Kaili Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

Here is a video that Andrew taped while I was away at my sewing class. You need to watch it to the end. Pretty classic:

Tulip Festival

I went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point for the first time. I took Kaili and went with my good friend Tasha and her boy Locke. Kaili loved all the flowers and insisted on smelling almost every one when we started on the path. She loved all the space to run and explore. For most of the trip she was sporting a shirt that said "I am a true princess" that she got for free from one of the booths. She refused to wear a jacket over it :). She climbed the many stairs up the Vista Mound Garden and when she got to the top she stood in the middle and proclaimed "I did it!". She looked up and saw the 3 large pillars and said "scary...". She is such a funny girl. The tulips were a bit late to bloom this season, but the daffodils and pansies were gorgeous! We will definitely be going again!

I was feeling crafty :).

I saw a similar idea on the front page of a magazine. It looked easy, yet cute enough for me to want to give it a shot. I had fun creating this!

Kaili's baby book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Washington Trip - Summer 2010

We had an amazing trip to Washington this year! We extended this year's trip and stayed from August 6th-15th so that we could go to Andrew's 10-year reunion and spend more time with our new niece, new nephew, and Andrew's friend's brand new twins. It was a blast and Kaili loved playing with her cousin Madison and Joey (Andrew's family dog) especially.






Potholes is a reservoir near Moses Lake where Andrew's family has been going with the McDonalds to camp and ski since he was 9 or 10 years old. When the trip first happened with just the immediate McDonalds and immediate Skeens there would be 11 kids and 4 adults, but since then, several of them have married. So every year the pack seems to get bigger, but this year was crazy due to a surplus of children being born. If I counted correctly, there were 21 adults and 11 children under the age of 3!

What an adventure! We created two napping areas on the campsite, had tons of sunscreen and floaties that we passed around, and everyone who wasn't on the boat or cooking was likely on baby duty. It made for a very interesting and fun dynamic for all!












Coincidentally, Mitchell who is on his mission in the Spokane area was living in Othello - just 20 minutes from our campsite. After talking to the mission president, we were not permitted to see him, but decided that we could tour Othello and drop off a care package. The family that hosted the elders ended up being home when we went to drop off the package. They invited us in to take a quick tour of their apartment and leave a note on Mitchell's desk. We ate at a Mexican restaurant for dinner (one of two that were side-by-side in the town).

Our first garden

Thanks to the home's previous owners, we have 5 raised garden boxes, which made it almost impossible to pass up the whole gardening adventure. In preparation last fall, I either pulled or sprayed everything that already existed to get rid of any weeds and so that we could plant what we wanted to enjoy. We planted in 4 of the boxes and at the last minute I decided to try out my version of square foot gardening in 2 of them. I strung string to form square foot boxes and tried to figure out how many seeds to put in each square. My problem however was that I never planned it out so I started to forget what I had planted where and eventually I was forgetting which squares I had already planted in. Besides the chives and rhubarb that somehow resurrected themselves this year, here's what we added:

Carrots
Lettuce (3 types)
Snow Peas
Broccoli
Green Beans
Red Peppers
Green Pepper
Jalapenos
Red Onions
Green Onions
Yellow Onions
Corn
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Watermelon
Basil
Oregano
Cilantro
Chard
Yellow Squash
Zucchini

So far we've enjoyed the green beans, peas, lettuce, broccoli, chives, and carrots. The jalapenos, peppers, chard and tomatoes are growing very slow; the cilantro flowered very quickly and I must have planted the herbs too deep because I haven't seen them yet. No sign of the cucumbers or the melon. The onions are just starting to take off and the corn is just about ready to harvest!

The only problem is I used one whole garden box to plant 2 squash, 2 zucchini, and 2 cucumber plants. I way over did it on the squash and zucchini. I swear I am picking out 10 of each a week and there is only so much you can do with them! Well, we won't be planting those next year.

I also learned that adding compost to the soil makes a huge difference. We added it to the corn and melon box and I think our corn is the healthiest, tallest crop in the neighborhood.

I think we will be a little less ambitious next year and plan things out a little better. And it will help now we know how things grow and what we actually enjoy harvesting. It has been fun nonetheless!

Here are some pictures that we took on July 5th:

Friday Visits at Grandma's

Almost every Friday this summer I've tried to take Kaili to Grandma Smith's house to enjoy some time at the pool and to visit. Andrew's mom got Kaili this "puddle jumper" to try out and after maybe 2 times, she was ready to fly solo. We've missed a few Fridays because of summer travels, but hopefully we can make it back over to Grandma's again this week. We love it!



Chillin'


A book Kaili found at Grandma's :)


Grandma showing Kaili her new piano