I'm Glad You Came...

As I came down off the high of another fantastic Crush Festival visit to Chelan with some of my favorite ladies, all I can say is I'm glad you came.  That includes those who were there this year and those who have come in the past.  Each year has been different and each year has been great.  It's the friendship we have experienced during these yearly visits that truly matters.  It proves year after year that although we may not be a part of each others daily activities we are always part of each others hearts.

A perfect symbol of our 2012 Crush Adventure

We had a fantastic turnout this year for Crush - eleven ladies were able to join in the fun.  We laughed, we cried (mostly from too much laughter) and we enjoyed the break from reality while sipping great wine with friends.  Each year we find favorite new traditions, refine old ones and even make notes for ourselves for next year.  This year we tried out a new event - we did a Friday night wine tasting at Mellisoni. Mellisoni has always been a favorite of ours, because we love the wine, the dream and that Rob and Donna are right there on site making every visit an event.  In past years we had felt rushed at Mellisoni as we tried to maximize our Saturday so this year we made the time and truly enjoyed our time to the fullest.  The wine and food pairings were amazing as was the amount of cheese we consumed!  Carrie also lead a group in a mini flash mob dance which was enjoyed by all.

Our first toast of Crush 2012!

Our traditional pyramid - wonder what year we'll give this up?

After Mellisoni we headed home to Grandma's house across the street from the real Grandma and Grandpa C's house and we decorated white trash wine glasses, courtesy of Carrie.  A yearly art project involving something wine related is antoher of our wonderful traditions.

Kim modeling her white trash wine glass.

Saturday morning we had a nice leisurely breakfast and then some of us ran downtown for Starbucks or to the scrap booking store and others just relaxed and waited for the real fun to begin.  We also had Carrie doing everyone's hair so we were all rocking the bump-it look, yet another tradition.  We had our usual driver Duane back with us this year.  He always shows us a great time on the party bus.

Getting ready to head out!

On our way.

Our first stop was at Fromaggio, a cheese shop in Manson.  We decided we didn't have enough cheese on Friday night so we bought more.  Mostly we got more of our favorites from Friday night.  So many new flavors of cheese we'd never had before.  Once we were sure we had enough snacks to last us, we hit the wineries.  Four Lakes Winery was our first destination, we didn't make it out to this one last year so it was on our must do list.  We had some nice whites and some very flavorful reds while seated out on their deck enjoying the views of the lakes.  There was also pumpkins galore around the deck which gave it a great fall feeling.

Every seat here has a beautiful view.

Next on our list was our all time favorite, must do stop, Hard Row To Hoe.  As usual they didn't disappoint.  In addition to their wonderful staff, interesting decorations they had a very unique experience that you could buy into.  Kenda decided she just had to do it and she was able to actually crush grapes with her feet that will go into a private batch of wine that she partially owns.  It was so much fun to see someone from our group do it.  Now we can all visit Kenda's wine with her next year and see how it's doing!  The wine at Hard Row To Hoe is a favorite with our group.  This year they had a new concept of half bottles of wine called Lickety Split which is perfect for enjoying without the guilt of wasting wine if you want to open it without company over.

Kenda making wine.

Joined by the only guy we let in wine weekend pictures - Rudy!

After Hard Row we crossed to the other side of the lake to go to Karma, which we missed last year because they closed early for a private event.  We enjoyed some flights of wine here and took a lot of great pictures in the vineyard.  It was nice to sit and enjoy their peaceful setting before we headed to explore more wine.

Love that these girls put up with my crazy ideas.

 Our last stop was at Tsillan Cellars where we have spent many a happy hour during Crush.  They had completed their addition to their tasting room and restaurant area since we were there last and the setting continues to be amazing.  We enjoyed quite a bit of their wine and each others company before heading back to Grandma's house.

Enjoying every bit of the day.

Sunday morning was busy with breakfast, clean up and sorting out our purchases.  We are always amazed when we pull together everyone's collections at the end of the weekend how much wine we actually purchased.

The spoils of our adventure.

Everyone was still standing at the end of the weekend.

Another great year in the books!

 As always already counting down the days until next Crush.  I'm always glad to share the experience with all who come.  A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa C for putting up with all of us and for having fun with Kenzie and Ben while the ladies were enjoying themselves.

Stocking Up On Sunshine

Despite our slow start to the summer and the fact that it never really got that hot, we did get a long run of sunny days that carried us into October.  We took every opportunity to get out and enjoy the sun while it lasted and got our fill of Vitamin D to help carry us through the long rainy season.  On our last beautiful weekend we got to enjoy two great adventures - a ferry ride with Atti and Gina and then the zoo with Aunt Kacey, Nathan and Kayla.  It was a busy weekend but given the rain we've been getting since I'm so glad we did it.

The ferry is always a hit!  The kids love exploring all the different areas of the boat and waving at the captain. Three sweet friends enjoying a sunny day adventure together.

Kenzie and Atti working hard at making something.  They spent quite a while at the beach making houses among the drift wood and finally when the water became too tempting to resist we headed back to the sand pile of toys and then back to the ferry.  It was a perfect morning adventure for the kids and Gina and I even got a few minutes to sit and chat.  This whole growing up thing is working out nicely for us.

Sunday was another fun filled day enjoying the zoo.  This was my first trip to the zoo without the stroller and was nice to not always be looking for a place to park it.  The kids indulged my photography and let me take a lot of good group shots.

Hiding in the penguin shelter.

We needed one more opening on this fall animal scene but Kayla was able to blend in well just on her own.  Also, whoever made this scene didn't really think through where the head holes were in relation to the people.  There were bales of hay behind this so the back view of Kenzie and Nathan was quite funny since they are stacked right on top of each other.

Any random bench was an excuse for a picture!

This one's my favorite - all the cousins in a tree together.

Each of the kids took a turn climbing up through this hollow stump to get their picture taken.  Nathan 9, Kayla 7, McKenzie 5 and Ben 3.

There is a baby elephant statue in there somewhere under all the kids.

It was a great day for a visit and though I haven't posted any pictures of the animals they were out and enjoying the sunshine just as much as we were.

Childhood Bucket List

My children apparently have their own bucket lists of things to do to make for an exciting childhood.  Now they both have checked off two major items before they were five:

- Break arm
- Have a cast that people can write on

McKenzie checked these items off after her brief attempt at flying this Spring.  Ben's story wasn't quite as dramatic but nevertheless checked the items off his bucket list.  We had a quiet Sunday afternoon at home watching a movie and decided to head out in the yard to play.  Ben was outside less than two minutes before he fell off a small chair he was standing on while also drumming on a little patio table.  He went down on the patio and fractured his arm at the wrist.  He's not much of a crier so when he'd cried for 20 minutes straight I knew we needed to get it looked at.  Luckily the walk in clinic near our house was open and did x-rays onsite so we avoided the emergency room.  He was such a trooper and didn't complain a bit after he got his x-rays and a splint.  He waited a couple of days and got his cast.  His injury was pretty minor so the cast was only below the elbow for three weeks.

You can see from this action shot that he was not bothered by the cast in the least.  The biggest issue we had was the smell.  For some reason they didn't offer us the type of cast that we got for Kenzie that could go in the bathtub so we had to just get him as clean as possible with his arm bagged up and try to deal with the smell.

Hopefully there aren't too many other injury related bucket list items on these kids list - two broken arms in one year is too many!

Ten Years and Counting

This year Matt and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, since it was a big milestone anniversary and the fact that we scored babysitters for two nights we decided to each plan an adventure to celebrate.  Matt had Friday night and he took me down to Seattle to Teatro ZinZanni, part circus, part dinner theater and always magical.  It was a great evening. I had heard about it from others who had been and I'm sure we'll be back now that we know how it works.  I adore musicals so what better than to be served a five course meal while watching the show and also having the potential to become part of the show.  Our show focused a lot on the men in the audience and luckily for Matt he never got pulled on stage.  They came and put the spotlight on him at one point and I think they saw him die a little inside so they moved on to another victim.  It was a great evening and gave us a chance to dress up and enjoy some quality time together.

Here we are heading out for our night on the town.

On Saturday I took Matt on a hot air balloon ride over the Snohomish Valley.  It was an amazing adventure and I was surprised at how gently the balloon carried us away from the ground.  I only felt a little fear when I started thinking that the only thing between me and the ground was a wicker basket but was able to rationalize that the whole bottom wouldn't drop off at once.  Our balloon was the largest one that flies in the Northwestern United States.  It could hold ten passengers and the pilot.  It was a very interactive experience, we got to help setup the balloon and pack it back up at the end of the ride.

Matt helping to hold the balloon as it was getting filled with air.

View from the balloon as we were taking off, you can see the balloons shadow in the field across the river.  That's the Pilchuck River flowing out of downtown Snohomish.  We are just Southeast of the airport.

Me and Matt on the balloon!  It was hard to take pictures on the balloon because you can only get so far from the other people.

Another great view of the Snohomish valley, we love driving around this area dreaming about owning property in different locations.  This gave us the ability to see it all live from above and we were able to see some of our favorite pieces.

This one shows one of our dream properties - we have had our eyes on it for years - if only we could afford the price!  Our ride didn't go as far as I had hoped, there was little to no wind the evening we flew.  I had hoped we could make it closer to Monroe and the house I grew up in since I have so many memories of hot air balloons flying over.  We didn't come close but I could see the general area way off in the distance.  Our pilot said they rarely go that way anymore since there aren't as many places to land as there used to be.

Here we are back on the ground safe and sound, it was a fantastic evening and one more check on the bucket list!  Can't believe we've been married for ten years, it seems like only yesterday to me.

"Tomayto" or "Tomahto"?

At the end of summer this year we hosted a get together for the Durdy side of my family.  Originally the event was billed as a family reunion but then it was pointed out to me that perhaps it wasn't really a reunion since these are the same family members we see for Thanksgiving and Christmas so then we started calling it a family BBQ.  As I sat down to write this post I decided to figure out the truth and it was in fact a family reunion according to Wikipedia.

Here's the definition   "A family reunion is an occasion when many members of an extended family congregate... A typical family reunion will assemble grandparents, great-grandparents and up for a meal, some recreation and discussion."

We had all those elements - extended family, a meal, some recreation and discussion!  Check, check and check.  We even got pictures to prove it.  Just like the classic unimportant difference "tomayto" or "tomahto" there is little to separate out a family BBQ and a family reunion so I'm going with reunion.

Here's the full group - if only Ben was able to hold still for the picture.  Twenty six family members - Grandpa and Grandma Durdy would have loved to see this.  It was actually Grandpa Durdy's birthday on the day of the event.

The Meal

The Recreation

The Discussion

And of course what family reunion is complete without crazy family members!  We certainly have our fair share of those.

Growing With Wild Abandon

It's time to write my future self a stern note and beg for more careful planning and spacing when planting next years garden.  Despite my best efforts this year to strategically align plants and lay the garden out differently based on last years results I have again ended the season with my garden in a state of wild abandon.

You can see that the pumpkins and zucchini plants have left the garden again and have taken over part of the yard which is to be expected.  Unfortunately I'm not seeing any pumpkins though we have had several zucchini's so they might get a back row spot in next years garden.

Lovely zucchini's sprout up left and right along my vine.  Somehow I remember these growing much closer to the middle of the plant when I was a kid rather than spread out all over the yard.

I even have a zucchini vine climbing my rhododendron (who knew that had 3 d's?) plant - quite interesting to see those where it has traveled.  I will laugh if it's a pumpkin instead of a zucchini climbing that plant.  

The blossoms alone make the zucchini's worth growing in the garden.  So many beautiful blooms in the past two months.  

My brussels sprouts are still sprouting... according to Wikipedia they are best after a good stiff frost.  These are still out for a vote of the people.  In the end they took up a good deal of garden space and so far we're still waiting for any to eat.  Not sure they will be back next year unless I can cook up something great when they are ready to harvest.

This mess at the end of the garden is my peas, sweat peas, some volunteer tomatoes, cabbage and beans.  As sad as it makes me, sweet peas are out for next year, at least in my food garden.  I just don't have enough space to give them the room they need to really grow and bloom.  Maybe we'll find a new location to try them out next year.  Peas will be on the list, they produced well this year and with more space on the climbing grid I constructed they will do even better without having to compete with the sweet peas.  Volunteer tomatoes will also be removed next year, they have produced one edible tomato so far, they just don't get enough sun to thrive by the time they get started.  The cabbage is still up for debate as well, they are about due to harvest and are approximately six inches in size which is smaller than store bought but probably better.  Stay tuned for updates on that.  Beans will also get another chance next year, this years' plants were mystery plants the kids brought home from school and turned out to be beans.  I really want to grow climbing beans next year maybe even in a bean tee-pee.  The ones we got this year were good but they were too crowded to really thrive.

Tomatoes - the plant that started this whole garden craze.  They will be on the list again but I will only grow sun gold and maybe one other variety of cherry tomatoes.  I will also only grow four plants which will have ample space to spread out.  I have been having an okay crop this year but the season was very late due to the mild summer.  I'm still harvesting as we head into October which seems a bit crazy but I'll take it.  I've learned a lot more this year about growing tomatoes thanks to Grandpa Z's growing techniques.  I'll be following more of his tips and tricks and hopefully devoting a little more time to ensuring my plants have what they need to really deliver.

My hydrangea has really exploded this year and continues to produce beautiful flowers right outside the backdoor.  I am thinking there will be several more of these added to the yard next spring to bring additional color and beauty.

Let's revisit what I planted followed by results and future plans.

• Tomatoes - one small beefsteak variety, one Early Girl and three Sun Gold  - Early Girl and Beefsteak are out, only Sun Gold and one other cherry tomato variety for next year
• Peppers - red pepper - did not survive a month, peppers are out for 2013
• Zucchini - yes I do eat them! - thrived and delivered, need to relocate to back of garden for next year
• Pumpkins - these were from seed like last year - the plant grew but did not produce any pumpkins - maybe we'll find one down by the creek when we're cleaning out the garden like last year
• Broccoli - produced broccoli and I harvested before it bolted but it wasn't enough to justify the space it took up
• Cali-flower - produced some good heads of cali-flower but again not worth the space
• Brussels Sprouts - no idea why but they seemed interesting  - still out for the jury, these are usually harvested after the first frost.  They were a major space hog but not until after the broccoli and cali-flower were removed so they made good plants to put together.  
• Chives - these did great and I loved the purple flowers adding color to the garden.  No more plants since last years made it through the winter under the leaves we piled on the garden.  We'll try to winter these as well.
• Rosemary - Doing good despite the lack of space it has.  This we will try to winter as well.
• Sage - It's probably there somewhere... we did use it a few times but it's lost next to a chive plant under a brussels sprout leaf.
• Thyme - Did great and tastes fantastic with roasted tomatoes!
• Yellow Onions - They are in there somewhere way in the back, these will probably need to find a new location if they are in the garden next year.  
• Cabbage - harvesting these soon, I'll see if these make another appearance next year.  They needed a lot of ground space.  
• Leaf Lettuce - Definite must, we had some terrific salads this summer but I need to keep up with the plants so they don't bolt.  
• Peas - Yes, we'll do these again and give them more room to spread out.
• Carrots - No carrots for us, we don't have the patience to spread them out enough
• Radishes - Yes, we probably will do a row or two, these were more under control this year and didn't take over the garden.   
• Sweet Pea Flowers - my favorite - These will be retiring from my veggie garden and will either be eliminated or need to find a new home.  
• Pole beans - ** still need to plant these - Never planted these but did get some bush bean plants from the kids plantings at school.  Next year I'll make sure I find pole beans.

So as you can clearly see already I'm over committing my space.  I need to think about expanding my garden area or adding some additional areas in the yard or in planters.  The only thing I'm adding for 2013 that I haven't grown before is potatoes, that is until I go to the nursery to pick out my plants!  Luckily I have all winter to make my new strategy and plan out my garden.

Almost Silent Night

Our kids are so different in so many ways despite being raised in the same house by the same parents.  When Kenzie needs or most likely just wants something you're going to hear about it immediately.  When Ben wants or needs something you often don't hear about it until he's come to tell you he broke something or spilled something in the process of trying to get what he wanted.  We always know where Kenzie is in the house because she makes noise both verbally and just in how she moves.  Ben is a man of mystery and is very soft footed and can be somewhere quietly for a while before you find him.  That being said when Ben is trapped somewhere like at the dinner table or in the car, he can talk up a storm to match his sister and they sure do like to go on and on about things when it's clearly time to just eat dinner.

Another time that we notice a big difference is at bedtime when they come out of their rooms.  McKenzie will come out and holler for us (actually just me...) and she will shout that she needs this or that or to tell us one last thing.  Ben also comes out of his room but he will just stand there quietly and wait for us to come along before say he has to go potty or wants some water.  If no one comes along for long enough he may just have lay down for a bit to keep waiting.

We have found him like this a few times recently just waiting and waiting for us at the top of the stairs.  We scoop him up and cuddle him a bit before putting him back in his bed where he belongs.  He's just lucky we have found him before the dogs could cuddle up to him.