Raspberry obsession

Raspberries, raspberries - oh how I love them! We went picking back in the beginning of September with our play group, and got a ton! We figured out that when you pick them yourself (versus buying them in those tiny overpriced packages in the grocery store), you pay 1/3 the price! So we took full advantage and picked to our hearts delight!


Maria did a great job, and even filled a good part of her bucket (the last time we picked berries, they all ended up in her stomach)!

We ate them plain, put them on cereal, on vanilla ice cream, made smoothies, and I made a Raspberry Streusal Tart (Rachel, you totally have me hooked on photographing my fancy desserts!), a recipe I've been dying to try for quite some time, but couldn't justify the cost. Well, with our great abundance this time, I finally got my chance. Oh, was it good...

I was craving them again lately, and so I went picking again last week with Kaytlyn Flansburgh. We ate through them all in less than two days, and I have been wondering if I am overdoing it by going just one...more...time...

Oh, how I love my raspberries...

A few of my favorite things...

I have had a lot more one on one time with Josephine now that Maria's in school for most of the day. I have really enjoyed this time with her, and I am finding myself falling in love all over again with this sweet, mischeivous, adorable little girl! So here are a few of my favorite "Josephine" things..


I love how she's a minimalist when it comes to clothing. She is constantly stripping off layers and poking herself in the bellybutton while saying "boop!" Also, I love her little half innie, half outie belly button.

I love how she is just so wild and happy. She's all girl - she loves her dress-up stuff to be sure - but she also climbs every type of ladder and monkey bar type contraption (the kind you walk on/crawl across, not the kind you swing from) at the playground with the best of them. This is just such a fun age!

I love how she is such a ham - always making faces to make people laugh. Her latest thing is this knock-knock joke she tells over and over. It goes like this:

"Knock Knock"

"Who's there?"

"Cowee" (her silly way of saying "Cow")

"Cowee who?"

"QUACK!!"

And then she starts laughing hysterically. I don't know where she got this, but she seems to think it's the funniest thing ever, and never gets tired of telling it, and I have to tell you, the way she tells it, it is rather humorous...

I love the things she thinks of to get into (okay, admittedly, I don't love it at the time, but when I look back on the incidents, they really are funny). A couple of weeks ago, she got into the peanut butter jar. I was making dinner at the time, and when I discovered her, I found her reaching in the jar, pulling out handfuls of peanut butter, and eating it. She had peanut butter nearly up to the elbow on both arms (as you can see in the picture) as well as on her clothes and somehow, (I'm not sure why or how) all over her feet. Yes, she is crying in this picture - at the exact moment that I discovered her, she seemed to have arrived at the conclusion that peanut butter smeared all over her felt really gross, and she started crying and saying "Get it off! Get it off!" Let me tell you, peanut butter is NOT easy nor fun to clean off of a child...

That's okay, we just love our Josephine, messes and all. She adds such a sweet, unique spirit to our family, and I am so grateful that we have her in our lives!

Backpacking on the Appalachian Trail

So back in August Lou and I took a weekend backpaking trip with a couple from our ward - Scott and Cortnie Johnson. We hiked a section of the Appalachian Trail called the Delaware Gap (it was actually located in New Jersey, but it runs along the Delaware River). Lou and I hadn't done this kind of camping in about eight years, so we were really looking forward to it. We lucked out - we had perfect weather, great company, and a good hike. I know these pictures are a bit late in coming, since this trip was a month ago, but hey - better late than never, right?


This is Lou and I trying to get water out of this old water pump. After a good bit of effort and teamwork, we got the water flowing really well and got ready to fill up some extra water bottles. Imagine our great disappointment when the water that came out was a brownish yellow with bits of rust floating in it...

This is Scott drinking the nasty water (and me laughing in the background). If you look really closely, you can see the yellowish color. Scott, you are a brave one...

Here we are right before we started our hike. It was getting dark quickly, so we had to hurry to get to the spot where we were going to set up camp.

We got to the camp area just in time, and feasted on Haufmanns hot dogs and couscous. We are holding our dogs like this because my goofy self forgot to pack buns...

The next day we set off for Sunfish Pond. We found these trees that had hooks to hang your food bags on to get them out of bears' reach, and the trees were wrapping in metal to keep the bears from climing them. It was kind of freaky because there were big gouges and scrapes left from bear claws trying to get up the trees. This is Lou pretending to be a bear attacking me. Oh, he is SO immature ;)

Day 2 of our trip

Day two is when we got to see lots of pretty scenery - Sunfish pond, Raccoon Ridge (an incredibly beautiful view), etc.


Here we are at Sunfish Pond. No swimming because of the high acidity of the water - bummer, because we were REALLY hot!

A huge section of the trail was VERY rocky, resulting in very sore ankles for us. This is me navigating the lovely rockiness...

This is on top of Raccoon Ridge. It's sad that pictures can never quite capture the beauty of a great view, but this gives you a bit of an idea. This is my favorite part about hiking mountains - reaching the peak - it just gives you such a sense of accomplishment!

Here are Lou and I on Raccoon Ridge. It was so fun to do this together!

Here is another picture of me modeling the rough trail. Seriously, are you SEEING all those rocks?!

Aaaaand we're done!

We did it! Over 16 miles in two days - and besides my sore ankles and achilles tendon, I loved it! This is honestly something I would love to do every year...

Having said that, it felt great to finish!


I went to hug Lou, and he was soaking wet with sweat - ewwwww!

Okay, I'll kiss you anyways, you handsome devil, you! Man, I look so ghostly white next to that guy...

This was a really cool old bridge we drove by on the way home. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but I still think it looks neat.

After 2 days of living off trail mix, dried fruit and venison jerky, we were all ready for some "real food", so we stopped at a Dairy Queen for some fried goodness, and of course, ice cream too.

What a great trip! Thanks to the Johnsons for inviting us - we probably never would have planned such a trip on our own. We hope to do it again sometime!

School Days

Well, today was Maria's first day of school - yep, my little girl is a Kindergartener! It's hard to believe - I can remember bringing her home from the hospital and thinking how weird it was that I was actually a "Mom". Today I felt like one more than ever...

Here she is - in her brand-new-first-day-of-school-outfit!

Here we are in front of Meachum school. Check out Maria's hot new Hello Kitty lunch box!

And there she goes...

I felt my eyes tear up a couple of times during the whole ordeal, but I held it together - I didn't want to traumatize Maria! It wasn't until the walk home that I totally started crying! I don't know why it felt like such an emotional thing - it just did. And I have to say, I missed her during the day - I really, really did. Josephine seemed pretty unphased by the whole thing, luckily. Anyhow, the first day is over, and I think that is probably the hardest part...

One last trip to the beach...

Okay, here's my plug about swinging - IT'S GREAT!! Seriously - it is a very underrated cheap thrill for adults. For years I have just pushed my kids on the swings - it never occurred to me to take a turn! Well, this summer I decided that it was high time that I revisit the old childhood favorite, and boy, what a rush! And I don't mean the whole sitting-on-the-swing-and-lazily-swinging-six-inches-back-and-forth-thing...I mean swinging, really high! If haven't swung since you were a kid, I highly recommend that you go and do it sometime soon. It's only September - you've still got time!!

I mean, look how happy I look - aren't you jealous...

So, how good are your eyes - can you find Josephine in the background here?

Aaaaa, one last day at the beach, and boy did we revel in it. We hated to leave...

Is it me, or does Josephine look like Godzilla trying to terrorize a small city in this picture?

What a cool tree - started out as one, and grew into four separate trunks. Look at Maria - she looks so carefree...enjoy it sucker, you start school in three days!

Oh summer, we will miss you!