4th of July

The sun came out for the 4th of July!!  We were worried.  It hasn't felt like summer for most of June which happens sometimes here and when it does, I complain!  We have to store up all the sunshine we can and make the most of the brief window of opportunity when the Pacific Northwest is paradise on earth.

We started the day out with our annual ward pancake breakfast.  We put up signs and banners so community members who were at the park would know who we were and join in.  We had lots of kids going through the food line, happy for free food.  

Henry up to bat in an intense game of wiffle ball 

Kids getting their bikes all decorated for the bike parade

The Johnson's are the greatest, even without Megan

After the breakfast we braved the crowds and went boating on Lake Sammamish.  Turned out to be a great day on the lake and not very crowded.  Boating was more fun because the Johnson's were with us.  We sure miss Megan though.  She is serving a mission in Colorado Springs and loving life!

We had a BBQ that night and I actually made the hamburger patties myself, instead of buying the frozen kind.  They were pretty tasty, I must say.  We invited everyone to come to our backyard to watch the fireworks and had such a small crowd this year.  It's so sad how many families and good friends of ours have moved!  It made me sad.  But the fire works were spectacular and no one fell off the roof.  Win!

Doesn't this look at fun and cozy?  I actually hate s'mores :) The taste doesn't outweigh the mess.

I've spent countless hours reseeding my lawn this spring and summer.  I thatched it.  I aerated it.  I raked it.  I dumped soil/seed mixture on it twice and it finally looks pretty amazing.  I am proud.

Happy 4th of July!

 

Thanksgiving 2021

I can't celebrate Christmas if I haven't posted about Thanksgiving on the blog so here we go!  Two days after our quick Utah trip, the Johnson's drove up for Thanksgiving.  I tell people the Johnson's aren't like family.   They're more like friends to us because we choose to hang out together because we have so much fun so there's no obligation.  

April posted much more about our good times on her blog.  I felt like I ran around all day every day with nothing to show for it except for producing large quantities of food.  Anyway, they came and we all hung around having a great time mountain biking, relaxing, hot tubbing, riding the e-bikes, playing games, and eating a lot of food.

The little boys waiting to eat but threatened with their very lives if they touched anything.  So they safely chose to sit in the corner and wait.

Look at their empty plates!  I slave for hours on food my boys don't even like.  Marcus had the nerve to suggest a true feast would be all-you-can-eat at McDonald's.  I have no words.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, even though the gravy didn't turn out.  I smoked my first whole turkey and it was so juicy we didn't know what to think.  It's funny how much effort goes into making a juicy turkey.  We all grew up eating dry turkey doused with plenty of gravy so when I serve something flavorful and tender, we all suspect there must be something wrong with it or that it needs another hour in the oven. The best part about dinner was laughing so hard as we heard Alexa cheerfully announce, "One hundred farts coming your way!"  and then she played one hundred different far sounds, all met with giggles and laughter from the obnoxious little boys table.  

The after-dinner entertainment: Wrestling!

The goal was to get the other person's sock off.  Thankfully Marcus's boot didn't seriously injure anyone.

On a whim we decided to take the ferry to Bainbridge Island.  The Johnson's never leave Sammamish when they come so they got to see a lot more of WA than usual.

card games pass the time nicely

Bold and Cover Your Assets are the recent favorite card games

We discovered Faye Bainbridge Park and it's awesome!

Our last Thanksgiving together.  I am definitely feeling the pangs of separation as each day brings us a day closer to Marcus's graduation, mission, then life.  I'm excited and sad all at the same time.

Henry already knows Uncle Toby = a Good Time.  He watched in awe as Uncle Toby skipped rocks

Some things never change, like Ethan climbing on top of everything!

We had to try out Moira's ice cream shop near the ferry terminal.  It was delicious!  We had no problem eating in the forbidden seating area.  People in WA are still very terrified of Covid, even though most are vaccinated.  

Walking back to the ferry in the rain

The Cuzins watching all the cars drive onto the ferry.  We walked on while Randy and Toby drove with the cars.  It never gets old seeing how many cars can fit on the boat.  

We lucked out.  We were the last of the cars to get on and the first to get off.

Henry ate every M&M from this jar.  It's mounted on a board that allows one candy out at a time and Henry was obsessed with it.  I found him hiding upstairs with it.

We went to the Snowflake Lane Parade in Bellevue.  It wasn't cold but it was windy and one of the floats tipped over.  It was hilarious!

The parade isn't that great but it's good enough and a great way to kick of the Christmas season.

The wind kept blowing her dress up and my boys thought it was hilarious

The kids will tell you it was stupid but don't let them fool you.  They had fun.

We will always remember the time we got totally lost walking aimlessly through parking garages and stairwells trying to beat the crowds at the elevators.  Eventually we ended up back at the elevators to get to our cars.  

We did the polar bear plunge and I have no photos of the event but let me just say that it's painful and a little scary.  I seriously wonder why my heart doesn't stop from the shock of the cold water.  But it's a fun tradition my boys won't ever do unless we are with the Johnson's.

Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving was a blast this year!  The theme was spatchcock and hairy nipples. Yes you heard that right. Read on....

My boys were disappointed we couldn’t go to Whistler since the border is still closed, but I was happy to stay home and feast. Luckily the Johnson’s came so we had new faces to keep us from getting bored with each other. It made all the difference. 

Marcus and Ethan were house sitting/dog sitting for our friends at their lake house which meant everyone had a bed to sleep in and when it was time for bed, the teenagers left for the lake house staying up until all hours of the morning without adult supervision. They also got paid to get pillows shipped out for my friend’s business so they even made some money while watching TV. 

Wednesday night I got the crazy idea to have Chicago pizza flown in for dinner so I wouldn’t have to cook. It arrived frozen solid, packed with dry ice. The pizza was good but after eating Toby’s delicious dip as an appetizer, none of us were very hungry. We had pizza leftovers for days. 

While I was baking up pies and April was washing dishes, the karaoke machine came out and the fun reached new heights. Randy and Marcus were quite the duo and Megan is quite the singer, even with hiccups!

Thanksgiving day started with a turkey trot by the lake. It was a flat 5k and all the boys acted like we were making them run a marathon and complained about being sore the next couple days. The big babies! We ended the race down at our friends' dock so we could mentally prepare ourselves for the polar bear plunge the following day.

I stayed home to cook and enjoy solitude while everyone went to a park to play football. I texted some friends and told them if they just happened to be at the park at the same time we could bump into each other and have a spontaneous game of football. Luckily one of them took the hint and everyone had a great time, even though we were breaking COVID rules. 

this is what a spatchcock turkey looks like
I smoked my first turkey using the spatchcock method (a word I’ve never heard before) but it sure is fun to say over and over again and so we did. And it was delicious and simple. I also made three pies with homemade, flaky pie crusts, homemade rolls, salad/dressing, and creamed corn with bacon. The meal was delicious!  Toby made a giant bowl of mashed potatoes and the feast was perfect. 

This is what a ton of mashed potatoes looks like

The adult table complete with my china dishes gifted to me by Mom

The kids table.  Pretty sure they finished eating in under 3 minutes before getting back to video games

Feasting!

Chocolate cream pie, banana cream pie, and triple berry pie (with a polka dot crust)

Polar bear plunge!

 We did a polar bear plunge in Lake Sammamish on Friday morning and I’m pretty sure it took a few years off my life. Randy almost ran me over in his rush to get out of the water so that was hilarious and the teenagers weren’t even affected so I guess cold water really does affect the elderly. While we were all standing on the dock getting ready to jump in, some boy made a comment about their hairy nipples and Randy started singing “hairy nipples” in a his opera voice which echoed nicely off the water for all of Sammamish to hear.  We were so inappropriate.  And thus was born our spatchcock hairy nipple Thanksgiving.

We went biking at Duthie Hill mountain bike park and were only delayed a little by the locked gate. The park was open but the back entrance from our church parking lot was “closed due to COVID.”  What a joke right?  We quickly threw the bikes over the fence and were soon biking with the hundreds of other bikers who were enjoying the sunny weather as well. 

We took family pictures for the Christmas card.  Unfortunately this was the best shot of them all.

Did I mention we ate a lot of food?  Randy bought 4 dozen donuts that day!  Two trips to Krispy Kreme for 2 dozen donuts each trip.  We ate them all!

Traeger nachos for the win!  I believe this was when I said, "I can actually see myself getting fatter!"

The little boys also spent hours playing Anky Overdrive, their video game race track thing.  I love when they play with their toys instead of video game.  This is the best of both worlds because they use an iPad/iPhone to control the cars and shoot at each other.  Its great fun!

On the Johnson’s last night, April and I went down to the lake house to watch Lights Out. It’s the scariest movie I’ve ever seen and I can’t believe the teenagers watched it by themselves!  And then decided to watch it again with us!  So now I can’t stand on a shower drain (thanks to Stephen King’s It) and I can’t walk into a room with the lights off. Yay for me. 

Happy Thanksgiving one and all!