end of summer

we celebrated R's bday this week.  now he's as old as I am.

E eating Rob's pizza

late summer party at the Seery's

E's eying Rob's awesome peach pie

E playing the drums

 Tricia made yummy polenta with goat cheese, honey and carmelized onions.  really tasty!  she also said she would share a good quinoa (sp) recipe.

last child in the woods

by Richard Louv.  this book was dry and academic at times (so just skim those parts)

• Find a ravine, woods, a wind break row of trees, a swamp, a pond, a vacant and overgrown lot, and go there, regularly.
• EPA warns that indoor air pollution is the nations number one environmental threat to health, and its from 2-10x worse than outdoor air pollution. 
• we must overcome the belief that something isn't worth doing with our kids unless we do it right.
• rather than telling them to "be careful", encourage them to "pay attention" - which doesn't instill fear, but works against fear. 
• playing ball in the street may or may not invoke nature, but at least its based on direct rather than simulated experience and its outdoors. 
• calls for a movement of "hundreds of thousands of young people equipped with the vision, moral stamina and intellectual depth necessary to rebuild neighborhoods."

another nice weekend

we had lots of fun visiting our Allen cousins.  ely is officially walking and was so excited to be with his cousins.  Jenny was a great hostess.  she fed us well (even homemade icecream) and entertained us. Eric was so nice to hang out with us despite working all night and only getting 3 hours of sleep.
we picked apples and peaches and nectarines. we took walks with Jolene and the kids on their bikes.  Miles charmed us all with his smile.  we're glad to have cousins nearby to visit.

package from Nana

thanks for sending these fun things!

McAfee bug. argh.

i would like to pass on this tip in case you run into this problem. i got a new computer with Windows 7.  I downloaded my photos to the computer and then rotated ones 90 degrees that were turned sideways and they would disappear!!!  after being seriously annoyed and frustrated, i found this answer. the problem is not with windows, but with McAfee security program that came on my new computer.  you need to "unhide" hidden photos (any that you edit).  apparently also a problem with music files.  they have promised a patch to fix the problem, but hasn't happened yet and its been 3 months.  http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/why-do-my-pictures-either-delete-or-just-disappear/3c004e36-d08b-49fd-a13a-3b6b770bcc9b

so now that i've figured out how to find my photos- at least until McAfee runs an auto scan and resets their auto-hiding function again, here is a post.

We loved having Brooke and August visit en route to Maui.  We have been enjoying carrots and tomatoes (especially the orange ones) from our garden.  wow. i'm not having a good computer time lately.  i'm really annoyed that with the new blogger settings, i can't put these photos next to each other on the same line.  need to spend more time figuring it out.  as if more time is just around the corner.

and now i've just deleted 6 months of photos off my husbands camera.  not having good computer karma...

we hiked the Wilderness PeakTrail

just words

he’s so curious and alert and interested in everything.  Rob got a foam cover (no bumping heads) for the bathtub faucet (a fun blue whale) and Ely stands up to investigate and reaches up underneath it to see whats there.  last night when Rob came home, E was in the bath and he heard the door open and Jolene go running over there with her bone and senses the excitement and stands up (on the non-slide mat) and looks around the curtain waiting for his dad to come in and say hello. then he smiles and throws all his bath toys out and waits for R to play with him. 

also, he tried raisins for the first time (at home) and was interested!  ate two of them.  victory when I find something he likes to eat.

he knows a few words: Dad, sit and out (apparently we direct the dog with these two often enough).

Hurricane Ridge

The Olympic National Park is beautiful. i'm so glad we were finally able to get out there.  thanks to J&E for inviting us to join their vacation.  we saw the beach (ahhhh...) and the rain forest and the view from the top of the world (Hurricane Ridge).  next time we'll see the waterfalls and the Dungeoness Spit.  so fun!!

back home we cleaned and vacuumed the car

campground at Kalaloch Beach

beach logs difficult to cross

wind blown trees up in the campground

smores of course

the Allens taught us a few good camping tips

home of the Mariners

it was fun to take a back-stage tour of the ball field.

Hoh Rain Forest




nurse log

 

we took two short hikes through the Hoh rain forest. we were glad for the sunny weather.