What we have ALL been up to. . .

I've been meaning to post something for a while now, but have been busy, busy, busy. It seems we have been going non-stop for a good month now. Triathlon training started as soon as we got back from Corpus Christi, and I just now feel like I'm getting into the swing of things. After we read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" we have gone on making gardens, buying local, and visiting local farms spree. I added Ayden to swim lessons this week (she has been waiting forever and asking a LOT!), the boys with school always adds a lot, and put all that with my newest obsession: geocaching, and you've got yourself a fairly full schedule.

These are somewhat out of order, so I'm posting dates with the pictures. Bear with me, this is basically the whole month of April (plus more!).

On March 23, the boys had a school field trip to Skagit Skate. We had a great time. Thankfully Sarah watched Ayden so that I could just play with Tate. Tate and Grant were great skaters and we hope to go back again soon.





March 24 I bought a seed flat and started some beans, peppers and onions. The kids are helping plant.


As part of our 'buying local' campaign, we have now started taking field trips to local farms. I contacted Vicky Brown, of The Little Brown Farm, and she kindly invited us down to visit her goats. She showed us everything and answered every question we could think of. She also said that we could visit and feed her goats a treat any time we wanted. Vicky also teaches classes on how to make cheese and what's even better is that she comes to your house to do it. We are planning on doing that soon.

What a great time! So, on April 15 we went down and visited.

This is a goat in the milking stand. She was getting antibiotic treatments so her milk was not used in anything, but she still needs to be milked.
All the kids got to hold a baby goat (except Ayden who did want to). Vicky's goats were so friendly and loving.


The farm.
Aren't they adorable?

The babies would just come up and nuzzle and want love. It was so sweet.
This one climbed up and was nibbling Grant's hair. They really like to nibble hair.
Did I mention how friendly they are? This one kept trying to eat Sarah's zipper.
Right at the end, when we were getting ready to leave, Ayden went close to these goats all by herself. I was so surprised and happy. I want to get rid of her terror of large animals (I don't mind caution, but she will often shriek in terror).
We had date nights. One Saturday night Andy and I went out, so the next day we watched Sarah Beth while Sarah and John went out. The kids are watching Finding Nemo. Sarah Beth had that phone up to her ear almost the entire time she was at our house.
It was a nice spring evening so the kids enjoyed dinner out on the deck.
On another farm tour we went to Golden Glen dairy. We buy our milk and yummy cheeses from here. We also found a fantastic Chevre from a goat farm (we could see the farm from Golden Glen, but didn't visit), that was fabulous. In fact just talking about it makes me want more.




Up close and personal with the baby cows.


The cows were really interested in the kids. Unless they moved too quickly.

This is a random picture from a drive home. This is how my daughter fell asleep in the car. She really wanted the hat to stay on her head.
These are a couple of shots on the airplane on the ride over to Virginia.

Another drive home, but with COOL kids. Both have their shades on. I got these sunglasses for them while in Virginia. Tate's have dinosaurs and Ayden's are ducks.
This is at my Uncle Mike's 50th birthday party. We took Grant with us and the boys had fun playing with the two crawling babies. Here they are with my cousin's son Hunter.
Friend love. Awwww.
Here are Ayden and Sarah Beth at Andy's office. I watched the girls while Sarah got her tooth fixed. I am the official dentist appointment babysitter.
This is a day we went out to lunch. As you will see in the next picture Grant had a hat on that day. For some reason, while we were eating, he yanked it off his head and this is what was under it. I laughed so hard when I saw his hair. I'm still not sure if the hat was Holley's idea or Grant's. We have been scarred for some time now by the sudden appearance of such crazy hair. ;)
See! A hat! This is what the kids looked like while we waited for Tate to finish his swim lessons.
Here are a couple of shot while geocaching. I love being able to explore all the little areas that you have to go to, the new information you can learn and the kids love the treasures they can trade. (Tracy- we are going to do a little of this while you are here. I think your boys would love it.)
This is right next to Coupeville on Ebey's Prarie. The kids are on the bench. I wore them out geocaching, but Tate found the treasure that day, so kudos to Tate.
On April 25th Holley and I had the Eagle Run in downtown Oak Harbor. It was a cold morning but not as cold as the Smelt run (thank goodness). I did well, I ran the 5k in 37:14 which is 12 minute miles, basically the same as the Smelt Run. Holley surpassed her goal (which was to run it in 27 minutes, basically 9:14 miles) and ran it in 23 minutes at 8:55 miles AND she got 3rd place in her age group!
Here we are taking off.
I am in the orange and white just above the lady with the golden retriever.
See, Holley is so fast Andy could barely get her in the picture. She is the red blur to the very left.
Here I come, moseying along.
Yeah! Finished with another race.
Enjoying the Holland Happening parade later that same day.

The best thing about a parade for a kid? The candy, of course!


This was taken just last weekend when Holley and I came back to find out that James had hurt his back by lifting a rock. His all important marathon (he still has to qualify for Boston!) is this weekend and he is lifting rocks. I told him, quite specifically before we left to work out, to not lift anything. Just goes to show you how well he listens.
Ok, I realize after I wrote that above, that coupled with the picture, things look very dramatic. I promise you he was just hamming it up for us after we got home. He did pull his back a little but it wasn't as bad as him on the ground and not being able to get up. I promise you he is NOT badly hurt, just playing around. I do kind of like that he is laying on the ground and his loving, adoring wife is more worried about the bed under the tree. She is hoeing and he is sprawled out on the ground. Love. This. Picture.

For our third field trip to a local farm/business where we buy our products is this flour mill. The Fairhaven Flour Mill is in Bellingham and they kindly invited us in to see how their flour was made. I should have (but didn't) take pictures of the 2,000 lb. sacks of grain. They buy grain from no farther away than Montana (some from just north of them in Lynden) and process right here in the mill. It is all organic, wonderful and whole wheat. It makes an absolutely fabulous loaf of wheat bread.

The red machine grinds the seeds between two stones (truly stone ground!). The stones are in the circular bottom of the machine.

Here is where they fill the bags and sew them up.
Holley got to sew up one of the bags!

A few of the finished products. They make around 13 different types of flour. They were so kind and answered all our questions. They even shut down the mill so we could walk around (otherwise the noise would have been deafening). We then headed off to the co-op so we could stock up on their flour.
Walking around Bellingham.
This is a shot of the night before we headed to Corpus Christi. Holley came and set up her little greenhouse in our kitchen so her 'babies' (the plants she had planted so far) would survive her absence.

This is very serious stuff. She came over with a truckload and managed to forget her lights and had to head back to get them.

Ooops! This is from our visit to The Little Brown Farm. I'm too tired to move this picture on this very long post so here it will stay. She is demontrating how to milk her goat. The kids were fascinated.Looking at all the kids.
Sarah Beth thought the goats were great.


So, just a few things that we've been up to lately. We already have a few more field trips planned to more farms/businesses and one even to the zoo. Tomorrow we head off to Vancouver for Andy and James to run the Vancouver marathon where James WILL qualify for Boston or he WILL disappear. From my blog that is. Not really disappear. :0 (Is that enough motivation James??)