A visit to Hippietown

We recently had a nice visit last weekend from the Rohls and Iversons all the way from Iowa.  The weather here this time of year is unpredictable, meaning it will pretty much rain every day but you never know how much, how long or how hard.  One outing we made with all the boys was to take the ferry over to Vashon Island to try and go apple picking.  Mandy has fond memories of going apple picking in New York and outside Chicago and we decided to try and find a similar place.  I think everyone must have their own trees here becuase Vashon Island seemed to be the only place to go and pick your own apples.  We had never been there before and the idea of taking a ferry seemed like a lot of fun to the boys (and was).  The community on this Island is accessible only by ferry and was an interesting mix of hippies and retired folks.  After stopping at one of the various coffee shops for some organic, vegetarian sandwiches and humanely harvested produce we finally arrived at the co-op where we could pick the apples.  The boys had a good time selecting which ones they could pick and eat and we made sure they ran around a lot to work off all the gummi worms that they ate on the ferry.  We couldn't stay too long though becuase my SUV was looking pretty out of place and I was starting to get the evil eye from the other customers.

Gummi worms on the ferry

Organic apples!!

Im pretty sure a barbecue like this is illegal on Vashon island

James is seen here increasing his carbon footprint.

Happy 15 months Sam

Sam is now 15 months old and today Mandy got some good video of him using his fork at dinner.  He has suddenly picked up on many new things.  He is now a stair master and can go both up and down stairs as long as he has something to hold on to.

The apple usually doesn't fall far from the tree?

I randomly pulled out and old photo album yesterday and found a picture my mother gave me that she took when I was 10 months old.  Both our boys are blonde with blue eyes and I think that most people say they have more of Mandy's features than mine.  The one think is the nose that neither one of us is sure where it came from.  I'll let people be the judge and post it here.  I made a collage with photoshop of the picture and several pics of Jake and Sam at 10-12 months.

Changing bulbs and Running laps

  Some of the lightbulbs are in difficult places and changing them sometimes needs a big ladder and a little problem solving.  I had Mandy take a picture as I was putting a new LED bulb into the recessed lighting above the fireplace.  Hopefully I won't have to change that one again for a while.  The weather has started to change here and summer looks like it has finally left.  The rain started today and the days are suddenly significantly shorter.  We had Grandpa Tomtom here for a few days and he helped me do a few of the last remaining outdoor projects on my list as well as the indoor ones.  It was great getting to spend some more time with him and the boys while I have been on vacation.  I included another video of Jake below.  Part of his punishment as well as playtime involves running "laps".  I won't say what he did to get a couple laps this time but it was just normal 3-year old stuff. It helps him get rid of extra energy and who knows maybe a scholarship later on?

Breaking The Trend

We have a first for the Mcgrail and Cuda sides.  It appears that the string of 5 boys in a row has finally been broken.  Everything from the ultrasound appears normal so far.  It amazes me how much better the resolution for a standard prenatal ultrasound has become even in the past few years.  Obviously nothing is for certain but it appears that we are having a healthy girl.  The pictures above are side views of her folded over with legs touching her chin. 

Monster Truck

Most people are going to wonder why after averaging only one post a month I am putting two in one day.  Well, I just decided that this was worth another short post.  Our friend Pete got a a big 4 wheel drive Ford with oversized tires and lift kit.  As soon as Jake saw it he fell in love with the "monster truck".  Every guy wants to use his truck for whatever he can like in the comercials so when I told Pete I hated the two trees in front of the deck he offered to come try and pull out the stumps with me.  I am kicking myself for not taking some pictures or video of the whole process but other than a burnt finger from touching a hot part of the chainsaw it was actually kind of fun and gratifying to rip tow treestumps out of the ground.

I still have some more cleanup work to do but the view from the deck is much better already.

Summer Berries

Jake Mandy and I got this in about 30 minutes

One of the thngs about growing up in the northwest was that berries are part of the summer harvest.  I grew up a short bike ride from several strawberry farms and we always had our own supply of berries in the summer that my mom would use to make jam and pies that we had year round.  I actually laughed the first time I saw a pint of blackerries on sale on the east coast for about 5 dollars years ago.  As James said they are pretty much a weed here in the Northwest and I spent a significant amount of time destroying them in our yard growing up.  Since we have enough room I decided a few of the blackberry bushes can live as long as they don't get too close to anything else I am growing.  Additionally the road is lined with bushes that just started producing.  We have been picking them the past several days and what you see above is just the tip of the iceberg.

Part of the eventual plan is to grow our own strawberries and raspberries.  Along the perimeter of the property we found several bushes that look like they were planted but were so overgrown it was hard to be sure.  They were producing what looks like some kind of black raspberry.  I have never seen them before but they are pretty good.  Matt and I cleared around them and found some old irrigation tubing so I am pretty sure they are not wild.  I found some posts while clearing some areas and we strung them up so they will hopefully start doing better next year.

Anyone know what kind of berry this is?

Berry vines after the posts and wire are installed.

In other news we finally have all the planned renovations in the basement here is a picture of the kichenette with all the appliances and sink installed.