum on BYU campus with my mom. The last picture is Devin and Brooklyn in the car at the beginning of our trip home. It seemed like we were driving into the sunset for about 2 hours. We loved seeing Grandma Bethers, my folks, and all the cousins and aunts. Thanks for the good times guys!

I'm running a 10K!

I saw the notice on the sacrament meeting program: my stake is sponsoring a 5/10K walk/run next month, and I am totally going to run it. I haven't been working out since my winter of sickness, but this has been great motivation to get me working out regularly again. I ran 4 miles on Saturday, and I am still proud of myself. I don't think I have ever run that far. Damon is going to run the 10K with me. I had to talk him into it, let's just say he owes me. I am glad he is running too. I've never run a group run before, not even a 5K, mostly because they usually cost money, and I'm too cheap to pay $40 to run 3 miles. Hello, that's why I started running, because it's free. Anyway, Yea me for running a 10K. Who knows what will be next, maybe a half marathon. ya, right.

Tid Bits, i.e. Ramblings

I love the way spices look when they are added all at once in recipes. The cool brown and greens. (See recipe at bottom).

I've discovered that here in the Northwest, I can't leave tomatoes in their grocery bag on the counter overnight. They will mold like I've never seen. With fuzz that was at least an inch long. Granted I did have the humidifier running in the kitchen that day because Brooklyn was sick, but still.

The pretty consistent cloud cover we have here has affected Damon much more than it has me, and we totally thought it would be the other way around. The other day he said, "The sun was just out, and now it's gone again." My reply: "Oh, didn't you know? We live in Seattle."

We are only a family of four, and though we have been that number for over a year and a half now, I'm still surprised every week by how much laundry we generate.

We bought electric toothbrushes after our last dental appointments. They are the best thing I have done for my teeth since I started flossing regularly. Seriously, they are the best.

This is one of my favorite recipes, I got it from my sister Deborah, and like I said earlier, I really like how all the spices look when I put them in.

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 C butter

1 1/4 C sugar

2 eggs

2 C pumpkin (you can buy this in cans in the baking aisle)

1/2 t vanilla

2 C flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t ginger

1/4 t ground cloves

1/4 t nutmeg

Cream up to the vanilla, mix dry ingredients separately and add to dry ingredients. Muffins bake at 375 for 20-25 min. 50-60 minutes for loaves. I use mini loaf pans. Mmm, yummy! Think of me when you make this, and, Enjoy!

Mother's Day

Damon took me rock climbing for mother's day. It was awesome. I have some of my own gear, shoes and harness, but it has been a LONG TIME since we have been rock climbing. I don't think we have really been since before we were married. We went to an indoor gym, which I have also never done. The girl at the front counter said we had to show that we could belay by ourselves without any help or we wouldn't be able to rope in, we would just have to boulder (climb about 10 feet up without any rope). Neither of us could tie ourselves in, as I said, it has been a while. Obviously they wanted us to pay for lessons, so I asked how much we could pay to have her teach us. She didn't charge us, but she did teach us, and she was a good teacher. I knew the lingo "On belay . . . Belay on." So she knew I had some experience. And then we climbed around for an hour and a half. I loved it. Damon was a good sport, he doesn't enjoy it the way I do. They mark certain climbs with tape, and you are only supposed to use those holds to make the route more challenging. Damon and I took turns climbing, and he kept saying he wasn't going to stick to the route, he was just going to use any hold that was available. But in the end he stuck to the marked routes. We all had a good time. Then we went to a sushi restaurant, which is Damon's favorite. Sorry I don't have any pictures of us climbing. I thought about taking the camera, but didn't.

Out and About

My sister Rebecca is no longer in Seattle with us. Sniff! Things did not work out with them moving up here. But we got out the weekend before we had to say goodbye and went to the Pike's Place Market, an indoor and open air market with lots of fun things to see, including this gum wall. All the little colorful dots are people's chewed up gum. I have to admit we were looking for it this time, but we didn't have to look too hard. The first time Damon and I found it, we totally stumbled onto it. It's pretty cool, like a work of art. The market tried to discourage it, but the locals won't be deterred. Cool in a gross kind of way, I wouldn't let my kids touch it. But still. Later we got lunch at a shop that makes thier own yummy cheese on site. We ate our lunch and got to watch the cheese churn in a couple of large vats. Then Damon had to stop by Iver's for some clam chowder. Then we went to the outdoor sculpture park. And Brooklyn got the ride the bus. We took the free downtown shuttle. She always talks about riding the bus. She saw some school kids get off their school bus once, and has wanted to ride one ever since. Overall, it was a pretty nice day.

On a bright, sunny Saturday we took a couple neighbor kids and went to the zoo. (Our annual passes from the Hogle Zoo in SLC work for this zoo also!) Mostly the animals were out, but just laying in the sun, who can blame them. But these two brown bears were all action. They walked down to their water, which is right next to the viewing glass and were wrestling and playing around in the water for a long time. A huge crowd gathered, and there were a lot of oohs and aahs coming from the building. Pretty cool.