Fun in Roslyn

Last week we took a few days to visit Corey & Sarah in Roslyn. Justin and Corey took all the kids (except the baby) fishing-Barbie fishing poles and all! It was the first time Katelyn or Alaina had ever been fishing.  They were happy to report that they each caught a fish. Katelyn had the biggest fish and Daddy had the smallest :) They got 3 small rainbow trout and Justin cooked them up for dinner that night.

Ezra, Katelyn, Alain, Audrey

Corey helped Alaina get her fish

I love her expression

Daddy and his girls

Poor Katelyn was ambushed by mosquito's while fishing. She had other bites as well

We also celebrated Claire's first birthday!

Corey & Sarah

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

On Saturday Corey took us on a "little" hike into Thorp Lake. It was great weather and the trail was beautiful. I didn't realize quite how long the hike was going to be. Turns out it was 3.1 miles in (and UP) to get to the lake. That's a total of about 6 miles if you need help adding it up. It was a great workout and what really impressed me the most is that Ezra, Katelyn and Audrey hiked the whole thing. The whole way up and the whole way back out (with only the exception and a short piggy back ride here or there), which turned out to be a little more adventurous than on the way in.

Here we are at the beginning of the hike, all of us getting shuttled across the deep

 part of the creek by Justin and Corey

Sarah's turn

Claire & Alaina enjoying the show

Justin & Alaina by one of the creeks we crossed

Katelyn wanted to hold Aunt Sarah's hand the whole time :)

Came across this big stump that someone had carved into a chair

cousins

When we finally made it to the lake it was well worth all the effort and buckets of sweat I lost. I was hungry enough to eat and entire ham, I said!

On the way out we took a "short cut". It led us through big mounds of snow that was a little challenging for some of us to get through. The trail was a little hard to follow for a while, then we got on it again and were doing great and then suddenly: no trail to be found anywhere. We had to make our way down the creek. It was a little tricky, but we finally made it out to the road and probably and another mile or two before we got back to the cars. All in all it was a great hike with only some minor complaints at the end and a couple of tears. 

this is the "I have no idea where we are" picture

all of us crammed in the creek and trees

Free at last!!! Alaina finally gets a chance to walk/run

swim

 Another session of swim lessons under our belt. Katelyn did great. She wasn't scared at all this year, which I was thankful for.

 Here she is jumping off the diving board

She got to be in class with her friend Morgan again and that made her happy :)

Independance Day Fun!

We had a surprise, last minute visit from my brother Jared's family. They stayed 2 nights with us and spent the 4th of July at our house. We also invited one other family over to share in the Holiday. It was perfect! Good company, good food and good fun.

all the kids playing in the sand and having a great time

Michelle's (my sister in law) yummy strawberry pie and perfectly coordinated 

red, white and blue

Alicia and Timmy

Katelyn

Alaina: The only appropriate color shirt I could find for her was this blue t-shirt. Funny thing about it is that it says "Canada"

 Later we went down to the river to watch the fireworks. We had never gone down there before and

we chose a horrible spot. It was really far away and it was by a more stagnant part of the river, therefore the mosquito's were biting like crazy!

 Take cover!

???

Pelican

cool moon that night

Those exposed ankles got eaten alive!

Yay! The fireworks

Good Movies

 I took a chance on this first one. I had never even heard about it, BUT I'm a sucker for Matt Damon, so I thought it was worth a shot. I LOVED it! It was clean and sweet. I even shed a tear or two. Great family movie.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows. LOVED IT x a BAZILLION! I was never that crazy about Robert Downey Jr until these Sherlock movies came out and I loved this one even more than the first (which honestly I don't remember gushing over). I saw this in the theater and loved it and then I loved it just as much watching it the 2nd time in my family room.

Oh, and this isn't new, but I have decided this is my favorite Disney "Princess" Movie of all time.

School's out for the summer!

 As we approached the end of the year, I was originally dreading the thought of summer with Justin working nights and having to come up with ways to keep myself and the girls from driving each other crazy every day. Nobody love's when their husband is on the night shift, but I have learned over the past couple of years that the success (or failure) of those four months depends largely on MY attitude. Not that it keeps me from stressing about it, but it has been a blessing to discover this. I am realizing that we are just about half way through with night shift as well as almost one month into summer break.

We started the summer off with a wonderful family trip to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. The scenery is stunning! We were so fortunate to see many beautiful animals in the wild such as: Elk, Deer, Big Horn Sheep, Mountain Goat, Moose (a cow and two babies), Grizzly Bear (3 of them!), and some smaller creatures. On a few different occasions I was almost overwhelmed by the beauty that surrounded us, both plant and animal. I felt a respect for these amazing animals too, and just can't get myself behind the idea of hunting them. The girls played so well together while we were there. And in general, their behavior was excellent. I loved watching them together and it makes me so happy to know that they love each other. I will strongly encourage this as they grow.

Since being home, Katelyn has started with swim lessons and is doing quite well. She is not scared at all this year and just today told me that diving off the side of the pool (with the teacher's help) is her favorite thing to do. I am glad she is liking it. Alaina wishes she could go in the pool too, but she will have to wait until next summer.

After being away for a week it was really exciting to come home and see how much the garden had grown. Our blueberry bushes have produced this year (yay!) and it looks hopeful that we will have some things to harvest this year.

We enjoyed cherry picking last week and have been frequenting the Farmer's Markets as often as possible. It's so fun to live in this highly agricultural area and to have access to so much local food!

Lentil Tacos

I have been trying to eat less meat/dairy lately and tonight I used this recipe for Lentil Tacos for dinner. I have actually had some lentils for a while now and have been wanting to make something with them and this sounded good. Not only did it sound good, but it WAS good! Really really tasty, in fact.

I made homemade whole wheat tortillas (yum!) and we added some leftover black olives, black beans and avocados (because I like to eat avocado whenever possible).  I did use some Daisy sour cream, which is dairy, but at least it's pure and natural, right?

Can I just tell you how amazing it feels to eat good, wholesome food?! My body (gut especially) thank me every time.

I'm not perfect. Trust me. I had some jelly-belly's and a chocolate-mint truffle earlier today, but all things in moderation is such a good motto to live by.

A word about lentils from Worlds Healthiest Foods:

Health Benefits

Lentils, a small but nutritionally mighty member of the legume family, are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber. Not only do lentils help lower cholesterol, they are of special benefit in managing blood-sugar disorders since their high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal. But this is far from all lentils have to offer. Lentils also provide good to excellent amounts of six important minerals, two B-vitamins, and protein—all with virtually no fat. The calorie cost of all this nutrition? Just 230 calories for a whole cup of cooked lentils. This tiny nutritional giant fills you up--not out.

Please pass the Lentils!

Beauty

Not so sure about this new blogger set up....Anyway, today was a lovely day. Perfectly warm, but not too hot. I thought I'd share some pictures of the developing garden.  Is it just me or do all gardeners (or wanna-Be's in my case) wander out to the garden almost every day to inspect growth? Maybe it's the novelty of it all still, I don't know, but I sure do love to check on the plants.

They are already looking much better than they did last year. I am still hoping and praying we get to enjoy the fruits of our labors this year. I picked up a couple strawberry plants on Saturday from the Flower Farm, as well as some sweet potato plants that I purchased from a very sun-kissed farmer at the Market. It was a small pot, maybe 3x3 or so, but he told me there were about 10-14 little plants in there. At a buck a piece, no less. I love sweet potatoes, so I went for it. He told me that with all the plants I got we would have (potentially) enough sweet potatoes to store and last us until April! That is, if I don't kill them, which is still quite likely at this point in my gardening career. Hopefully that will not be the case. I even dug in the dirt with my bare hands to plant them. And THAT is a huge step for this gal who hates to get her hands dirty (literally).

I seriously am in love with the Farmer's Market. I get absolutely giddy when I get there. Again, probably the novelty of it...I have only been three times now. I kinda hope I am always as excited about it though. 

I love this time of year! 

I also love learning! Sometimes I get bummed out because I never got my 4 year degree...as if I am less educated or "less" in some way than those who were able to do that (not because anyone has said so, but because of my own insecurities). Although in reality, I have continued my education in a lot of different areas outside of a traditional classroom setting and it's useful, fulfilling, and makes me happy :)

Alaina decided to create a work of art all over her body today before church. Luckily I had enough time to bathe her before we left. It was on her legs, bottom of her feet, hands, and her nose. Lovely, isn't it? 


So, last week on Mother's Day, the Primary children got to sing for all of us at church. Katelyn seems to get a little nervous about doing this, even though she is up there with all of her friends. She didn't want to go, so I bribed her by asking if she wanted to take Alaina up with her. Technically, Alaina isn't old enough to participate yet. Well, it seemed to work, and I enjoyed watching them both and listening to the songs. Alaina just stood there with her fingers in her mouth, but I could tell she was having a good time. 

Today, during church, the choir got up to sing and suddenly Alaina jumped up and said she needed to go up there too! Apparently she thinks she needs to go up whenever a group sings now. Anyway, she stayed put, but during their song, she reached her little hand up, had her head on my shoulder and as she rubbed my cheek said, "It's a celebration. For you." In the sweetest little way imaginable. Oh she makes me laugh.

Just to warn you, I may or may not be feeling a little whiny today. I have mentioned before that last fall after I did my 2nd half marathon, I developed heel pain (I got Plantar Fasciitis) and had to cut way back on running. I did physical therapy for 2 months for my left foot and it has gotten so much better. But I was worried that I was just going to have to find a different physical activity to be involved in, so I tried to keep a good attitude and decided that I could try biking.

So I did the Rage in the Sage duathlon in April. I wished so much that I had been able to run for that one and since my foot was feeling better I decided to sign up for the next Duathlon, which was the Fiasco In Pasco race last Saturday. Run 5K, bike 30K, run 5K. Since the running part was all on trail/bark/pebbles/sand, I figured it would be less impact on my foot and I went for it.

I had already started biking more at the gym since I had to cut back on the running. Then we joined a new gym with classes and I tried out some spinning (cycling class). I tried a road bike, and instantly fell in love. You can really feel the wind in your hair on one of those. I even purchased clipless pedals and shoes for my bike (don't ask me why they call them "clipless" when you are clipping them in).

Justin works with a female officer who generously offered her bike for the race and I tried it out for a ride last week. She is shorter than I am and even though we raised the seat, by about 5 or 6 miles in my back was killing me. Luckily I had a rental bike reserved and I chose to use that one since it was my size.

I enjoyed the race for the most part. I was at the back of the pack on the first run. Honestly, I wasn't sure how much I should push myself because I knew I had a long ways to go, but I managed to run the whole first leg without stopping (I know, it's only 3.1 miles...yeah, yeah, yeah). And go figure, now my right heel has decided it wants to be an issue. I made a good transition to the bike, managed to not get run over or fall over and I thought I was cruising along pretty good. Turns out I was still at the back of the pack, although not last. That is, until I took a wrong turn at the end of the bike course. THEN I was last in. Lame. I was pretty irritated by that (not that I was last, but that I added an extra mile to my course). Again, my lower back was killing me and I just wanted off of that bike so bad!

The 2nd time on the run was a lot slower, which I knew it would be. But I knew I was going to finish that race.  I kept looking behind me thinking that surely I could not be the last person finishing. Well. I was. There was one other gal who I passed the last 1/4 mile (because she had become injured) and her friend dropped out of the race somewhere along the line. But it really doesn't matter. I finished and although I was tired, I really felt pretty good. My muscles weren't that sore in the days following, but my lower back has been in pain. And this week I have been an absolute slug! I laid on my back on Monday and Tuesday as much as possible, yesterday saw the Chiropractor and today decided I HAD to get to the gym. I ran a mile and then did pump class. I felt so, so weak in class. And I got so frustrated with myself that I started tearing up. I shook it off, because seriously, who cries in pump class???? I feel kind of stuck physically. I try to eat healthy, I work out between 4-6 hrs a week, and all I can do is seem to maintain the weight I am at. I just feel like I can't get rid of the squish around my belly and I hate it! Is it aging? Is it stretched out skin, am I in denial?

OK. So boo hoo. I got my whining done.

The good news is that last time I was in Spokane I was able to have my wedding ring sized back down to nearly it's original size. Now I can wear it and not worry about losing it! 

XOXOXO

I have heard it said that this is, "the information age". And boy, isn't that the truth!? With the tap of a finger you can have gobs on this "information" delivered right into your lap in an instant. I just can't decide if this is a blessing or a curse. Specifically, I am speaking of information about health related issues primarily focused around food. I have always kind of-sort of known what was good and bad for me to eat. I grew up with the food pyramid, which has now changed to something else altogether and I'm not sure I even know for positive what it is (although, with a click of my finger I could find out).

When I went through my Gall Bladder/stomach hell two years ago, I started to pay a lot more attention to the food I was eating and I think that was where my journey really began. 

I have come across this quote a couple of times and I like it: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” ~Hippocrates


I feel like I have a good understanding of what is good for and what isn't, but what is really overwhelming about this information age, is that even when you think something is good for you, there is always going to be someone else out there to prove you wrong.  And it will be a doctor with a lot of so-called research and study and data to back it up.


Take milk for example. I grew up with the slogan "Milk. It does a body good." And most of us believe that you need to drink cow's milk so you will get Calcium (and other vitamins). But I have since learned a new perspective on milk: that it does NOT a body good and that it is believed that drinking cow's milk actually depletes your bones of Calcium.


If that disagreement wasn't enough, the newest one I have come across is that whole wheat is bad. What?!? How could this be true??? Everyone knows that you need to eat whole grains, right (unless you are gluten/wheat intolerant or have Celiac disease)? Now, I have just heard from yes, another doctor, who believes that eating wheat is actually contributing to Celiac and other health problems. The wheat he is referring to is the "genetically modified" wheat that we are consuming these days. He says it is very different from the wheat of long ago. I am so curious about what else he has to say, that I am waiting for his book to arrive. And for the past year I have been making all my own wheat bread. What is a girl to do?

Does anyone else feel overwhelmed with all of this information? I know I do. I guess all I can do is keep learning, keep reading (and praying) and then deciding for myself where I want to stand.