Me on a skimboard...

Highlight of the weekend - the boy and I bought ourselves some skimboards, headed up the land of Canadia, and showcased our mad skills in glorious 79 degree weather on the sands of White Rock. I was decent, Isaac was amazing. Okay, I wasn't even that decent as I have never set foot on a skimboard before, nor am I very talented with the whole balancing coordination thing, but I was very impressed with my efforts nonetheless. Isaac's apparently been skimboarding since he was a kid, so he didn't have any problems picking it up again. Not to mention, of course, that Isaac is naturally talented at anything requiring physical coordination and athletics. Even though I still haven't technically stayed on the board 'skimming' for more than 2.3 seconds, it was a lot of fun and perfect weather for the adventure. And Isaac was gracious enough to assure me that it's a tougher skill to acquire so I shouldn't feel bad. What a nice guy.

Other highlight of the weekend - we continued further in Canadialand, booked ourselves a room in a very chic and modern boutique hotel in downtown Vancouver and made the weekend a little 'get away from life and relax' weekend. We watched some crazy fireworks on the beach with a backdrop of the biggest, awesomest, craziest, lightning storm we have ever seen. HUGE bolts of lightning literally every 10-15 seconds for at least two hours straight. And a tangerine sunset covering the sky for at least 45 minutes. It made sitting in the rain for an hour and half with only a thin sweatshirt on, freezing to death, almost worth it.

Other, other highlight of the weekend - we're driving out of the ridiculously large city of Vancouver on our way home Sunday morning, getting all geared up to go home and clean the house or some boring thing like that, when we pass Playland, a little theme park right next to the highway. So what do we do? Most definitely find a place to park and go ride roller coasters and the ferris wheel until we're sick to our stomachs like a pair of seven year olds. Definitely awesome!

Then we finally got back into the States and found that our friends Justin and Suzanne were visiting from Seattle - making the weekend even awesomer - so we finished out the day hanging with them and catching up. And picking 28 pounds of blueberries.

Now if only I could have remembered to record these highlights on film...(okay, I found one of us on the beach and that's it).

We're like professionals...

Really! All of these hot, sunny days have paid off and our little garden is flourishing. Aren't we a cute little aspiring hippie couple? It's cool to see our food grow from the tiniest little seed into a huge green plant, and then be able pick the fruits and vegetables from that plant and have homegrown lettuce, peas, and radishes on our dinner table. Here's a little slideshow of the fun...

Lettuce, carefully planted from seed in little pots in the house, cared for diligently by Isaac, and then delicately transplanted into our garden when they were a couple weeks old, hoping the shock from the transplant wouldn't kill them. Good job, Isaac...






...Peas, with a Morgan and a Tommy behind them.






Tomatoes, but they're still green. We have eleven tomato plants with everything from cherry to beefsteak tomatoes and amazingly enough, they're all looking like they're going to produce a nice harvest. We've gotten to eat a couple of the cherry tomatoes and they are better than any tomatoes I've ever had! Isaac's been saying that would be the case all along, but (as usual) I had to see for myself, and (as usual) it turns out that he was right...

...Here's a view of a bunch of things. Potatoes in the very front, Walla Walla sweet onions poking up directly behind, strawberries in the middle row with a rosemary bush on the very left, and the lettuce in the back. Like the tomatoes, the strawberries we've grown taste better than any strawberry I've tasted before. No surprise there.



And last, but not least, the cucumbers. We had to thin them out, which was slightly painful because we'd worked so hard to make sure they all grew (having had to replant them three times), but Isaac did the dirty work while I harvested a bowlful of snap peas so I didn't have to watch. He's definitley the man in this relationship...


There it is, friends. Our little garden. Someday, we'll have a few acres of land with a ridiculously huge garden and an orchard with every kind of fruit tree and berry bush imaginable and we'll look back on this little garden affectionately as the start of one of our dreams. Someday.

When I was a Goose Dancer...

Holy cow, it's halfway through July already! Okay, maybe not halfway, but I swear time flies by faster and faster all the time. Camp was...amazing. As always. There's nowhere else I'd rather be than at Morrow for the week, hanging with my girlies, soaking up the sun, sliding in the goose grease, attempting my skills at disc golf, kicking Darrin's butt at carpet ball (sort of), sneaking out of the activity with my girls because it's 110 degrees outside and we're too exhausted to play. Ahhh, yes. It doesn't get better than that.

Here's a fun story about that week for you. As this was the longest Isaac and I were going to be apart since we got married, Isaac had planned a bunch of boy stuff to do to keep himself occupied (since he was going to miss me ever so much). Apparently he had an entire week of festivities lined up, so you can imagine his slight frustration when all his plans came to a screeching halt on Sunday afternoon, a mere two days after I had left, because he nearly broke his ankle playing ultimate frisbee. Now, if you know Isaac pretty well, then you know that 1. He never gets hurt. Ever. He could be doing the craziest things with a group of people and every single one of them could get hurt, but he'd be fine. Seriously. And 2. He hates going to the doctor and would self medicate till the day he died in order to avoid having to go. Ha! I finally got to call him on Thursday morning (which was the first I'd heard of any of this because I didn't have a cell phone with me) and found out that he had indeed gone to the doctor because his foot was so bad he thought it was broken. He ended up on crutches, which is an adventure in and of itself as we live on the top floor of an old house with rather steep and narrow stairs, and on top of the stress and pain of his foot, I found out his work had been so busy that he'd been putting in 11 and 12 hour days all week long! Poor Isaac was so exhausted by the end of every day and his foot was so bad that he would just get off work, come home, crutch up the stairs, and go to bed for the night. And of all the weeks this could have happened, it all had to happen the one week I was eight hours away and couldn't be home to take care of him. Not exactly the fun-filled week he'd had planned. Good thing we at least have some good friends up here who stepped in to get him the essentials until I got home. And then, of course, once I got home the next weekend, he was loads better and not needing to be taken care of anymore :) Go figure.

Oh yes, also, I may or may not have been a part of the best act the Talent/No Talent night of camp has ever seen. My fellow Goose Dancers and I interpretive-danced to an emotionally stirring rendition of You Raise Me Up, and I tell you there was not one dry eye in the house. It was beautiful.

To Robin, Victoria, Indigo, Megan, Melanie, Savannah, Carina, Kimberly, and Kimmie...my loves, if you're reading this...I miss you all and had an amazing week with you!