Pumpkin Patch!!

We started going to a pumpkin patch every year to support local farms and get back to nature (because we love nature). This year we went to Craven Farm.


Miles tries so hard to help with the farm chores.

Steve is so strong

Determination...I will not let this pumpkin that is bigger than me beat me.

STRIPES!!!

I'm checking for seeds.

Childrens' Museum

I was downloading pictures off the camera to post pictures of Miles trick-or-treating and I realized I haven't posted anything on the blog in awhile. Here we are at the Children's Museum on the advice of a friend. I think Miles had a good time, but I think we will wait a few years before we take him again. We didn't get to spend any time in half the museum because Miles (meaning Steve and I) got tired.

They had a special Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit. Miles liked the purple poodle.

He was a little afraid of Clifford though.

I was glad we went in October. This pumpkin is HUUUGGGEEE!!

We found one of those bikes that teach little kids how to balance without pedaling before they get to an actual bike so Miles took it for a spin. Later, I wondered if it was part of the museum or privately owned since it was parked near stroller parking. Oh well.

Since Miles rides the bus every day we thought he might enjoy driving one.

He seems to be a friendly bus driver as he mingles with his clients.

Here he is grocery shopping.

Here he is checking out the fish he chose to buy.

Leavenworth

After a super crazy week, we met up with friends and their family for a weekend in Leavenworth. What an awesome time we had.

Steve and Miles took a cow ride. If you look close, you will see that Steve's knees are poking out. He had a great time.

Did you ever see Muppets from Space when the evil guy says to his bear helper "Hand me the remote" and the bear says, "The goat?" That's what this reminds me of.

If you look in the back of this picture, you will see a freakishly small cow. It was insane.

Miles didn't even like the pretend animals in the petting zoo

Steve is showing Miles that it's okay to feed a sheep. What you don't hear is Steve asking the sheep to please not use his tongue when eating out of his hand.

Finally, Miles found something he loved at the farm. A small shopping cart.

Downtown Leavenworth. It was about 80 degrees and Steve didn't pack shorts. Therefore, he fashioned some manprees.

This picture made me laugh out loud. Miles is clearly hot and tired.

After a full day, Miles finally warmed up to the dog Rocky. It was so fun watching him interact with a dog. Here he is trying to feed Rocky.

On Sunday, we went to the beach. Once again, Steve sports manprees. More than once on this trip we had role reversal where I said, "You are not wearing that" and Steve said "but its comfortable".

Food Storage is fun

This summer started with a craft night with my friend where I canned yellow beets and she cut out her quilt. However, my friend wha so fascinated with canning, that she went out the next day and bought 20 lbs of peaches. After that, we bought pickling cucumbers and tried to make cucumbers. Well, by now my canning genes werr in full gear so we went to Yakima to get some cheap produce for canning. Here are the results.


30 lbs of pears.

60 lbs canning tomatoes

green beans, beets, heirloom tomatoes, peaches, apples, and purple peppers. I froze the peaches for later, ate the heirloom tomatoes, apples, and purple peppers, and canned the beets and green beans.

My first night, I canned 12 pints of tomato wedges.

Steve wanted to do the dilled green beans, we got 4 pints.

Steve also made pear halves when I needed a night off.

Other food not pictured include 1 pint pear butter, 6 pints smooth basil marinary sauce, 6 pints chunky marinara sauce, 9 pints of salsa, and 3 pints of baby beets. I am so tired of canning, but it didn't stop me from experimenting with different flavors of gnocchi last night. A friend of mine came over and we made sweet potato sage gnocchi, sun-dried tomato basil garlic gnocchi, and rosemary black pepper gnocchi. All gnocchi is sitting in my freezer waiting for a night when I don't feel like cooking.

New York, I love you

Right now, my brother and sister-in-law are enjoying New York. It makes me long for the wonderful city. Steve and I were able to go in June on an adult only vacation while Steve's sister watched Miles (thanks Jennifer). Here are a sampling of some of our adventures.


The first night, we went to Bouchon Bakery to get sandwiches and cookies and then we took them to Central Park to eat and people watch. We each got a macaron even though I didn't have high hopes because nothing compares to the ones in Paris. Holy cow! These were just like Paris, so delicious.
As the sun set in Central Park, fireflies came out. I never see fireflies where I live so I found it absolutely magical as if I were a princess in wonderland.

Here is a drinking fountain in Hi Line park. It is a park built on an old elevated train line. It was so cool. I now recommend it to everyone who goes to New York because you just don't expect an elevated park.

More Hi Line. Don't you love how they incorporated the old rail lines?

I thought these chairs were really cool. They are actually on wheels on the old rail line so you can move them.

Okay. To beat the heat (it was really hot), we went to the Museum of Natural History. Amazingly, we got there an hour before the museum closed so we got in for free (I'm all about the deal). Anyway, dinosaurs are pretty awesome.

Starbucks Passion Iced Tea. The drink that made the heat bearable. It was the official sponsor of this vacation.

So we went to Brooklyn to go to the botanical garden and I think we walked about 10 miles along the perimeter of the park before we found an entrance. It got to the point that we started taking pictures from the outside in case we never made it. Did I mention it was hot? We get a little dramatic when we are hot.

We made it!!! Here we are inside the Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Some of you may know that I am kind of obsessed with the little walking guys that show up in intersections to tell you its okay to cross. This obsession began when we went to Vancouver, Canada and I realized they had different walking guy symbols. When we found this construction fencing showing all the different types of walking guys, I felt like I was in heaven. Of course we had to take a few pictures. Here, Steve is posing with Hamburg as that is where he went on his mission.

I chose to hold hands with the walking man from Nice. Even though I have bad memories of visiting Nice, France (horrible food poisoning while pregnant that came on Saturday night after everything had closed, oh and by the way, nothing is open on Sunday), I loved that the walking man is wearing a hat and is walking in a cross walk.

Go-To Meals

You know those meals that you know the recipe by heart and its the meal you make when you don't know what to have for dinner. Everyone in your family likes it and it takes no time at all to make this meal. This is my current go-to dinner. I got it from a Real Simple magazine.

Cheese Ravioli Deliciousness (can you tell I don't know the title)

-Feeds 4 but it is so good, it will probably only feed 2-3

Some cheese ravioli (fresh or frozen)

2 T olive oil

1 crisp apple like braeburn or fuji (not red delicious, there is nothing delicious about this apple)cut into matchsticks

1/4 c walnut pieces

1/2-1 c. flat leaf parsley

Parmesan cheese for garnish

Cook the ravioli according to package directions. Drain and put into a bowl. Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a pan and throw in the walnuts, cook them until fragrant and add the apple matchsticks. Cook until the apple softens a little and add the parsley for about a minute. Pour mixture over the ravioli, garnish with parmesan cheese, and some cracked pepper and eat. It is so delicious.

Worst Fitness Week Ever

In our normal lives, Steve and I have a very regimented life with work, parenting, and exercise. However, that all was thrown off balance this week. Steve needed to go in to work Monday night and I wanted to get started on making pickles so we skipped our workouts on Monday and went about our lives. Little did we know, life was about to get a little crazy.

Having not slept Sunday night (my mind was to excited about the peaches we had just canned), I was exhausted and fell to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Steve had been complaining about his upset stomach before I went to bed, but I pointed him to the tums and went to bed. At 1:00 am, Steve taps me and says "Kelly, I think I need to go to the hospital, my stomach really hurts and its getting worse." Now of course, my first thought was that he was being silly, but it isn't like Steve to do this so I followed him downstairs where he was on the internet trying to figure out what hospital he needed to go to. Luckily, facebook also let's us know who is up and on facebook so we called one of our facebook friends to hang out with a sleeping baby as we went to the emergency room.

Surprisingly, the emergency room was not crowded at all and Steve was called back within a few minutes. I fell asleep in the waiting room and was then called to come back to Steve. While we waiting for tests on his blood, we watched a fascinating PBS documentary on apples, followed by tulips, and then marijuana. It was late.

Finally, the doctor came in to tell us his blood was normal and they needed to run more tests which included a cat scan. The doctor said it would take several hours to get that and the tests from that so I went home to catch a few hours of sleep and relieve our dear, sweet night baby sitter.

At 7:45 am (Miles blissfully slept in), the phone rang. It was Steve. He has called to tell me he is being admitted to the hospital. The cat scan shows a gall stone and the doctors believe his gall bladder is infected. They are going to operate. "Don't worry", he tells me. "Go back to sleep". I can tell you right now that you cannot sleep after hearing news like that.

As is usually the case, I had a big presentation I needed to give at work that I had to prepare so I got up and got Miles up and we went to work/school. I had been at school for one hour when my phone rang again. It was Steve. He tells me his surgery is at 3:00 pm. Please come to the hospital. Again, another dear friend was there to help me. I dropped off Miles car seat to her and called the daycare to let them know who was picking Miles up. My friend picked Miles up and took him to our house and made sure he was fed and cared for while Steve and I were at the hospital. Meanwhile, two more friends of ours headed over to the hospital to give Steve a blessing of health.

I stayed with Steve until it came time for his surgery. Then another friend came to my aid and sat with me while Steve was in surgery so that I didn't have to be alone. Well, long story short, Steve's surgery went fine. They found a shone 1/2" in diameter and took out his gall bladder. I stayed at the hospital until Steve came back to his room and then went home to relieve my friends from their babysitting and to put my little boy to bed. I then called another friend to come sit with a sleeping Miles because Steve wanted me at the hospital. When I got there, he was tired and I was tired and we both spoke incoherent sentences. I left Steve at the hospital and went home for a good night's rest. I knew there would be recovery time but everything was going to be okay and I was going to start exercising again the next day.

Unfortunately, due to all the stress and lack of sleep, I got a terrible head cold. Now here it is on Friday night. Steve is doing more every day, but he is still in pain and can't go out for very long. My cold is on the mend (thanks to another friend who came by after work on Thursday and picked Miles up so I could go to bed), and I know that even though I don't have family nearby, I have dear friends willing to drop their lives and come pick me up when I fall down and I have a Heavenly Father who cares about me and my family enough to put these people in my life when I need them most.