Since it has been so fun to spend summer time together in our new city I requested that Martin ask for an extra day off this past week. Tuesday was the day. I have wanted to go to Coeur D'Alene for some time as everyone talks about it being a very beautiful place to go and the beach is excellent and there is great swimming and it is just nice to get away. It has continued to be very warm here and a swim in a lake sounded like the perfect thing to do. Coeur d'Alene is in Idaho but is only about 1/2 hour drive from Spokane.
We arrived there in time to find lunch and so we headed to a burger joint called Hudson's that was recommended to us by our friend Evita. Indeed it was a well deserved recommendation as the burgers were super yummy. At Hudson's you can only order burgers (plain, cheese, double, double cheese). They come with your choice of onions, pickles and/or ketchup. There is no lettuce. There is no tomato. There are no fries. There are no shakes. There is no side of coleslaw. There is, however, homemade unsweetened ice tea. Hudsons has been around and in the same location since 1907. We took our burgers to the park and enjoyed them very much!
Swimming in the lake was divine. I got to do the swimming with A and M because Martin's swimsuit was MIA. It was so special to just play in the water with the kids. These days I feel like much of my interactions with them is yelling at them (especially Ami) to do this or to not do that. I never get a chance to just play with them. In the water this all changes. There is nothing to clean-up, no diapers to change, dog to walk, email to write, dinner to make.... just time to play. Playing in the water also give you the excuse to get really close to someone with lots of hugging and horsing around. I think both kids have missed out on this part of our relationship now that Timo is on the scene. I was glad to get a chance to rectify this at least a little bit.
Martin stayed up in the shade with Timo as the beach was unbelievably hot and also it was on a seriously steep angle to the water. Our little shade maker was very useful even in the shade of the trees as it gave T some boundaries while M read and watched our littlest boy.
I was so glad that Martin could come with us to Coeur D'Alene. Adventuring with 2 kids by myself used to be hard and somewhat lonely. Adventuring with 3 kids by myself is impossible right now (especially when it involves water).
Yes "Kore Da Lane" is how they say Coeur d'Alene around here... :)
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
neighbors
Monday ended up being quite a bit quieter than last weekend's breathless pace. But because we didn't have planned activities the kids and I were at home and getting on each other's nerves by mid afternoon. We decided to take a walk. I had wanted to go to the grocery store and had unearthed our double stroller to make it possible to carry the groceries. Of course by the time we were organized to head out it was too late to walk all the way to the store and back before Ami needed to leave for his organ (piano) lesson. Grrr. Oh well, it was hot and we were bothered already. We decided to check out the house with the cute ducks (Peking Running Ducks-they stand up and are SOOO cute) that live in the yard. We had been there once before around Easter-time and met the girls that live there. I decided that I could ask to buy some duck eggs (if no other groceries) and we ended up having a lovely time meeting and playing with the two younger girls and I visiting with their dad. It was a much better arrangement than screaming at each other at home!
Those girls are home-schooled and are interested in having neighborhood friends. I hope it works out to hang out with them more.
Those girls are home-schooled and are interested in having neighborhood friends. I hope it works out to hang out with them more.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Spokane Things part the third
Sunday.
church in the morning (of course). (Met Pete- the much anticipated partner of Dawn)
Family Bike ride in the afternoon!
It was the hottest day so far. . .
Martin organized this as an activity for the St John's Families.
It started at a place that we had to drive to (Spokane Valley- 15 minutes drive away) so that meant a big pack-up of gear. We took the kids bikes and Martin's two bikes and our bike trailer for Timo. Bodhi stayed home (thankfully!)
The ride was along a small portion of the Spokane River Centennial Trail. The River was super beautiful to see. There were people floating down it and someone even saw someone snorkeling in it!! The ride was really cut short because of the heat. It reminded me so much of being a kid at the ranch. Blazing heat, clear blue skies, beautiful pine trees, a fantastic waterfall, desert conditions... Mimi and I saw quail and someone else saw a wild bunny.
Our friends the Browns joined us and it was great to spend that time with them. Also a new St J's member and one of her daughters.
It will be great to ride this trail with the kids when the weather is a bit more accommodating. The trail is an amazing resource here. We keep hearing other talk about it but this was my first experience trying it out.
I wore some clothes that I don't often wear (orange yoga pants and a bright pink yoga-wear tank). Mimi was super impressed with my outfit. I think it looked as close to a Barbie outfit as she has ever seen on me. She even told me that I looked beautiful and "cool". I wonder if this will be the last time i hear that kind of compliment from her! :)
We came home exhausted from the heat and I whipped together supper options for the kids and we welcomed a babysitter into our house and headed out to join Dawn and Pete for an evening at a local winery. Arborcrest hosted a concert at their site (only a $5 cover) from 5:30- 8:30. We were joined by Dawn's other friends Matt and Mindy and we had a great time visiting and eating and drinking wine in a beautiful location. Sadly we realized that this was only the second time we had actually procured the services of a babysitter in Spokane. It is no wonder that we haven't seen much of this city or had many opportunities for adult life...
We. Must. Get. Out. More. (and church events do NOT count!)
church in the morning (of course). (Met Pete- the much anticipated partner of Dawn)
Family Bike ride in the afternoon!
It was the hottest day so far. . .
Martin organized this as an activity for the St John's Families.
It started at a place that we had to drive to (Spokane Valley- 15 minutes drive away) so that meant a big pack-up of gear. We took the kids bikes and Martin's two bikes and our bike trailer for Timo. Bodhi stayed home (thankfully!)
The ride was along a small portion of the Spokane River Centennial Trail. The River was super beautiful to see. There were people floating down it and someone even saw someone snorkeling in it!! The ride was really cut short because of the heat. It reminded me so much of being a kid at the ranch. Blazing heat, clear blue skies, beautiful pine trees, a fantastic waterfall, desert conditions... Mimi and I saw quail and someone else saw a wild bunny.
Our friends the Browns joined us and it was great to spend that time with them. Also a new St J's member and one of her daughters.
It will be great to ride this trail with the kids when the weather is a bit more accommodating. The trail is an amazing resource here. We keep hearing other talk about it but this was my first experience trying it out.
I wore some clothes that I don't often wear (orange yoga pants and a bright pink yoga-wear tank). Mimi was super impressed with my outfit. I think it looked as close to a Barbie outfit as she has ever seen on me. She even told me that I looked beautiful and "cool". I wonder if this will be the last time i hear that kind of compliment from her! :)
We came home exhausted from the heat and I whipped together supper options for the kids and we welcomed a babysitter into our house and headed out to join Dawn and Pete for an evening at a local winery. Arborcrest hosted a concert at their site (only a $5 cover) from 5:30- 8:30. We were joined by Dawn's other friends Matt and Mindy and we had a great time visiting and eating and drinking wine in a beautiful location. Sadly we realized that this was only the second time we had actually procured the services of a babysitter in Spokane. It is no wonder that we haven't seen much of this city or had many opportunities for adult life...
We. Must. Get. Out. More. (and church events do NOT count!)
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Spokane Things Part the second
Saturday
Yay!!! Another day off for Martin (if you can call working at 5:30 pm a day off...)
The day started with a bit of garage sailing :) and Mimi decided to join me in the adventure. She was bound a determined to find a barbie to buy. We had seen a box of Barbies and accessories at a thrift store in Vancouver but I told her that we wouldn't be importing Barbies to the US and that we would find one at a garage sale in Spokane. The girl does not forget such promises! Sure enough she found a really decent Barbie at the first one we went to- this Barbie rides a horse (her legs actually articulate somewhat functionally!). I wasn't going to buy the horse (not realizing that it was specially designed to go with the barbie) but the little girl selling the toys said that Mimi could just have it. :)
All in all we went to 3 sales and I got a fan (it is getting really hot here), some art paper, some paper for making homemade business cards on your computer, a food dehydrator, and a bed fence (so that Timo doesn't fall out of our bed - I have been looking for one of these for MONTHS and this one is a really great one!).
After lunch we hung around the house a bit imagining that we might go to
the Spokane Aquatic Center. After extensive searching for Martin's
swim suit in vain, we decided to get a little water action with the
water park in Manito Park. This is a little bit of a walk away so Martin
took the Xtracycle with Mimi and Ami rode his bike while Timo and Bodhi
and I walked. It was tremendously refreshing.
A very cool thing about today was that there was a massive, neighbourhood-wide ladybug hatch. They were EVERYWHERE in great swarms of flying red bugs. Very impressive. Although I think I was nipped by 2 of those amazing red bugs...
Mimi proved for the first time that she is totally capable of doing the monkey bars today. She has been really wishing she could do them for a long time now. I gave her a little help (these monkey bars are really quite high off the ground) to understand just how important it is that you use your weights in swinging to reach the next bar. She was triumphant.
We are staring to eat more and more veg from our garden.
Doing Spokane things!! -finally!!
So this past weekend was too good not to write a bit about what we have been doing.
It started on Friday (Martin's day off) when I announced that we would be going to get cherries from an area called Green Bluff. It is located about 40 mins away from home. If we took a better route it might even be closer. My idea was to get cherries because I love the taste of cherries in the summer, and raspberries because we need jam for the winter!! I scouted out where to go and we headed for a farm that only puts organic products on their trees. The drive was beautiful (after getting out of the city). Warm weather and lush fields and sunshine. When we arrived at the farm we discovered that the cherries(only pie cherries left) and raspberries were all gone. However they had beautiful apricots!!! hooray!! the Other taste of summer!!! We picked lots and lots. Everyone enjoyed the picking and tasting :)(Timo included!). We decided to eat lunch at their little cafe which was nice to have someone else make lunch.
Then we set off to find some cherries and raspberries elsewhere. We made
"wrong" turn and ended up going to a farm that I had read about that
looked interesting. It was a u-pick veggie garden with a "mad scientist"
farmer, growing nutrition boosted veggies (using garden tea) on a
beautiful property and a Canadian to boot! We spent quite a long time at
his farm -Looking at the emus, sheep and poultry, petting the cat and
the collie dog on site- as well as picking cucumbers, zucchini, carrots,
broccoli, basil, strawberries, and golden and black and wonderfully
purpley raspberries. I plan on visiting that farm many times this summer
and into the fall. He is growing Kabocha squashes that are to die for!!
We came home and had a left-over salady meal and then I headed out with my friend Dawn to attend a concert that her friend was singing. It was part of something called "first Fridays" in Spokane. First Fridays is a chance for people to get out and enjoy art and music all over the city. It is a very popular Spokane thing to do! The location of this concert was just on the north side of the river (you could see some falls from the concert) at a place called Chateau Rive. It was a promotion of this new(ish) event space and the concert took place on the grass in this picture.
The band played from almost where the photo was taken and the river is right behind the photographer. On arrival we discovered that wine was complimentary as well as veggies and humus! It was fun to be there with Dawn as she was awaiting the arrival of her Kiwi partner- excited anticipation/whiling away the hours until it was time to go to the airport...
It was fun to see a slice of life that I don't get to see much of...
Dawn is a very attractive woman who used to be in broadcasting so many people remember her from her time on the local news. I wondered about how many people attend this sort of event in hopes of finding someone to hook -up with. Sure enough Dawn was hit on at least a couple times! I realized how bad I am at making people (men) feel comfortable in this sort of situation!...So after the concert was over we wanted to check out the building and the various businesses that make it their home. The most important one to us was the "Chocolate Apocothary" where we had to sample chocolate covered almonds and then have some double chocolate gelato. Poor us. :)
next stop, Saturday!!
It started on Friday (Martin's day off) when I announced that we would be going to get cherries from an area called Green Bluff. It is located about 40 mins away from home. If we took a better route it might even be closer. My idea was to get cherries because I love the taste of cherries in the summer, and raspberries because we need jam for the winter!! I scouted out where to go and we headed for a farm that only puts organic products on their trees. The drive was beautiful (after getting out of the city). Warm weather and lush fields and sunshine. When we arrived at the farm we discovered that the cherries(only pie cherries left) and raspberries were all gone. However they had beautiful apricots!!! hooray!! the Other taste of summer!!! We picked lots and lots. Everyone enjoyed the picking and tasting :)(Timo included!). We decided to eat lunch at their little cafe which was nice to have someone else make lunch.
 |
| squashes and cucumbers growing... |
 |
| in one of the green- houses- Timo is sampling celery. |
We came home and had a left-over salady meal and then I headed out with my friend Dawn to attend a concert that her friend was singing. It was part of something called "first Fridays" in Spokane. First Fridays is a chance for people to get out and enjoy art and music all over the city. It is a very popular Spokane thing to do! The location of this concert was just on the north side of the river (you could see some falls from the concert) at a place called Chateau Rive. It was a promotion of this new(ish) event space and the concert took place on the grass in this picture.
 |
| this photo is from the internets! |
The band played from almost where the photo was taken and the river is right behind the photographer. On arrival we discovered that wine was complimentary as well as veggies and humus! It was fun to be there with Dawn as she was awaiting the arrival of her Kiwi partner- excited anticipation/whiling away the hours until it was time to go to the airport...
It was fun to see a slice of life that I don't get to see much of...
Dawn is a very attractive woman who used to be in broadcasting so many people remember her from her time on the local news. I wondered about how many people attend this sort of event in hopes of finding someone to hook -up with. Sure enough Dawn was hit on at least a couple times! I realized how bad I am at making people (men) feel comfortable in this sort of situation!...So after the concert was over we wanted to check out the building and the various businesses that make it their home. The most important one to us was the "Chocolate Apocothary" where we had to sample chocolate covered almonds and then have some double chocolate gelato. Poor us. :)
next stop, Saturday!!
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