Thursday, September 1, 2011

Camping, peaches, friends...and one pregnant picture

We've had a fun few weeks spending time with friends and family.

Last month we went camping with Marc & Nichole and Andrew, Lindsey, & John. It was awesome! Just an overnight trip this time around, which turned out to be a great idea for James's first tent experience (he.would.not.sleep). We brought home tired and VERY dirty but happy kids, and everyone slept well the night we got home!


















Our tent. AKA: the biggest tent known to man. After camping in a "3-person" backpacking tent one time, Tom came home and immediately ordered from Costco an enormous 8-person tent, swearing he'd never again camp in those squished conditions. This sucker will last us at least through 5 more kids.












































I wasn't kidding about the dirt.

We celebrated Ceci & Steph's birthdays together a couple weeks ago, and one of Ceci's requests was a "Ty Lee" cake. She's her favorite character from the cartoon "Avatar," and she really had her heart set on it. So...we figured out how the pros do it, and Anna and I put it together. It turned out really well, and, more importantly, Ceci was really pleased with it.







































We got to see Amelia!!!! Kids had a great time running around together at the Point Defiance Zoo and then again at Mike & Kristine's for a BBQ. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends!



















James, Jack, Clare, and Avila looking at the otters playing.


















Clare was in 7th Heaven getting to hold a sleeping Baby Peter. Thanks, Amelia, for letting her sit there with him for so long!

I decided to tackle 48 pounds of peaches by myself one day. Here are pictures from start to delicious finish.



































Yes, I let my kids destroy the kitchen while I worked on the fruit.


















Here are the lovely results -- a dozen quarts of canned peaches, 5 gallon ziplocs of frozen peaches to use in pies and smoothies, and 9 jars of homemade peach honey.























Um, ignore the goofy facial expression. This is me at 31 weeks.









1 comment:

The Mallahan Family said...

Awesome job with all those peaches! You've inspired me to try next year! You are looking cute - I am guessing that you are having another boy :)

And that is how almost EVERY first night of camping has gone for us ... that is, until we discovered a little something called tylenol ... [does that make us bad parents ;)]. They usually calm down and are tired enough to sleep by the second night.