First Harvest

On Thursday, before we left for a weekend away camping, I was able to harvest some veggies from my garden. I am so excited things are finally starting to ripen.

Elbe Work Day

Yesterday, Terry and I joined our 4-wheel drive club, the Timber Tamers, down at Elbe OHV for some trail maintenance and a little wheeling. We opted to simply drive the Jeep down since it is only about an hour away and we didn't want to haul the truck, camper and trailer down there for the day trip. We left a little early so we would have time to do a little shooting at pit before anyone else showed up. We both shot Terry's new S&W .357 for the first time and I fired off a couple from my Kel-Tec 9mm.

Most of the group was at the parking lot at Elbe close to 9:00. In the staging area, Penny noticed she was getting a flat tire, so before we even hit a trail, they did a quick tire change. (Notice Penny's Jeep is being held up by a winch line coming from Mark's Jeep to her roll cage.) We started the day by painting the winch point sign on the top of our adopted trail. Then, we put a little more rock on one side of the trail in hopes of it stabilizing the rock that was already there so at the first rain it all doesn't end up at the bottom of the trail. We were lucky to be able to use a small tractor to load the rock behind our Jeep and bring it where needed which saved on some manual work (thanks DNR).

Mark, aka Dirtball, was a big help supervising the trail maintenance

After the trail work, we ran a couple trails. Terry had fun playing in a little rock garden and before long, Mark wound up ripping a hole in the sidewall of one of his tires. Luckily, Gary was good with plugs and they were able to limp it back to the trailer. The rest of us did a few more trails and found a mud hole before heading out. Overall, we had a great day out with friends!

Mt Rainier Hiking

Yesterday, Terry and I decided to do some hiking at Mt Rainier National Park. We live close to the area and have been wanting to do more hiking so decided to go up there to take advantage of the great weather.

The first hike of the day we did Naches Peak Loop. It was 5.0 miles and took us exactly two hours to hike. We parked at Lake Tipoo and started the hike from the trailhead there. There was a small hill at the beginning of the hike but after that the hike was fairly level. I had read that the trail was popular and there was a chance of crowds, but luckily since we hit the trail early we didn't see that many people. The hike took us over highway 410 through fields of wildflowers. Once we were about half way through the trip, we were graced with great views of Mt Rainier. The morning light was amazing and we got lucky with the weather. When we arrived back at our car, we were surprised to see the parking lot full and tons of people milling around the lake. We were definitely glad we hit the trail early in the day and do plan on hiking it again in the future.

After the first hike, we decided to hit another trail since the day was still early. In the book I had, it described another trail in the Sunrise area that looped around the visitor center. It also described the trail as easy and 5.0 miles so we decided to try it out. The Sunrise Loop Trail started at the Sunrise Visitor Center went up to Frozen Lake, across to the First Burrough, down the back side of the Burrough to Sunrise camp then back to the visitor center. The hike was definitely harder than the first hike of the day with some steeper hills. There was one area that still had a snow patch that we had to navigate which was a little scary since one slip and it was a long way down a steep hill. The views of the mountain were amazing! It seemed like we were really close to it and I am sure the pictures don't do it justice. Coming back down the hill, Mt Rainier was to our back so we think if we did this hike again we would do it in the reverse direction to get the views in front of us going up the hill. There were more people on this trail then the first one but it still wasn't too bad. We hope to have decent weather in a few weeks and do this trail again with Jake and Brittany.

More New Paint

I painted the office in our house earlier this week. I already had the paint purchased when I painted the front room and wanted to get the office painted before Jake and Brittany came to visit. Now, we just need to get the French doors installed.

On Tuesday, I emptied the room. Terry and I were both amazed at how much stuff was crammed into the small room. I am sure you won't be too surprised since it looks horribly cluttered in the pictures (which it probably was and I was just in denial about). After I had the room empty, I did a coat of primer on the walls. Then, after dinner, once the primer had a chance to dry, I painted the room blue. I really like the color, but Terry is having a difficult time getting used to it. I read somewhere you should paint your home office blue since it helps inspire creativity, so I thought I would give it a chance.

Yesterday, as the state of Washington was dealing with record breaking heat, I brought everything back into the room and organized it some. I went through both file cabinets and got rid of old documents and also decided I wanted three separate areas in the office for the different tasks. I wanted the desk for the computer, one table for scrapebooking and the other table with my knitting, sewing and cross-stich (also to house my cookbooks). I had some issues on where I wanted to place the furniture since I did want to move it around some but the position of the cable outlet on the wall limited on where I could put the desk. I think I like how I have it arranged for now, but if I get sick of it, I can always change it again.

Zeus had a hard time with the high temperatures. I felt bad for him and tried to help out by giving him a cold bath. First, he proceeded to drink the bath water when I first turned it on. Then, he hated the cold water. He is normally good during baths, but I use warm water and he definitely wasn't a fan of the cold water (even though he was hot and panting). Well, enough chatter, I hope you enjoy the pictures of before and after (and one of Zeus trying to keep cool).

Fun with Nina & Ben

Last weekend, Terry and I were fortunate to be able to spend time with some friends of my mom and mine that are visiting from France. We drove up to my parents' house on Friday, took the ferry to Friday Harbor on Saturday and then stopped at Snoqualamie Falls on the way to our house on Sunday. Then, on Monday, we visited NW Trek in the morning and then headed up to Mt Rainier. And finally, went to Seattle yesterday. Nina and Ben are staying 3 nights in Seattle and on Friday morning, I am taking the train up to Bellingham with them (Terry will be meeting us when he gets off work on Friday). Then, on Sunday, we are heading to Canada where we will leave Nina and Ben as their flight will leave from Vancouver. Here are some photos I have taken of the last few days (sorry, there are a lot, especially from Mt Rainier where I fell in love with the wildflowers that were in bloom):

Oh, and the best part of Nina and Ben's visist is: now, Terry wants to plan a trip to France!!! I couldn't be more excited thinking of going back. We are hoping for the spring of 2011 as that will give us time to save some money. Currently, we are thinking about staying in France with a quick trip to Venice.