It only LOOKS like vomit!

Mmmm....doesn't it look tasty?  Yeah, try convincing my kids to eat it.  The recipe sounded great: "Black Bean Vegetable Soup."  The black beans and canned tomatoes were blended together, thus diguising the beans, I thought.  I even added some ground beef for my meat loving children. 

Nathan, who has just been studying for oral finals in History and English, said, "Here's my thesis:  It's got beans.  It looks like beans, it tastes like beans, and it's called black bean vegetable soup.  Conclusion:  BEANS!"  He's too smart for his own good.  The taste wasn't that bad.  Ben actually said he liked it and ate several spoons-ful.  I thought it was decent.  Jillian wouldn't even let it touch her bowl, but both Nate and Kylie served up a small scoop and dabbled in it.  Brad said his stomach hurt and didn't join us for dinner.  I think his stomach hurt before he looked at the soup, but I can't be sure.

I won't be making it again. 

Kayaking Miller Bay

It's been a while since I've been out in my boat, so when the weather forecast said 57 and mostly sunny for a Wednesday in January, I just had to get out!  It didn't end up being 57, maybe closer to 50, and it was a little more windy than I'd hoped, but it felt great to be on the water again.  Gretchen and Stephany joined me.  Unfortunately Brooke was too busy, and Mariann still hasn't recovered fully from her c-section. 

I really wanted to explore Miller Bay, which is a short jaunt (at least it looked short on a map!) across from Agate Pass past Suquamish.  There's an interesting rip tide where the currents change near the Suquamish dock.  A man on the dock called to us and said there are sometimes harbor porpoises playing out there, which Gretchen actually saw when she went out with her friend, Sarah, a few months ago.  Now that we have confirmation that Gretchen's experience wasn't a fluke, we'll have to make regular trips out there so we can see them!  

This is the Suquamish Dock, so somewhere around here the harbor porpoises like to play!

This was Stephany's first time kayaking, and we probably should have picked an easier spot, like Port Madison or Manzanita Bay.  But she worked hard and seemed to enjoy herself.  It took us about an hour to get close to the entrance of Miller Bay. 

The outside of the sandbar

Once we got there, we realized we were fighting the outgoing tide.  The mouth of Miller Bay is very narrow, with a long sandbar on one side.  Gretchen and I really wanted to see what was on the other side of the sandbar and spent about 10 minutes paddling hard against the current, feeling like we were going nowhere.  Stephany wisely chose to stay back and soak in the little bit of sun that was filtering through the high clouds. Gretchen and I caught a glimpse of the inside, and rested for a minute while the current pushed us back out. 

and the inside of the sandbar, which doesn't look much different than the outside,

except fot the yachts moored at their docks!

You can see the mouth of Miller Bay formed by the sandbar on the left and the shore on the right,

with beautiful Mt. Rainier in the distance.

The paddle back was much easier since we were going with the current and the wind had died down.  We caught a few moments of bliss when Mt. Rainier showed her face and the sun cooperated. 

My imitation of "socks and sandals guy."  I'm a true Northwesterner.

We saw this beautiful creature flying overhead, then he landed in the tree and watched us for a while.

It looks like Stephany had a pretty good time, doesn't it? 

Maybe she understands the call of the water a little better, anyway.

Even though we were stiff and cold by the time we got back to shore, I'm so glad we got out on the water again.  I'm going to keep watching the forecast and seize the next sunny day I can!  Hopefully I'll be able to go out at least once a month.  

Meet Avery!

I don't know when I'll actually get to meet her in person, but she sure it cute in the pictures we've seen!  My newest niece, Avery Jensen Swolgaard, was born Tuesday morning!  She's 7 lbs. and 20 in. long.  Tyler and Rachael are so happy she's here safely.  Rachael had been on bed-rest for pre-term labor and did an awesome job of keeping Avery safe until week 39.  Way to go Rachael!  I can personally relate to how difficult it is to do that!  Since her parents are amazing photographers, I know we'll be getting lots more pictures, but for now here's one of the little cutie.



She's 15...for a moment...

Kylie is 15!  Where, oh where has the time gone?  Just yesterday she was my tiny 5 lb., 8 oz. bundle of sweetness.  Now she's almost as tall as I am and can't wait to drive.  She's an amazing young woman...smart, persistent, hardworking, unselfish, minimalistic, determined, beautiful...

Last night she had a party with her friends, six girls and three boys.  They ran around in the yard playing soccer for a while, then came inside to play some games.  After that, they watched "The Grudge."  From all the screaming, I could tell it was a pretty scary movie!  I didn't have the guts to watch it, just looking at the cover was enough for me!  Poor Jillian and Ben tried to go to bed around 10:00, in the middle of the movie, but all the screaming and scary music kept them awake.

After the movie the boys left, and all the girls were giggling and chatting in the living room.  I came downstairs to eavesdrop clean up.  My sweet Kylie was on to me and kept telling me, "It's OK Mom, I can clean up!"  I told her, "I don't mind."  I tried to make as much noise as possible so they would keep talking and think I couldn't hear them, but it didn't really work, so I don't have any juicy gossip to pass along.

Brad's a Free Man!

As of Friday, January 14, Brad is no longer an employee.  He joined Agate Pass Investments, a small investment firm here on Bainbridge Island, and is now his own boss.  We are so excited to see what this year will bring.  It's a little scary not having a regular paycheck like we've had for the past almost 18 years, but the excitement outweighs the nervousness.  I'm really happy he's back on Bainbridge and will be more free with his time.  He's excited to be able to focus solely on managing his clients' money the way he knows is best.

Boys-10, Girls-3

That's the number of grandchildren my parent's have, now that Corey and Jeff's newest baby boy, Landon William, was born on 1-11-11.  He appeared at 11:59 p.m., making it just in time for the cool birthdate! 

Since the kids didn't have school because of the snow and power outage, I took Kylie, Jillian, and Ben over to Seattle to welcome their newest cousin.  He's a big boy, 9 lbs. 3 oz., 19" long.  Corey had a natural birth and looked fabulous!

 

 

Another Snow Day!

Weather reports were threatening snow for Tuesday afternoon and I was worried that my kids would get stuck on the bus for hours again.  Fortunately, it held off until the evening when everyone was home safely. 

The snow was still falling heavily when the kids went to bed that night and they had high hopes of a snow day, but the forecast said it would turn to rain overnight.  I told them the chances of a day off were slim, but they might get a 2 hour late start.  This was met with mixed feelings since they were supposed to have a half-day anyway.  If they got a late start, then they would go the 2nd half of the day instead of the first half as planned.  Those of us who like to sleep in were happy with that idea.  Those of us who like to have play-dates on half-days were not.  The phone rang at 10:00 pm; it was the seminary teacher saying he was cancelling seminary for Wednesday,which made the sleeper-inners (me included!) very happy.

The phone rang again at 6:00 Wednesday morning with the automated message that there was a 2 hour delay.  I snuggled into the warm covers and fell back to sleep.  Ben woke me up at 8:00 in his full snow gear, ready to go outside and play.  We had about 5 inches of snow, but it was allready raining and getting slushy, so he didn't want to waste any time!  Then the phone rang again and it said there was a power outage at one or more of the schools, so school was cancelled!   The older kids woke up and were very happy to hear the news.  Jillian and Kylie joined Ben outside to build snowmen.

Then Ben's friends' mom called and asked if her boys could come over for a few hours while she went into work, so Ben got his play-date after all!  Grandma Vikki gave Ben some airsoft guns for Christmas, so what better way to use them than to target practice with the snowmen?  Don't worry, they were supervised by either me or Nathan the entire time. 

Bloedel Reserve in December & January

We live about 1/2 mile away from the Bloedel Reserve, a beautiful, 150 acre nature preserve and garden, and have only visited 3 times in the 10 years we've lived so close.  That's about to change!  We bought a one year membership and have now gone twice in the past two weeks.  The first time (December 30th)  we brought Brandon, Ashley, and Jane, and Ben's friend, Harrison, to see the "Gingerbread Village" and train display.

 

It wasn't quite as elaborate as I hoped it would be, but it was still fun to look into all the detailed, decorated rooms.  We walked around the grounds for a while after viewing the display, but didn't have enough time to go on all the trails. 

Jillian really wanted to go back and spend more time, so when last Saturday ended up not being snowy or rainy, she and I returned.  I promised her we would walk through the whole grounds this time.  We had a great time together.  For anyone who thinks a walk through a winter garden would be dull, think again!

We are going to try to visit every month and take our picture in this same spot to see the changes.