Summertime Delicious

Lucy and Maggie make a cake.


Jasper's done with diapers; loves to pee outside; gives whole new meaning to "point and shoot."


My first attempt at Cioppino (Mom's birthday dinner request):



And a kick-ass caesar salad from the Rebar cookbook Melanie lent me: the dressing is something like juice of a lemon, whole bulb of roasted garlic, fresh garlic, olive oil, parmesean, anchovies, dijon mustard, S&P. Maybe I missed something, but so good.

My Beautiful Mom

Rob's Amazing Plum Tart w/ Lemon Shortbread Crust - my new favorite desert (and breakfast).

Do all kids love to be buried in sand?

Week in Review

Taking a break to give a quick update on life back in Seattle. In short, we're having fun in the sun (and a thunderstorm too). Pictures forthcoming but the big news is that Lucy lost a tooth on July 3rd. Rob and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary yesterday on July 4th (co-dependence day for us). Jasper pooped on the potty today, with Lucy close by for moral support.

Jasper's quote of the week: "Hey, Momma! Know what? I'm a witch and I'm weawy wicked." And a runner-up quote from Jasper, on fireworks which we saw in Edmonds: "Fireworks are weawy scawy. They are too noisy; I like to cover my ears."
Lucy's quote of the week: (leaving her friend Sophia after playing the day away) "Sophia, I wish I could stay and play with you for eight years." I pretty much feel the same way about hanging out with Sophia's mom, Melanie...

Rob is consumed with work while he's there, but gets that out of his system on his bike rides home and at least reports enjoying hanging with the family and caring for our garden, with "help" from the kids.

I received an enormous box of homeschooling curriculum from Enki for first grade next year. I am reading it every second I can (some days that totals about two minutes); I love reading this stuff, desperately, and think Lucy, J. and I are going to have some fun next year...

Still Getting There (June 15 - 16)

Before we left our Idaho heaven for our second day of driving, we got in a sweet little bike ride around the campground and... Rob got hit in the noggin with the bike rack. He was quite good-natured about it though...

Second day of driving was a mixed bag; the stretch through northern and central Utah is not my favorite. Lots of traffic and city stuff. But then we were rewarded in southern Utah with what must be some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. We only had a small taste of Arches National Park but we will be back. It rocked. And one more tip for keeping your roadtrip/family camping vacation interesting: try not getting to your campsite until after dark - preferably after 10 pm when it is quiet time at the campground with two hungry and road weary kiddos. And try to forget to bring your mallet to pound in the tent stakes because that was a fun touch...






The last day of our drive there was great, starting with a much-needed stop in Moab for some good food - at a little cafe called World Peace or something like that... Smoothies and burritos were a perfect snack before we went tumbling through some very small and curvy backroads, making our way to my sister Em & brother-in-law Kris's house in Gypsum, Colorado (near Vail). They and their boys, Max (3) and Teagan (2 mos), were a sight for sore eyes - really they are all just gorgeous and glowing, but more on that another day.