Monday, July 30, 2012

A Teenager

Thirteen years ago a precious baby girl entered our lives.
It was a sunny day in July.
My doctor looked out the window of the hospital and said, "It looks like a beautiful day to have a baby!"
It was a perfect day.

I know it's so cliche, but I really can't believe how thirteen years has gone by so fast.
I can remember not being able to let Hannah go...
I could barely let her out of my arms for others to hold.
We would sit in church and she would be next to me and I couldn't take my eyes off of her.
When we started going to play groups and outings, I knew that others were looking at her because she was the most perfect, cute, clever baby in the group!

And of course she was!  :)
Watching her grow has been a journey of love, tears, fears and joy...

And she has become such a wonderful young girl.
It was a pleasure to celebrate her 13 years...

Love you Hannah!  
You are still my precious baby girl but I love watching you grow!

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time...

-ABBA


Thursday, July 19, 2012

Pesto!

I am going to blog about the kids (Hannah and Ivan) birthdays, but in the meantime, here's a bit of bounty from the garden!

It took 6 cups of basil leaves (packed tightly) to make two ice cube trays of pesto.
Just a simple recipe of 3 cups basil leaves, 1 cup olive oil, 6 garlic cloves, salt and pepper.
Blend it and freeze it.
DELISH!
The beauty of these wonderful basil plants is that as soon as you cut them back, they start growing again.
The goodness never stops!
You can pop three cubes in a small bowl -
nuke them for 30 seconds -
throw it on pasta -
EAT!

The other treat is how cheaply I'm able to make this.
The cost of one basil plant is equal to what you'd pay for maybe three limp stalks at the grocery store.
Yea!

My wish is that I'm able to harvest enough and freeze enough to last...
It goes pretty fast!

Friday, July 13, 2012

Our Friendly Neighborhood Sous Chef

Hannah is quite the baker.
I was thinking today how I am amazed, and pleased, that we're at a point where she can bake cookies without any adult intervention.
(I always stay around in case intervention changes to "fire prevention"...or something along those lines)
But really...she can handle it.

Colin wanted to help this time around, and so he came over for a cookie baking session with Hannah.
He was an eager learner and Hannah was a willing teacher.
It was a pleasure to watch really.

But first things first...
I told Colin he needed to wear an apron.
:)
With some hesitancy, he donned my "Purple Peepers" apron...and wore it well!

Hannah was great at getting things prepared and letting Colin help.
He measured ingredients...cracked eggs...mixed with beaters...


He even tried Hannah's somewhat unorthodox technique of mixing in the chocolate chips.
(all hands were washed!!)
Hannah says that this is because stirring it with a spoon/spatula is hard.
I think it's because you get to lick all the extra off your hands instead of just washing a spoon...hmm...

And after they baked them, they did the best part!
Testing!
From the look of them, they are pleased with the results!
And yes...
the pair made a delicious batch of chocolate chip cookies!
Colin - you are welcome to be our sous chef anytime!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Raspberries!

Our first U-pick outing of the season was for raspberries!
The bushes are bursting with them this year, so we decided to help out and pick some!


Even people who don't eat raspberries helped pick...

They told us it would be $2.50 for a heaping container full.
And "eat as many as you like", they said.
So he did...
And his container did take a bit longer to fill up than ours.

Truth is - you just couldn't resist!!
 They were so yummy!

We ended up with four full containers.

They were delicious!
Next time - blueberries!




Sunday, July 8, 2012

Round Mountain Hike

Well, the temps in Yakima finally caught up to what the rest of the nation seems to be dealing with...
HOT degrees!!!

We'll have a few days of really hot, then a few days of pretty hot, then back to just hot.
So today, on a really hot day, we decided to head to the mountains in hopes of cooling off!!

I'd heard of a hike on a place called Round Mountain and had been curious because I'd heard the views were worth the hike.
It wasn't a very far distance; either out of town or up the mountain, but it was said to be a steep climb...a 3 out of 5 in difficulty.
We can do this!

We started out all fresh and clean...ready to conquor the mountain!
 We even made a Baumbach Family pact to "do this thing!!"

So we're hiking along...and getting pretty warm.  At this point it really wasn't much cooler than home.
I was calling out all sorts of encouragements..."don't give up"..."we can do this"...blah blah blah...

Then an unexpected surprise happened.
We came upon unmelted snow!
Oh the cool refreshing joy!

So of course, a dirty snowball fight ensued.
And when I say dirty, I really mean dirty...the snow on top was covered in forest type filth.

Someone was really enjoying the fight...
And if he threw it through the old dead branches on the tree, it would spray out and send cool bits of ice all over you.
It was awesome!
We hiked on thinking how lucky we were that we stumbled across some sun-forgotten snow!
What we found a bit further up was...yep...more snow.
Go figure...we're in the mountains and going higher!
So, maybe not that big of a surprise!

So, what we loved at first, we soon grew tired of...for a while anyway.

Thankfully my very aware husband was able to follow the trail even though it was completely snow covered.
I just counted on the footprints being there on the way back to guide us if needed.
I also kept thinking about how going UP snowbanks is one thing, and the only way I really go DOWN them is with skis...and we didn't bring those!
And we were going to have to go down at some point!

As we got closer and closer to the summit, Donald and Ivan scraped an area on a huge snowbank clean of debris, and we had delicious snow flavored snow cones...that you eat with your hands.
They seriously hit the spot for this hot and exhausted family.
I know my friends and family down south probably have a hard time believing we were hot with all that snow...but just look at how Ivan chose to hike for most of the trip...shirtless!!

Donald and Ivan went ahead and as they turned another corner I heard the words I'd been waiting for...
"We're here!!!"
The only thing some of us were confused about was that spa that Donald kept telling us was at the top...the one where kids could play on ipods and video games and parents could get massages.
It just wasn't there...hmmm...

The lack of a relaxing spa/resort was made up for by the absolutely stunning views from the summit!

Rimrock Lake and Clear Lake

View of Goat Rocks with Mt. Adams in the background

A close up...gorgeous!!

And in the other direction, a peek at Mt. Rainier's peak!  :)

This was a cool find.
It's a marker that Donald said they used/use for surveying and map making.
What I love is that the date says 1938, and there is a $250 dollar fine for disturbing it...
Wouldn't dream of it!

So we rested for a while and took some pictures!

A cave was found, so you know there was some exploration.
Donald told them that the bear family was out berry-eating and wouldn't be back til 4pm.
Guess they bought it!

And then it was time to head back.
We stopped at the big snowbank again and filled our water bottles with snow and grabbed a final fistful to eat.

The way down felt a bit treacherous - but it wasn't too bad really.
I just don't like that feeling of falling - especially when it happens with every other step.
I only fell down once...and my butt landed on a rock.
Nice.
On one particularly long slope, Donald "skied" a path down.
Ivan and Jenelle wanted to give it a go, so I leave you with a long series of pictures (giving you fair warning...there are a lot of them) that are pretty entertaining.
Ivan's series brings him all the way to the bottom, but Jenelle's are cut short as a result of her deciding NOT to ski down.
And Hannah and I just aren't that crazy.

Doesn't he just look like some crazy redneck skier...no shirt, plastic water bottle and backpack?!
I am cracking up looking at these!


Jenelle's turn...

No thank you...I'll just find a way to walk down!

We made it home safe, exhausted and very happy!