I'm Back...

I know Summer is long gone, but then I had the excuse that fall started, and I got really busy:)

So I thought I would blog about a day trip we took about two weeks ago.

Dad had the day off on a Thursday a couple weeks ago, and they told us early on in the morning, that we were going on a mystery day trip, and to wear walking shoes, and to bring warm coats.

So we get into the car, and head down Chuckanut Drive, which is especially beautiful this time of year due to the beautiful red, orange and yellow trees all along the road.

And then mom and dad took us all to Larrabee State Park , where we had never been before.

We went down to the water first, and found lots of star fish, and climbed on the rocks, and just had fun exploring. You could get right down in the water, and there were star fish all over the place!
Purple ones, pinkish ones, orange ones and red ones...

There were some huge rock faces you could climb up, and the view got even better!

Mom and dad are so sweet:)

When we started to walk back up to the main park area we heard a train whistle, and dad told us to run up to the bridge we had walked under on the main trail, because the train would go right over our heads on the bridge! And sure enough, we got to the bridge and all stood underneath it and listened to the very loud train go right over our headsCAUTION: ADULTS ON THE PLAYGROUND!

While we were waiting for a couple people in the restroom, Brad and Ali started playing in the play ground, and then (I'm not sure how it happened..) but soon we were all being silly and playing on the playground, even mom and dad!

This is a game where you stand on a bar that you rock back and forth, and try to shake the other people off...

I fell off..:)

The park has an outdoor stage where they sometimes hold concerts and things

We had a WONDERFUL time there, and I can't wait until we can go again sometime.

Happy Fall Everyone!

Summer Vacation

Some close friends of ours invited us to join them for a week of vacation in Canada at Paradise Lake this summer. And so this entire last week we were up there with them, and we had such a wonderful time!

We stayed in beautiful log cabins right on the water front, and had so much fun swimming, fishing, and boating on the lake, that my parents decided that we are going to go back on our own next year for a week or two. So anyway here are some pictures for you to see.

WARNING: If any of you tend to go into cardiac arrest at the mere sight of "a big bug," then you might want to skip this post......

I could've taken pictures of the lake all day, it was so beautiful.

The floating dock was lots of fun, dad had us swim out the with life jackets the first time to see how we did, since we haven't been able to swim for so long, and then we were allowed to swim without them when we passed his test.Lots of cute little tadpoles

You had fair warning! These things are pretty common up there, and this particular one measured about 4 1/2 inches! I thought they were pretty cool, but needless to say, my poor mother did not! (she didn't know untill we got home that we had found one IN the cabin! :)

These sweet little chipmunks were all over the place, one even found its way into our cabin!

Lots of fishing was done by this handsome fisherman...

Summer!

My computer is being a pain, and won't let me move most of the pictures! So they're stuck at the top. But I'll label them, and then you can read about them. :P



Red Barn Lavender Farm

The smell of all this lavender was heavenly!

The farm had their own bee hives, and they sold their own lavender honey.

My gardens.

Blueberries for the freezer.

I hope you have all been having a GREAT summer, I know I have! I was reading a friends blog where they had a link to my blog, and it said the last time I had posted was 4 weeks ago!! So I thought I had better do good long post. :)

These last few weeks have been filled with gardening, canning, and flowers! All things that I love.

Thanks to Craigslist, I have found some very inexpensive ways to put up preserves for this winter.
we found a U-pick, organic blueberry "farm" out on the Hannegan road, where you pick what you want, and then pay what you think it's worth!

It's by donation, and they provide buckets for you to pick into, and plastic bags to take them home in! So we picked for 45 minutes, and brought home 3 gallons of berries! The bushes are just loaded.

Then I put an ad on Craigslist for sour canning cherries, and a lady off the BirchBay Lynden rd. said she had a tree that had tons on it, and that I was welcome to have as many as I wanted!

So dad and I went out and picked nine quarts of pie cherries!

(dad said he thought it was worth picking when he thought of the pies he would get out of it later!:)

It took me 2 1/2 hours just to PIT all those cherries! But like dad says, it will be worth it!

Some friends brought us a huge flat of great, big raspberries, so I made jam with those. (Ali's favorite:) And the Green Barn had apricots on sale, so I was able to make apricot jam too! Yummy!

But I think the highlight of all this, was the Red Barn Lavender Farm.

http://www.redbarnlavender.com/

It is located in Ferndale, on the Thorton rd, and I would recommend visiting this place to anyone! It is so beautiful out there, and the rows, and rows, and ROWS of lavender are absolutely spectacular! Mom and Ali and I went, and we were so impressed by the lovely gardens, and the sweet, friendly people there. They even have a place with picnic tables set up so you can bring a picnic lunch!

And for $5 bucks, you can bring home a giant bunch of lavender to dry, and then decorate with, or make sashets with!

Sweet peas are climbing all over my fence, I think they might be my favorite flower, but it's so had to pick!

So these are just a few of the things that have been keeping me busy, and keeping me from blogging! But I promise I'll blog more this fall, in between batches of cherry pies and blueberry scones! :)

Summer Blessings,

~Emily

Banana Cream Chocolate Trifle Recipe

18 whole graham crackers (5 x 2 in.), divided.
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 container (12 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed,
1 pkg (3.4 oz) banana cream instant pudding and pie filling
1 cup milk
1 lemon
4 large bananas

Finely chop half of a graham cracker using Food Chopper; set aside. Coarsely crumble remaining crackers into Mixing Bowl.
For ganache, place chocolate morsels and 1 1/2 cups of the whipped topping into Bowl. Microwave on HIGH 45-60 seconds or until melted and smooth, stirring every 15 seconds.

Combine pudding mix and milk in Mixing Bowl; whisk until mixture begins to thicken. Fold in remaining whipped topping, and set aside.

Juice lemon using Juicer to measure 2 tbsp juice.

Peel bananas and cut into 1 1/2-in. pieces and mix lemon juice and toss gently in small bowl. Set aside 12 slices for garnish.

To assemble trifle, place half of the crumbled graham crackers over bottom of Trifle Bowl. Place half of the bananas over the crackers, arranging some of the bananas against sides of bowl and top with one-third of the ganache (see Cook's Tip). Spread half of the banana filling over ganache, spreading to edges. Repeat layers one time. Decorate with remaining ganache. Sprinkle top of trifle with chopped graham cracker. Arrange reserved banana slices around edges of trifle.

Wonderful Books, and Decadent Desserts

Hmm..which one shall I tell you all about first, the dessert, or the book, I'm sure you're all saying, "the book!' so I'll start there. :)

For our read aloud time during school, mom has been reading us all the book, From Dark to Dawn; originally written by Elizabeth Charles in 1863, and has been edited and revised by James and Stacy McDonald. It is a story of Martin Luther, and the Reformation, and is summed up on the back of the book like this...

'In a day when most people even christians, know very little about church history. This fascinating tale makes it possible for adults and children alike to take a step back in time, enjoy good literature, and experience the excitement, passion, joy and terror of the reformation.'

It is a book I would recommend to everyone, it makes a perfect read family read aloud book, and has been extremly educational both about the Reformation, and the Catholic religion and their customs. You can buy the book at Grace and Truth Books, and you can click on the link below to get to their website.

http://www.graceandtruthbooks.com/search/results.asp?S=dark+to+dawn&T=exact

This morning as we were reading, and paragraph really jumped out at me, and has given me something to think about today, and I thought I would share it with you, I found very inspiring.

It comes from an exerpt from the journal of Fritz, a new christian in the book.

"But day by day I will seek to yield myself, body, soul and spirit, to the living will of my almighty, loving God, saying to him morning by morning,

'Give me this day my daily bread. Appoint me this day my daily task.'

And he will never fail to hear, no matter how often I fail to ask."

I hope this will inspire you as it did me, or maybe help you over a bump in your day.

Now onto dessert!! :P

Yesterday, after I had done a bunch of baking, (bread, scones, lemon bars) I made a fun new dessert from a Pamper Chef cookbook, called... are you ready for this?

Banana Cream Chocolate Trifle. Yum-O!

It was supposed to be a beautifully layered dessert, done in a glass dish with square sides,
(which of course you can order from Pampered Chef, if you happened to have an extra $40 laying around!!! )
Needless to say, we don't have one, so it was still a layered dessert, you just couldn't really tell. :)

And WOW! It was so gooood! Everyone gave raving reveiws, but said it needed more chocolate! :) And dad really loved it, which is a good thing because in the end all of my cooking and baking is really for him, I love it when I make something dad really likes!

I'll be glad to share this magic father pleasing recipe with you all, but it's a rather long recipe, so I'll open up another post to put it in! We all had forks and dove in, but it's being a very rich dessert, you really can't eat a whole lot of it. Of course for my brother it's just mind over what your stomache is trying to tell you! :P

Happy June All!

~Emily

Summer time means no blog time!!

As the weather gets warmer and stays warmer, my blogging seems to be pretty far down on my priority's list! So just check in every once in awhile, and I'll probably be posting 2-3 times a month, maybe more, maybe not!

Hasn't this weather been wonderful? I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial weekend, and are still enjoying the sun!

Our gardens are coming along, Ali has planted veggies, and I'm doing lots of flowers. :)

I love seeing the little bright green shoots coming up, and looking forward to the flowers.

Here are some beauteous pics of flowers I got online, to hold us over till ours start blooming!

Enjoy!

The Classics Never Get Old

As long I think as long as I live, one of my favorite movies will always be the Sound of Music.
That's why I have so much of their music on my blog! :)

The classics like this, and some of our other favorites like, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Easter Parade, My Fair Lady, and Oklahoma and Anne of Green Gables, are so fun to watch!!

When I compare the old favorites, to the kinds of movies and TV shows that seem to be so popular now, I can see how far our society is drifting from the sweet and innocent things people have enjoyed for so many years!

I love being able to sit down and watch one of these, and not have to be poised with the remote pointed at the TV, keeping an eye (or ear) out, for swearing, immodesty, romance or crude humor.

Now not all the old movies are completely free from all these things, but for the most part they are movies the we all enjoy. Well.... There are a few of them that Bradley calls "girlie movies!"
If it was up to him, all we'd ever watch would be the Rifle Man movies! :)

And the times dad will sit down and watch a part of the musicals, he usually ends up asleep!
But for me and my family, the classics will never get old.

Hope you like the pictures of my favorite parts in the movies I've mentioned!(Sorry they're a little blurry) :)

Easter and Tootie do the cake walk.

A jolly hour on the trolley!



Have a chocolate Eliza!



A Fair Lady



Their voices were so beautiful together!




"If I were beautiful, and had nut brown hair, would you keep me?"



"Anne! Will you never learn to control your temper!?"


Carrots!