The one upside of the weather changing and the rain showing back up already is that the danger of forest fires and low air quality goes way down. Which means we can have bonfires in the backyard again without worrying about the dry tinder around us. Saturday night was another one of these evenings, where…
Last weekend the three of us had a wedding reception to attend in Gig Harbor, so we decided to stay there for the weekend instead of making the trek out just for an evening. As much as we love spending time on the Olympic Peninsula, we pretty much stick to the areas north of Poulsbo,…
Last weekend was Labor Day, and a long weekend where we actually stayed local the full three days. After our experience with the ferry wait over Memorial Day weekend, we decided it was worth avoiding the travel crowds and just staying near home instead. Clearly, this made our weekend cheaper than it would have otherwise…
Sunday morning the three of us headed down off our hill to another local park. We made the decision to make a half a day out of the trip, so we had breakfast at a local coffee shop first and then headed down the trails. We spotted a bunch of wildlife, including a Kingfisher, a…
I spent Sunday morning blogging in a coffee shop on the computer for the first time ever. I usually write this blog in snippets on my phone when I have a few minutes (like walking to work on the days I drop the kiddo at preschool), so spending a couple hours by myself with headphones…
We ended up attending three birthday parties last weekend: two on Saturday and one on Sunday. The second one on Saturday was for one of our neighbors, so it just meant that we wandered down the street and hung out at their house like we usually do, just with a bunch more people. The kiddo…
Until a few months ago, I had no idea that Jetty Island existed. As it turns out, it is a small, two mile long man-made island just off of the city of Everett, which is about a half hour north of us (when there's no traffic). The city operates a small foot passenger ferry from…
While my neighborhood gets together on a small scale quite regularly, we do a larger block party just once or twice a year. In previous years, another neighbor has hosted in front of their house, but she ended up being out of town this time so we hosted instead. We live at the end of…
I picked my first tomatoes from the garden this week! As much as I love berries, garlic, herbs, and the other earlier ripening plants, there's nothing that says summer like that first garden tomato. The cooler summer weather thus far has meant that the tomatoes are a bit behind, but I am so ready for…
Last weekend felt loooong since the 4th of July fell on Thursday this year and we ended up with a four day weekend. We usually take advantage of extra days off to go somewhere, but we stayed local this time instead, and it was great. After our ferry experience on Memorial Day, we really felt…