Cousins Retreat (part 2)

Here are the last of the pictures I will post from the retreat.  Just looking at them now makes me want to go back!  

 The picture below was taken just as a water balloon that I was holding spontaneously burst all over my lap.  It was quite a shock, but a refreshing one.  

 Our early morning hiking crew:

This is a fun scramble straight up the front mountain seen looking out from the cabin windows.  Then, we hike along the ridge until arriving at the logging road, which takes us back down to the main road to the cabin.  We saw what looked like big bear tracks on the ridge...scary!

 My brother makes the most amazing crepes.  It's nice to have a crepe-maker in the family:

 This small frog was found on the back deck:

Looking forward to going back! 

Cousins Retreat (part 1)

There are 17 of us cousins at the cabin this weekend, if I am counting correctly.  Hanging out together is always so much fun!  Delicious meals, snacks-a-plenty, beautiful hikes, games, crafts, star-gazing, afternoon matinees, and oh, so much more.  Here are a few photos to start out.  There are many more to come.

The ever so familiar and comforting view from the cabin front porch:

Our cousin, Danny found this little guy on a morning walk.  He lifted a stone to examine it for fossil remains, and there was the snake!

 I will end this post now as I am smelling pancakes on the grill and my stomach is growling for them.

Lake Serene Adventure

My dad, sister, and I went on this hike a couple of days ago.  It was 2 miles to Bridal Veil Falls, and then a scramble straight up over mossy rocks and stumps on the original trail.  I call it a trail, but there was no differentiation between our path and the rest of the forrest around us.  It was an adventure!

Red, White, and Strawberries

    

Happy 4th of July!  I loved these patriotic strawberries I saw on Pinterest and knew I had to make them for the family 4th of July BBQ.  

I melted 2 bags of Ghirardelli white chocolate chips over a double boiler:  

 Washed and dried my strawberries (I bought two 32 oz containers) before dipping them in the chocolate.  (I had to reheat the chocolate several times during this process.)

Dipped the strawberries in the blue sprinkles and set them on a pan lined with plastic wrap.  Then I popped the pans into the fridge.  Done! 

Nut and Seed Butters

I spent yesterday afternoon at Christina's house making peanut butter and sunflower seed butter in her food processor.  Thank you for the lesson, Christina!  It was as easy as could be, and cheaper than buying natural butters in the store.  

I made peanut butter first, using 2 cups of roasted peanuts:

Just add the two cups to the food processor, put the lid on, and let it run:

The first stage you will see is the crumble stage:

Next, the crumbles will form themselves into a ball:  

Continue processing and you will see the butter begin to form.  When it starts sticking to the sides like you can see below, it is almost done.  

It took about 3 minutes total.  

The sunflower seeds had less oil in them and tended to stick to the sides more during the crumble stage.  I simply had to stop the processor and scrape down the sides several times throughout the process.  Both butters were delicious!  You can add a little salt and sugar to taste if you don't like it plain.

Garden Poundings

I went to the Bothell Arts Festival with my mom and aunt the other day, and came across a booth where the artist was demonstrating her garden pounding technique using various plants, a hammer and some cotton cloth.  I had to try it myself!  

 Check out Pederson's Garden Poundings here.  

 I ventured out into the garden on this rainy morning and collected these flowers and leaves for my first pounding experiment.  

I taped the first leaf to the back of my cotton fabric:

 Then, flipping the fabric over, and using the edge of the hammer, as was demonstrated by the artist, I hammered away until the entire leaf showed through:

 I think it worked fairly well for a first attempt.  The yellow buttercup borders were not a well-defined as the others, but that's ok.  I like the pop of yellow.  Pederson would take this design and scan it into the computer for printing, since the colors do not stay vibrant long after they are pounded into the fabric.  I think it would be neat to print out the designs onto fabric and use it in a quilt, on a bag, or other crafty type of thing.  

Day Tripping

Today is my birthday!  Happy birthday me!  Every year on my birthday, my RN license is due for renewal, and this year I forgot to mail the form in on time!  This meant that I got to take a lovely little drive down to Olympia to do it in person.  Daniel and I decided to make the best of it by doing a little touring around.  After the licensing business was done, we stopped at Coffee Central and were on our way.

 We drove across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, through Gig Harbor, Silverdale, and Poulsbo.  Then took the Kingston Ferry to Edmonds and made our way to my brother's house for a delicious dinner.  

There is a little bird hanging out on the rump of the white horse.  It is difficult to see in this photo, but it was so cute!

 That is Seattle behind us:

It was a nice trip!  Maybe I'll have to neglect mailing in my renewal next year too!