Strawberry Picking

Picking berries is a summertime tradition for my family. When we visit Washington in late June or July, we like to take the kids to the U-Pick berry fields.

Riding out to the field.

This is Jack's response to "Show me your basket."

AnneMarie's basket is empty because everytime she got 3 or more berries in there, she wanted to dump those into the larger flats the adults were picking into. She actually was very good and berry picking and afterwards, she made strawberry jam with Grandma.

Enjoying the fruit of his labor!

Jack ate far more berries than he picked. His goal was to get 10 berries in his basket, but I don't think that ever happened.

Grandma and Papa take berry picking seriously. Grandma picked most of the berries. Papa taught the kids how to choose a good berry. AnneMarie really caught on and chose carefully. Jack, on the other hand, didn't absorb the lesson and instead picked completely at random. Some of his berries were small and white. Somehow he knew not to eat those ones, he just put them in his basket.

Visiting Moses Lake

While we were in Washington, we went to visit my Grandma Jeanne who lives in Moses Lake (eastern Washington). It was a nice visit and we went to the awesome water park there (but of course, I didn't get any pix of that!). The kids loved Grandma's backyard. They had never seen such a nice green lawn. They just had to walk around barefoot out there.

Four generations of girls!

Seattle Aquarium

We went to the aquarium with my friend Melissa and her husband and son, who is also named Jack. My kids were calling him "little Jack" since he is about 20 months or so.
I included this picture because it was taken by AnneMarie.

Here Melissa and the kids are playing with the sea animal felt board. This was probably Jack's favorite part of the aquarium. AnneMarie liked the touch pools, and also the otters.

They spotted the camoflagued fish.

Here are some sea otters. She also loved the river otters. AnneMarie got a stuffed otter as a souvenier.

Woodland Park Zoo

We had beautiful weather while we were in Seattle. We spent a great day at the zoo, although it is huge and you couldn't possibly see it all in one day. The kids enjoyed the baboon photo op while they waited for Grandma & Papa to pay for parking.

At the zoo we met up with a dear old friend Bradey and his two girls, Amelia & Gigi. Jack loved them both and called Amelia "Millions" (sort of Austin-Powers style) the whole day.

AnneMarie with her two best guys.

Pike Place Market & Tillicum Village

We went downtown to Pike Place Market, which the kids loved. They especially loved the live seafood. They were easily distracted and had a hard time keeping up with Grandma & Papa! Here they are at the famous pig, right in front of the fish-throwing stand. We didn't see any fish being thrown because no one bought any when we were there.
We bought fruit logs, spicy pickles, candied nuts, animal beanies, and a "grapple" - an apple that tasted like a grape. Mom and dad got some spicy pomegranite jelly and a bunch of sweet peas. We were going to go into the original Starbucks, but the line was way too long. Definitely one of our favorite places to visit in Seattle.

After the market we went on a cruise out to Tillicum Village on Blake Island. You go out and they serve and salmon dinner and put on a Native American show featuring various dances from different local tribes. This was Jack's favorite event of our whole trip, he asked to go back multiple times. Unfortunately, it is too expensive to do more than once!

I took this picture from the boat.

I put this picture in even though it's a tad fuzzy because AnneMarie took it. She has just recently become interested in taking some pictures herself.

The dessert was a chocolate salmon. Jack wanted to save his treat until "the guy" came out in the stage show. He was anticipating some specific performer he had seen on the Tillicum Village website the night before. He didn't see who he was looking for until the show had been going on well over five minutes. But when he finally spotted "the guy" he immediately chomped the tail off the chocolate salmon.

After the show we wandered around Blake Island a bit. It is a state park. It was really cold and windy out there!

Mukilteo Beach

We took so many pictures on our Seattle trip, I will have to post them a few at a time. This is from our first full day there, we went to Mukilteo for the lowest tide of the year. The weather wasn't too great but we still had a good time and got our Ivar's fix afterwards.

AnneMarie loves tide pools and searching for living things. Jack very much dislikes the slimy rocks and getting even a little bit wet. He spent much of the time sitting on a bench nowhere near the water.

AnneMarie is a beach lover! Here they check out a tiny (live) crab. We saw tons of dead crabs of course.

I think Jack is most happy to be leaving. AnneMarie is holding a giant gooey duck shell (I'm sure that's not spelled right). She loves this shell so much, but was devastated when the hinge dried out and the two halves came apart, she cried and cried.

Harley Ann Bowles

Not sure if I spelled Ann right. Here she is! I have to say, I am not too generous with baby compliments, but Harley is one of the cutest babies I have ever seen! We visited her yesterday for the first time and she just looked at us for the longest time. Very sweet tempered, although she can let out a sharp squeal! Born on July 5th, over 9 lbs., she is a big girl but still seems tiny to me. Congratulations, Ben & Kelly! And to the big sibs, Dalton, Sydney & Lily.

Snuggled up with me, Aunt Tine ... Nathan said, "Does she make you want another one?" Uh, NO. She is absolutely adorable but we don't need one of these at our house.

With big brother Dalton. He loves Harley so much! He can hardly stand to be away from her.