A visit to the Lynden Fair.

I'm catching up on blogging our summer adventures.

Earlier this month we decided to check out a different fair in Lynden, WA, aka, the Northwest Washington Fair. Anna wrote a blog post about it last year and I was intrigued. Unfortunately, the day that we picked to go (my hubby took the day off) turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer. We know a few families in the Lynden and Bellingham area. We joked about running into our old friends who moved from Seattle to Bellingham in 2001. Well, we did! We hung out with Barbara and Alicia for a while.

This stand was selling deep fried you name it! Note the deep fried twinkies. Ick!

A and I went on the ferris wheel.

I loved the view and there was a nice cool breeze blowing. The best spot at the fair.

We saw some ants on the ground.

My hubby took C on the bumper cars - which were a complete rip off as far as the time allowed on the ride. One funny sight was a man spraying people with a fine mist of water and offering prayer as well. There were many Christian ministries with booths at the fair including a Young Life BBQ Barn where some other friends of ours were working. The parking lot we used was a fundraiser for Lynden Christian School. Lynden seems to the Bible belt of Western Washington.

I took these photos of the cute llamas and alpacas BEFORE I saw the sign that said no flash pictures. Oops!

I always enjoy seeing the food and flower entries in a fair.
Check out the fun things done with veggies!

C loves military stuff right now so he loved this tank. I don't know why the local police has one. ??

C's favourite thing from the fair was this button (like the image below) that he bought from the Skagit Country Republicans. He has been wearing it all the time.

Our friend Barbara asked us if we could use four tickets to a Mariners game the next night (which she was given but couldn't use.) We said sure! God gives us so many unexpected blessings. Photos of that game to come later.

Lynden has a few antique stores and I was able to check them out. We had supper at Dutch Mothers and returned home.Pin It

{this moment}

A canoeing with Daddy.

I took the photo from our inflatable boat which was towed behind the canoe.

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Nine years

My sweet first-born son turns nine today. I can't believe it. This is going to take some getting used to!

Here's a look back at his birthdays.

His first birthday party which had a cowboy theme.

Here is his 2nd birthday party which had an Elmo theme.

Third Birthday. Thomas the Train theme. That is a giant chocolate chip cookie since he didn't like cake.

Fourth Birthday. Farm theme. C got into the red icing, as you can see.

Age 5 - Safari theme with a giraffe cake.

Age 6 - with his long-awaited Playmobile Noah's Ark.

Age 7 - small party with close friends.

For his 8th Birthday we had a scavenger hunt party.

I'm so proud of A. He is finishing up a month of swimming lessons today and he passed on to level 4!
He does side breathing which I never mastered (or even attempted!)

Here are some fun facts about A:

• He loves to ride his bike around our street.
• His favourite animal is a wolf. He has a stuffed wolf called Timber.
• He and his brother are best friends. 

Heading out for a camping trip with Daddy.

• His favourite TV shows are Wild Kratts and Phineas and Ferb.
• He loves school and can't wait to go back.
• His favourite food is chicken rigatoni (spinach, chicken, pasta, and cheese sauce). 
• His favourite books are the Secret Zoo series by Bryan Chick.
• He has an adorable gap in his front tooth since a tooth was pulled out (by an oral surgeon) which was blocking his incoming adult tooth. I need to get a good photo of that. :)

Today we spent an hour at the bookstore - at his request. I'm making his favourite supper right now.

His party will be coming up in September.

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Beach Mantle

So, I finally have a mantle and I've decorated it with a beach theme.

The mantle just has white primer on it right now. It still needs to be *painted* white. It's been a very long process. Here's is what my fireplace looked like before!

The wall wasn't painted blue, we had old tile, and we didn't have a mantle.

Here's a closer look at the new tile. I'm using an old window as a fireplace screen.

I'll put a coat of paint on the mantle once the boys are back in school and the weather changes.

Here is a close up of the candle holders which I found at Hobby Lobby.

Where did I find everything for my mantle?


- the jumbo mason jar (filled with shells) is from Target
- the clam tin is from Joyworks in Snohomish
- I found the Mary Cassatt print at Goodwill.
- the large beach tag sign is from Glitter and Ivy in Snohomish
- the letter B is a chipboard letter that I covered with buttons. B can stand for Beach or my last name. :)
- the shells in the wood box, under glass are from either Marshalls or TJ Maxx, I can't remember.
- I found the large shells at antique stores and/or flea markets.
- the blue candles are from World Market.

Soon I'll be decorating the mantle for fall but for now, I'm enjoying these last days of summer.

I'm linking up to the following:
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Camping and Hiking at Gold Basin - Father & Sons

This post was written by my hubby. :)

Daddy and the boys went for our second annual summer camping and hiking trip in mid-August. We left on Friday afternoon for our campsite, Gold Basin, 13 miles east of Granite Falls on the Mountain Loop Highway. We had never been here before nor was it recommended; it was selected based on internet research, so there was some trepidation. We only booked a few weeks in advance, so there's always part of me wondering why a decent campsite would have any availability so close to the date.

We ended up in a pile of other traffic heading out for the weekend and the one hour drive turned into two. We got there around 7PM and pitched the tent. The campsite looked nice, with decent facilities. It was actually so large it was hard to find our site. The boys had a great time running around the woods nearby and climbing on top of and inside a massive tree trunk.

The next day we set out for our hike up to Lake Twentytwo. We got a decent start, hitting the trailhead about 8:45AM. There were certainly some cars already there, but not too many.  This time each of us brought a backpack of our own. We brought some bottled water, juice, and some sandwiches for lunch, plus some other snacks. Only C wore decent shoes.

The hike up was about 2.5 miles and an elevation of 1,350 feet. Unlike the Great Hike to Lake Serene last year, this one didn't have a long approach, so we were climbing pretty quickly. None of the way up was terribly steep. The old growth cedars reminded us of the Redwoods from our summer vacation. Two thirds of the way up we got to a section that was not wooded: the upside was that we got to enjoy a great view over the valley. The downside was that it was exposed to the direct sunshine and the boys got pretty warm.

The highlight, naturally, was once we got to the top. The lake was very pretty with the snowy escarpment on the far side, and we stopped to enjoy our sandwiches. Once fed, we circumnavigated the lake on the 1 mile trail. On the far side we had a snowball fight in August! Actually it was more like ice-balls. We actually scaled more than half way up the ice. C kept going up until it got too steep to go any further. After coming down from the "glacier", we climbed around on the boulders and rocks that were accumulated where the snow ended. Standing at the bottom in the heat but getting the very cool breeze coming over the snow, C observed: "it's like a giant air conditioner". The boys had fun trying to climb to the top of the boulders and otherwise scrambling around for about 20 minutes.

Eventually we decided to head down. The boys were pretty hot now and I had them gather up some loose ice and put it inside their hats and put them on their heads. This worked great at keeping them cool for quite a while. As we started down, this was the first point A started to get a little impatient. He wanted to be down at the bottom, mostly because his thin-soled shoes were little protection from the ever-jagged, rocky path. I was in the same boat as him and didn't want to tell them how much my feet hurt as we descended.

Eventually we got to the bottom, close to 1:15PM, and got back in our car, which felt great. As we left we noticed the trailhead was now completely packed, with cars even lining the road in both directions.

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{this moment}

Well, a whole week has gone by without any new blog posts! I hope to write one soon. For now, just a photo to share and remember from this past week.

We were invited to a BBQ at the home of an executive from the company where my husband works. They have an outdoor pool and the boys swam in it a bit. I managed to get one good shot of my oldest. I'm proud of how he has improved in swimming. He's passed my ability, that's for sure.

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{this moment}

Two moments this past week.

Proud potato grower (wearing a chocolate ice cream mustache) digging up the harvest.

A learning to use a power drill to take apart a toy (and put back together) while wearing jammies.Pin It

Berry pickers

I'm so proud of my boys. We went raspberry picking today. It is the end of the season so we had to search to find good berries. My oldest son picked about as many berries as I did. I had to pull him away when lunch time came. He wanted to keep picking!

My youngest picked lots as well and hardly ate any in the field.

I've been taking them berry picking since they were babies and they've been picking berries since they were toddlers.

I noticed some other boys in the raspberry patch today who were about nine years old - maybe a bit older. What were they doing? Playing Angry Birds on an iPhone. Expectations. They can be set high or low.Pin It