Visit from Uncle O

My brother, Owen, visited Seattle a couple weeks ago. I had a lot of fun things planned and by the time he left I was lying prostrate on my bed unable to move because I was so tired. That is the mark of a successful brother/sister trip. Here we are at Serious Biscuit having some serious smiles and biscuits.

 It looks like he's peeing, but he's not.

 Noah turned Grumpy McGrumperton in The Crumpet Shop.

 No grumps when the crumps came, though!

 Owen wanted to pick berries, so we headed to a different farm, a farm that had a big, fat carnival, full of rides and overpriced beverages.

 It was SO BLOODY HOT this day. But the kids LOOOOOOOOOOOOVED this place.

 They got to ride real ponies, who wouldn't love that? Here's Noah patiently sweating, I mean waiting, for his designated small pony, Peaches, to come back to her corral.

 "Peaches! Where have you been all my life?!" says Noah. Owen stayed with Sienna on her horse, so I didn't get any pictures of her, sadly.

 Noah would not stop talking about how his "Sponge-a-bob" popsicle had blueberries for eyes. They're black gum balls, Noah. Sienna just went straight for the gum ball popsicle. She accepted the concept right away that gum balls occur naturally in popsicles.

 More raspberries! I said I wouldn't eat even one more of those things (it's amazing how fast you can get sick of them), but I lied, and I ate.

 Noah put my lipstick on while waiting in some heinous traffic to get home. A good pastime, I say.

 Owen and I went on a tour of the Theo Chocolate factory. It was kind of a dream come true. I will gladly take any Seattle visitor on another tour there. I loved it so much. The smell alone!!!

 We went to a ward picnic.

 And ended the weekend at a seafood fest in Ballard.

It was so fun to have you, O! Or as the kids call him, Uncle O!

Heatwave

Holy mother of hot, is what I said for a few days earlier this month. We don't have air conditioning in our house here in Seattle, so when the temperature went to 90 degrees a few times, we went running to whatever body of water would have us.

On this day, it was Phantom Lake.

 My friend's grandmother has a house on this lake, so she invited a bunch of us to join her. It is so idyllic. This is a little sandbox area right next to the lake! How perfect-for-kids is that?

 The clouds were so cool.

Another day it was Jetty Island.

There's a small ferry boat that takes people from Everett to this tiny island of leftover sand in less than a minute. One minute you're on land, the next you're on sand. That's a little rhyme I made up. (It's late.) The water was really warm.

Berry Fun

Presenting: our first time picking berries at a farm.

 It was charming. They were charming.

 We were all charmed.

 The kids hoged (pronounced hoe-jdd) (a.k.a. pigged out) on raspberries. We'd been picking for awhile when I took this photo of Sienna's almost empty carton. You can't fool me, Bird. Nom, nom, nom.

 "The tractoooooooooorrrrrrr!!!!!!!" - Noah. The tractor took us further out to the strawberry patch.

 Strawberries were just reaching the end of their season, so the pickings were sparse.

 Back we went to raspberries.

 These empty berry picking boxes charmed me straight to death.

Back on the home front, I turned our $15 flat of raspberries into muffins and freezer jam. 

 Yum for days. Nay, yum for months.

July 4th Was...

July 4th was ...

... sunshine in the morning, clouds and cold and rain right when the party started.

 ....semi-successful fireworks.

 ... a really fun night seeing friends we never see anymore because everyone has moved.

 ... silliness with dad.

 ...silliness with mustaches.

 ... not-on-purpose red/white/blue coordination.

 ...loud noises.

 ....successful fireworks.

 ....general anger over fireworks.

 ....and not pictured: really good food and conversation and hanging outside by the fireplace and wishing I wanted to make s'mores but realizing I may have hit my limit this summer already !!!