Random July Photos

The previous two posts were also in July but this is the random extras that didn't quite fit in.  We went to see the fireworks in Edmonds, a small town next to ours.  We hadn't bargained for fireworks not starting until 10 pm because it stays light so late here.  The kids were good sports about the whole thing.  We celebrated Pioneer day with napkin bonnets. Lastly but perhaps most importantly, in late July we made a very important discovery while riding bikes on the bike trail behind our house, wild blackberries.  Along most of the bike trail, as well as all around town, there are wild blackberry bushes.  We picked probably upwards of 10 pounds of blackberries during July and August.  We made cobblers, jam, smoothies, sorbet, and of course ate them fresh.  It was a wonderful discovery.  Next year we will probably pick considerably fewer raspberries knowing that we can get all the blackberries that we want for free. :)

New BFFs the Greens

We found a family with more girls than ours, the Greens.  Stephanie, the mom, was my roommate back at BYU and she lives in Dallas, Oregon about 5 hours south of us. The Greens have 7 kids, all girls, including everybody's favorites, the youngest two who are "matching babies" (twins). We went down and visited them in Oregon and then they came up and visited us here.  Both trips were tons of fun. Steph's middle three are the same ages as the girls in our family so everybody had an insta-buddy.  The most exciting part of both trips were the "sleepovers".  The Greens have both a triple and regular bunk beds in one room so that was a definite highlight. We look forward to seeing them again.

First Few Weeks in Seattle

This is really the first month or so in Seattle. We hit up several hikes and beaches upon our arrival in Seattle.  The water was too cold for real swimming but the shell collecting potential as well as the drift wood for fort building was a good compensation.

Within the first couple of weeks there was "Take Your Kid(s) to Work Day" at Amazon. Since Collin had barely started we only went for a short time in the event.  We met up with some friends from Provo, by chance, on the shuttle which was fun. Clara and Blake were in the same preschool with Miss Rebecca last year. We also went raspberry picking at a farm about an hour away.  We spent way too much on raspberries because there were just millions of perfect specimens of raspberries just waiting to be picked and it was really hard to walk away.