Voyage #2 -- Port Madison

Once was just not enough! The "fantastic four", as we have been dubbed by one of the husbands, have decided to kayak all the way around Bainbridge Island over the course of the next twelve weeks. (Some of us are a little more ambitious than others and thought we should accomplish this before Christmas. I won't mention any names...) So today was our second voyage, Port Madison. We were blessed with another gorgeous day!

Port Madison is more populated than Manzanita, and is home to the Port Madison Yacht Club, so there are boats anchored everywhere and docks abound.

We also encountered some wildlife:

This little island in the middle of Port Madison is called Treasure Island. I didn't get a very good picture, but it's a secluded sanctuary. The only way to reach it is by the long foot bridge. When Brad and I were first married, the house was vacant and we went in it. At the time it was a small, old, log cabin, but the new owners have fully renovated it and now it's a huge house.

And of course, what would a kayaking trip around Bainbridge be without the house envy?

Gretchen got a new toy, a Thule Hullavator, which makes it a hull-of-a-lot easier to load her kayak onto her car! It's as easy as ONE:

TWO:THREE!

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures as the Fantastic Four circumnavigate Bainbridge Island. We know that the weather will not always be this amazing, but we're determined to accomplish our goal!

Honey Harvest

Every year, our bee-keeping friends get together to "spin" honey and compare notes on how well our hives have done over the year. Every year, someone different hits the jackpot. This year it was my parents; they harvested about 40 lbs. of honey. Not a lot, compared to some years, but more than any of the rest of us got. It was a strange year; we thought with all the warm weather we would be drowning in honey, but that wasn't the case.

Here's how we harvest honey:

First, you have to remove the frames from the hives. This is Kylie and Ross checking his hive. The first frame he pulled out was beautiful, and we thought he had a bumper crop. Unfortuntely, he only had three good frames from this hive. He has two more hives that he hasn't checked yet, though.

Next, using a hot knife, you cut the wax off the frame.

Then you put the frames into the spinner, and crank the handle really fast, hence you are "spinning" honey.
The spinning forces the honey out of the frame and into the spinner. Then you drain it into a bucket with a filter to get out any bits of wax or bee parts that might be mixed in:

Finally, you pour the filtered honey into jars:

and voila, you have jars of beautiful honey! This is ours, about six quarts or 18 lbs.

This year, our honey was much darker than it has been in the past. Maybe due to the great blackberry crop this year?

Harvest Fair

Harvest Fair is one of the things I'll really miss when my kids have all graduated from Wilkes Elementary. Every year, the kids come up with the most creative things using vegetables, fruits, flowers, etc. I helped Ben build his "school bus" yesterday afternoon,

and today he proudly carried it to school and carefully placed it on the display table.

I tried not to do much of the work myself, because it's really obvious when it's the parent's project and not the child's. But I admit, it was very fun to use a giant zucchini for something other than bread or soup!

Here are some pictures of the creations I especially liked. After looking through them, I realized they were almost all animals. Hmmm...

Our friend Camille's por-cuke-pines:

An example of an obvious "parent project". Tell me, what kid has the patience to glue on all those dried beans? Cute idea, though:

Now this kind of hamster I might let my kids have:

LOVE the quills:

And this lion is way too cute!

A Great Day

Yesterday was a great day. Not only was it Nathan's 16th birthday (how did THAT happen?!) but I was able to go to the temple with four friends during the day while the kids were at school.

First the temple trip. The timing worked out perfectly, although as always happens when I'm planning to go to the temple, it seemed like things would fall apart before I left the house. Normally, my morning routine goes like this: Ben gets on the bus between 7:15 and 7:20. I have to leave to take Nate to seminary at 7:15, so Kylie usually stands out at the bus stop with Ben. Then I get back from taking Nate at 7:35 and get the girls out the door at 8:10. So I was planning to leave right at 8:10 to catch the 8:45 ferry. Everything should work perfectly. Except that since it was Nate's birthday, he wanted to bring donuts to seminary so we had to leave at 7:05 to stop at Safeway first. Which would have been fine, except that Kylie had a Natural Helper's meeting at 8:00, so she had to go with us. Fortunately, Brad decided to go in to work on the 8:45 ferry with me, so he was home to take Ben out to the bus. Disaster avoided. Poor Kylie had to wait at the school for 1/2 an hour before her meeting because I had to rush home and get ready for the temple. (I should have woken up at 6:00 instead of 6:30 and gotten ready early, I guess.) I got ready just in time to take Jillian out to the bus stop. The bus come right on time and Brad and I were out the door by 8:15. Driving on to the ferry always stresses me out because I never know how early I should get there to make sure I get on. Fortunately we made it just in time. Five minutes later and we might have been too late. My four friends met me on the ferry and we had a nice ride over to Seattle. But it was very foggy and the ferry was running behind because of it. We got to the temple at 9:50 for a 10:00 session...just in time! The session we were in ended up being a "hearing impared" session and there were technical difficulties in the middle of it. I've never seen that happen before. So it went a little longer than normal and we were out at 12:20. Plenty of time to catch the 1:10 ferry back and be home by 2:15. Ben gets home at 2:40, so everything worked out perfectly. It was wonderful to have that spiritual boost in the middle of the week, and to share it with friends. I'm looking forward to doing this once a month!

After all the kids got home, it was time for piano and guitar lessons. Then home for dinner and a quick birthday celebration for Nate before I had to go to the High School open house. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that Nate is 16 already. He only has three more years and then he'll be on his mission and starting his own life. Scary! It really makes me wonder if I've done enough as a mother to prepare him. I know, I still have three years, so I'd better evaluate and start cramming things in these last few years!

We got him a cell phone for his birthday. He's been asking for one since 7th grade, not pestering or anything, but hinting that he'd like one. We told him when he started driving we'd get him one. And now he's driving. I had it wrapped up and sitting on the counter. When Brad got home I whispered to him to call the number. We sat down to eat dinner and the package on the counter starts buzzing and playing music. At first no one but Brad and I noticed. He called it again, and then Ben picked up on it and said, "Someone's phone is ringing." Nate still didn't notice anything. Then the third time, Ben grabbed the package and brought it over to Nate, who had a huge smile on his face as he tore open the wrapping. I love to see him smile! Happy Birthday, Nate!

Yes! I LIVE here!

I live in the most beautiful place! People pay money to vacation here, and I get to enjoy it every single day. Sometimes I don't appreciate it as much as I should, or take advantage of the incredible natural beauty. But today, I did. I spent the morning kayaking in Manzanita Bay with three friends. What a gorgeous day!

Some of my dream homes:

Weekend Get-away

Brad and I were able to take a short vacation this past weekend, just the two of us. It's been quite a while since we've been able to get away. I think the last time was two years ago, when we went to Denver for his grandma's 90th birthday and a cousin's wedding. This time it was to Denver again, for another cousin's wedding. He's running out of unmarried cousins, so we're going to have to find another excuse!

Brad and the bride, his cousin Sandra.

Brad and Grandma Van Aken, she's almost 92!

Grandma and her children: Dave, Morgan, Mary Lou, Kenny, Rex, and Mike.

Brad and I after the wedding ceremony. I love how the stained glass makes us look tan!

I really enjoyed visiting with Brad's aunts and uncles. All of his dad's siblings were there, and it was so fun to hear their stories of when Brad was a kid. He spent quite a bit of time as a kid with two sets of aunts and uncles in particular. We got to hear about how Brad won the Longford, Kansas county fair's frog jumping contest when he was about 11, because he somehow managed to catch and enter a grass frog into the contest when everyone else entered bull frogs. Apparently grass frogs are much better jumpers! And we heard the re-telling of the famous "pig massacre" when one of the uncles tried to shoot a pig to roast and didn't quite kill it on the first shot. Brad and all the cousins were sitting on the fence posts watching. Uncle Dave (or was it Kenny?) had to go into the pig pen with a chain and a metal bar to beat off the other pigs who were trying to defend their poor, helpless pen-mate, while he tried to finish off the pig. Not a pretty sight! But quite an entertaining story!

When we weren't visiting with family, we were able to enjoy some of the beauty of Colorado. We went up to Red Rocks Park and were amazed at the shapes and colors of the rocks. The amphitheater is awesome. I'd love to go to a concert there someday. They were setting up for a concert when we were there and we got to hear the sound tests. The acoustics are incredible, and so is the view!

We also went on a short, 1.5 mile hike around the park.

I know all these formations have names, but I'm not sure what they are. To me, this one looks like a crown:And these are cresting waves:

I love how they're all different!

It was wonderful to have a little bit of time for just the two of us. We'll have to make sure we get away more often; at least more often than every two years!

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me!

I ordered 50 lbs. of peaches this year. Why, you may ask? I usually order just one box, but I had two different sources that I wanted to compare. Hands-down winner was the box from Boy Scout Troop 1860. They sell fruit (peaches, pears, nectarines & apples) for their fundraiser every year. This year the profits were split with the Young Women in their ward; even more reason to love their peaches! The peaches were large, juicy, red, free-stone beauties. The other box were small, yellow, also free-stone, but not so juicy or pretty.

Anyway, with two boxes of ripe peaches on my hands, I invited my friend Mariann to bring over her box so we could can them together. It took seven hours, but we got through all three boxes and ended up with almost 36 quarts!

I should have taken a picture of the "before" peaches so you could see the difference. It took three "boy scout" peaches to fill a quart, and six of the other, so that gives you an idea of the size difference at least. Mariann took a few pictures of us with the peaches, but she hasn't sent them to me yet, so I couldn't include them in this post. Maybe I'll add them later.

I also have a box of pears waiting to be canned; hopefully they'll last until I get back from our trip to Denver this weekend.

And They're Off!

By 8:15 this morning, the house was silent. All four kids out the door, and off to school! Now what am I going to do with myself? Well, this morning, I ate breakfast and read my scriptures (in peace), then took the dog on a walk, came home and stretched, and now I'll go shower, then start canning peaches! I'm looking forward to getting back to walking everyday, writing everyday, going to the temple at least once a month during the day, volunteering in Ben's class once a week, plus all the other cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, etc. that needs to be done. And eventually I will go back to school and finish my English Literature degree. My life is entering a new phase and I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm excited about it!

Here's the kids eagerly waiting for the bus to come.

Ben's school starts a lot earlier this year. We were out at the bus stop by 7:15 and somehow still managed to miss the bus, so I had to drive him to school. He was so disappointed. He really wanted to ride the bus! When we got to school, I asked him if he wanted me to park and walk him to his class. He said, "No, that's OK. I'm bigger now." And off he went!

Jillian was pretty nervous to be starting a new school, but I'm sure when she comes home today she'll be full of excitement. Nate, Kylie and Jillian all ride the same bus (until seminary starts, then I'll be driving Nate in the mornings, right after Ben gets on the bus) and their school starts an hour later than Ben's. Just two start times this year compared to four last year! Much easier to manage!