Nice Time in WA

We flew in to Seattle Wednesday night after work. I had a dental conference to attend Thursday and Friday (which is as exciting as it sounds!). I stayed at Heather and Ryan's while Hazen went to Bellingham to visit some friends. We went with Heather, Ryan, Mallory, Mallory's boyfriend, and Andrew to the Mariners game Friday night then drove down to stay at Hazen's parents house. Saturday was Mom's surprise 50th birthday party and it went really well. She was completely surprised! She had no idea we were planning anything. Hazen also got in some steelhead fishing early Saturday morning (4am) and some golfing Sunday morning. It was a jam-packed 4 days but we had a great time.

Mom greeting her guests

Heather and Joshua playing with the "Funny Farm" kitten

Opening gifts

Enjoying the Sunshine!

Who doesn't love chocolate?

Grandma and Wayne

Awww, how cute

Nobody would ever know that they were mother and daughter

Grandma and Aunt Sue

Camping In Grandjean

We headed out of town Friday late morning. Luckily our softball team sucks and we were out of the tournament Thursday night (which is another story because we had a really good game). We drove out to Grandjean which is nestled up to the foothills of the Sawtooth Wilderness. It is a really beautiful area. We decided to go hiking on Saturday and put in a solid 11 miles (5.5 miles pretty much straight up hill. Okay, so it was all slightly uphill except the last mile was STRAIGHT uphill). The trail went alongside Trail Creek most of the way and our destination was Trail Creek Lakes. It was quite the hike but a very good day. Up early this morning and doing chores and getting ready for the week.

There were a lot of pretty wildflowers

Trail Creek

Huge dandelion-looking thing

The only reason I go camping - Smores!

Trail Creek Lake

This is the cliff that drops into the lake. I didn't have my smaller lense so I couldn't get it all in one shot.

This is the creek that our camping spot was on, looking back at the Sawtooths.

Same creek, different direction

After 11 miles (which is about 20 miles for Lucy since she runs all over the place and doesn't stay on the trail), we had one exhausted mutt. She couldn't even stand up to eat or drink. Hazen says she is flipping me off with her eyes in this photo.

Garden

We had a really good 4th of July. We went to lunch with Doug, Tera and Berkley. Since it was such a nice day, Doug wanted to float the river so we went with him. It was a nice, relaxing 2 hour float (though a bit chilly until my butt went numb). Later we BBQ'ed with Ryan and Erin before heading to the Shakespeare Festival. We say Comedy of Errors and it was really good. I think Hazen even enjoyed himself (or maybe it was the half-naked dancers running around on stage?) Either way, we had a good time. Hope you all enjoyed America's Birthday as well.

On a separate note, just wanted to share a few pics of my garden.

Cantalope

Corn

Bell Pepper

Chili Pepper

Tomato

Green Bean

My first vegetables! I actually have beans growing!

Green Onion

Cauliflower

Kohlrabi

Zucchini

Zucchini flowers. Guessing this will be the next thing I get.

Not exactly in the garden, but these are some strawberry plants I did. However, I have not been able to eat one berry before the stupid squirrels get them.