Mountain Retreat

Lloyd and Jelmer spent last week retreating at Hawk's Haven again. If you recall (loyal blog watchers) we were there last year about this time too. It is a beautiful house up near Chinook Pass on the way to Mt. Rainier. We joined them this weekend and had a wonderful, relaxing time. Anika enjoyed spending time with the Groenewolds, throwing rocks into the river, and staying at the "beautiful house". Somehow, we managed to keep Andrew out of the river:-)


The kids with the Naches River in the background.
The kids with the "beautiful house" in the background.

Winery/Vineyard Tour

Some couples in our church organized a wonderful tour on Saturday. A friend and member of our church, Bill, owns a number of vineyards and has sold his grapes to wineries for years. Now he is just getting into the wine-making business. He took us to his under-construction winery, Pacific Rim. (They are doing only Reislings for the moment. Reislings match well with Asian cuisine, hence the name "Pac Rim".) Then we drove to his 1800 acre Wallula vineyard on the Columbia river. He has owned the land since 1996 but still only has about half of it under cultivation. It is extremely time consuming to set up all the trellises. Bill marks every single row himself. He said if he has to look at it for the next 30 years, he wants only himself to blame if it is crooked. It is incredible, even in overcast, windy conditions. We also enjoyed a picnic lunch while we were there. What an amazing time! (I told Lloyd that I felt like a nerd because I had the urge to take notes. I learned so much about grapes, wine, and the area - so cool!)

Sandcastle

Anika and I built a sandcastle yesterday. (Correction: I built a sandcastle and she stomped all over it. However, she was nice enough to build another sandcastle that I got to destroy:-)) Unfortunately the pictures of the castle didn't turn out so well. We'll have to do it again.


Anika destroying the sandcastle:

Andrew "Bumper Car" Wicker

We are contemplating changing Andrew's name. Would anyone care to vote? The top three choices are Bumper Car, Train Wreck (Daddy's favorite), or Trouble. I think any of them apply. A brief synopsis of Andrew's week -
Monday - Fell down the cement stairs in the backyard and scraped his nose.
Tuesday - Discovered how to operate the back gate and was at the church "shooting hoops" with the basketballs before Mommy realized it (and almost passed out from fear!). Daddy saw him from the office about the same time that I did. (Horrors!)
Wednesday - Ran into the corner of Mommy's hope chest and now sports a cut by his eye.
Thursday - Climbed onto a rubbermaid tub outside and fell off, sliding along the house with his forehead. So his latest wound is a goose egg on this forehead.

Since he throws everything, climbs on everything, and runs away from Mommy in the process, he is just going to sport a collect of bumps, scraps, and bruises for awhile.

Here he is sporting his Cub's outfit (it still fits, Hil) and engaging in his favorite activity of throwing something down the stairs, in this case a fly swatter.

Pool Time

This was last week already but things are certainly warming up around here. We've been consistently in the 80's with a few jumps to 90! I'm not sure what this means for the summer ahead - except lots of time in the wading pool.

Bathing Beauties (they are actually both smiling in this picture!):
In action:

Garden

Here is it - my garden. We planted yesterday - tomatoes, bell pepper, herbs (basil and cilantro), green beans, and strawberries! It will be interesting to see what this area looks like come August. I hope I'm not overwhelmed, but I'm looking forward to some fresh veggies! (I'm sure my family is shocked and surprised to hear that I'm planting and eating vegetables.)

We heard that marigolds repel pests from the tomato plants (then we heard that they also attract other pests) so were trying it this year and we'll see how it goes.

Anika's New Markers

Anika received some new "princess" markers at a birthday party. She is so excited about them. She is actually spending time drawing and practicing her letters. She has A, H, I, L, O down pat so she does a pretty good job of Anika, Heidi, and Lloyd:-) Her D's and E's need some work.

Puddle-jumpers!

Anika and Andrew found another way to use the sandbox. The cover tends to hold water so they had a ball splashing and jumping in the puddle. I figured since I just about to throw them in the bath it wouldn't be a big deal now they want to do it all the time!

Exciting News

My sister, Hilary, and her husband, Jason welcomed Isaiah Benton into the world yesterday about 4:30pm. (I can't tell you all how much I wish I could be there to hold him and hug my sister. Darn long distance relationships:-)) We are looking forward to seeing them all in late July.