Garden time!

This morning we got up bright and early to head to the Seattle Tilth Edible Garden Sale in Wallingford. We've never really done lettuce starts, but thought this year it might be nice to get some things in the garden that we can enjoy earlier in the summer, and so we went with the mission of getting more lettuce and some spinach. We arrived a little after the start, and the line was absolutely insane to get in! It wrapped around the park it was held in, and we were glad that we got there early before all the good plants were gone! My friends Charlene and Amy were there also, and we snagged a spot with them near the front of the line after waiting for about a half hour. Yay for friends who get there earlier than us!

We browsed the aisles for a while, and settled on a mix of red and green lettuce, a few spinach starts, and bunched green onions! We've never grown spinach or onions before, so I am really excited to see how they turn out! We came home with our loot, and set straight to work planting them in our little garden. It was pretty gross out, raining and a little chilly, but so satisfying to put plants straight in the ground. The romaine lettuce that Kevin planted last Sunday had just started poking their little leaves out of the ground, so our garden in well on its way!

Apparently this is a popular sale!

Here's the loot!

Our snap peas have been loving the sunny mild weather we've been getting, they've grown tons this week!

And our three year old strawberry plants are thriving, and getting lots of little blossoms going!

We decided to grow some basil and zucchini starts ourselves, we'll see how they like our kitchen window!

So much yumminess in the ground! In the very back is romaine (you can't really see it yet), then red and green lettuce for the next row and a half, then the green onion looking like green hair growing in the dirt, and spinach. Along the right wall are snap peas, and the left are the strawberries. We plan on basil and tomatoes in the summer, and we'll either do pots for zucchini or if our new upstairs neighbors don't want their garden bed, we'll use that! Still no one moved in upstairs, so if anyone is looking for a place, let us know :)

Green onion bunches

A pretty red lettuce

We're excited to be around most of this summer, the last two summers we've been gone a lot and missed a lot of our harvests. Not this year! We may have over done it this time, but we like to pack as much as we can in the space we have.

Tonight, we're off to see the Mariners play the Oakland A's in a Turn Back the Clock Night game, all the way back to 1939! We'll be getting some nice old school caps! Go M's!

Hanging with Jackson

Kevin and I headed over to Issaquah to visit with Matthew, Terri, and Jackson last night, and enjoyed a scrumptious dinner together! Terri made some awesome halibut, and some amazing basmati rice and salad. I made dessert, peanut butter bars with strawberry topping, from this month's Better Homes and Gardens. Yummy!

Jackson continues to astound and amaze us with every visit with how much he learns. He does the sign for dog (though whether or not he knows what he's doing is another question, he definitely knows how to pant when Sasha comes near him!) and is figuring out how to stack things on top of each other. He can throw well, and is walking like crazy! He pretty much walks everywhere, except when he needs to get somewhere fast, then he crawls. He hasn't quite figured out how to stand up without holding onto something, but he's starting to work it out in his mind. Also, his hair is getting crazy, adorably curly!

A Belated Bunny Post

Kevin and I spent the Easter weekend on Bainbridge, splitting time between his parents' house and mine. It was a great weekend, lots of food, egg dying, sports watching, game playing, and visiting with our great families!

Let the egg dying begin!

What a pretty batch of eggs!

Kevin got pretty cheeky with some of his...

While I remained ever sappy!

Mark found a miniature chicken egg AND a huge goose egg! He ate the goose for breakfast, it was tasty, much like chicken egg only gigantic and a little more chewy.

The Easter Bunny led us on a scavenger hunt for our baskets! We had to figure out clues all throughout the house and outside, and Kevin and I found ours in the greenhouse!

Off to my parents' house, where I snatched up a little bunny of my own! Jackson was darling as ever, and I had a great time playing around with the little man!

Egg dying round #2! Nate joined in the fun this time, and made some great colors!

Kevin and Jackson hard at work!

Loveliness!

Jackson LOVES to play the guitar. We spent a good long time just strumming along, and it was so much fun to watch him light up when he figured out how to make a new sound. We definitely have a musician on our hands!

This afternoon, Kevin and I headed to Safeco for the Mariner's home opener versus the Angels. It was a great day to be at the ballpark, gorgeous blue skies, albeit a little chilly. It was really exciting to hear everyone cheering when Griffey came onto the field! And they played him at DH, which is exactly where Kevin and I want him to play!

It was an exciting game, Silva pitched well, we had some good hits, and it was pretty much tied most of the game. It ended up going into extra innings, and we won in the 10th inning off a sacrifice bunt by Yuniesky Betancourt after Franklin Gutierrez laid down a double. It was a crazy end, and I think I may have ripped a hole in my larynx screaming my head off! The M's are now 6-2, winning tonight 3-2 tonight! Huzzah! First place in the AL West, tied for first in the AL! What a great way to start the season!

Tiger Mountain 3

On Sunday, Kevin and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and called up our friend Robin to go hiking. We thought we'd try out the Issaquah Alps, and Tiger Mountain sounded like the best bet for sunny weather and great views. We headed out around 11am, and got going around noon. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot and along the road leading up to it, but it still seemed like a great hike, so we braved the crowds!

There are two ways up to the Tiger Mountain Summit #3, one that is more popular and less steep, but also longer, and another way that is STEEP and shorter, and also unmaintained. I was feeling pretty confident, so I gave the go-ahead to take the tougher trail. Whoooweee, it was a doozy! It was very steep, and started getting pretty snowy in the last mile or so, but the views from the top were well worth the aching calves and quads!

The boys attempt to figure out our route up the mountain

West Tiger #3, here we come!

Little bits of snow along the trail

Little more snow

Little bits of trail in the snow!

Getting worn out!

Olympic Mountains view

Cascade Mountains view

A great time with my boys!

Yay summit!

The slippery trail back down! We decided to head back down along the more maintained, well-traveled trail, which was good since it wasn't as steep, but also very very slippery since more people had been on it! It was an adventure where there was still snow on the ground. A great hike, definitely worth the trip up!

An author meeting

Today, Lisa Lutz came by the bookstore to sign copies of her books, which I have talked up before. I found out she was coming yesterday, and got super excited to meet her. Of course, once she showed up, and I got called out of the stockroom to see her, I got all panicky and turned right back around. Shyness seized me, and I needed to get a little pep talk to go back out there to say hi. I know, silly!

Anyway, she was autographing books, and I started gushing about how much I like her books, and that I suggest them to customers all the time, and she seemed genuinely excited to hear what I had to say. I snagged a hardcover of the first book, and was starting to walk away when she asked if I would like her to personalize it to me. Woohoo! It was really cool to get to talk to an author who I enjoyed reading, and I am glad I got over my momentary paralyzing fear of talking to people! Wish I'd done the same when Steven Pinker came in...next time, Mr. Pinker, you're mine!

For Seattle area folks, she will be reading at the Ballard Public Library tomorrow at 6:30pm.

Things that made me happy today

~Waking up snuggly warm before my alarm went off and not feeling like I have a cold

~Seeing a man hold up an umbrella over the woman next to him on the street downtown today who didn't have a coat

~Going to the GreenFest with my girls where we ate great food, learned some new stuff, bought some pretty earrings, and spent some much needed quality time together

~Getting to see my little Corbin!

~Meatball soup

~Going to the Sounders vs Real Salt Lake City match with Kevin, Adam, Erin, Neal, Ray (who I babysat for when he was like 6 years old!) and Corbin!!!

~Corbin managing to get a little sleep in at the very exciting and super loud game

~SOUNDER WIN THEIR SECOND MATCH OF THE SEASON!!!!!!

~What a great day~