Land of Ahhhhs -- Kansas! Day 2

Saturday was a VERY gusty day!  We were slated for an Edmonson Tennis Grudge Match, but Kristina thought we would postpone it.  However, Da-Da knew this was his chance for victory.  His sister has gotten "soft" playing indoor tennis in Washington, so he thought he would take advantage of it.  No such luck this time.  Maisie decided that she was going to team up with Aunt Kristina this year -- and they were victorious, even with the gusty wind!

Here are some action shots courtesy of Stephanie.

Great job on the pictures Stephanie!

Da-Da and his killer forehand.

Maisie showing a good forehand too!

And Rhett showing off his forehand!

Da-Da serving -- look at that knee bend!

Maisie smacking a backhand!

Rhett serving it up BIG!

Rhett crushing a backhand!

Aunt Kristina showing she has a forehand too!

Do you think genetics has anything to do with BIG forehands? 

Land of Ahhhhs -- Kansas! Day 1

We headed back to Kansas for a few days to visit Kristina's family.  It had been over two years since we had come back for a visit, so it was definitely time.  It was a quick trip, but a good trip.  The only bad thing is that we couldn't figure out how to fit Indy into one of our carry-ons, so she had to stay home a have the pet sitter take care of her.  Just so you know, she didn't even miss us while we were gone!

The way the flight worked out, we traveled on a Thursday and arrived around 9:30 pm Thursday night.  That worked out pretty well because it allowed us to get some rest while Maisie and Rhett finished up soccer camp Friday morning.  That allowed for a dirt bike exhibition Friday afternoon.  Da-Da has always loved dirt bike riding and was quite good at it, but he basically stopped riding when he was in middle school.  That being said, Rhett is now able to ride dirt bikes and he is absolutely just CRAZY about it.  So Rhett had to show us his "mad" dirt biking skills at the Inman Motocross Track.  It is literally like 20 minutes from Da-Da's house.  We went had the entire track to ourselves on this particular Friday afternoon.

Da-Da looking like he was a kid again.  He is riding Honda CR125.  Kristina's loves his look:  shorts with dirt bike riding boots, helmet, gloves, and his sunglasses.  

Of course Jared had to try the track out as well.  Here he is on Da-Da's bike -- supposedly taking it easy because he didn't have any "gear" on or with us.

Rhett catching some air.  Rhett is a cautious dirt bike rider (unlike his Dad).  However, that is a GOOD thing.  You can tell he is out there surveying things and taking everything into account for before he does anything stupid.  KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK RHETT!

Father and son making a jump together.

Grandpa Flipe had to get into the action and had to wave the "flag" near the end of the course. 

Da-Da and Rhett taking one last turn together! 

June Blooms

Normally we have June Gloom in Western Washington, but so far June has started out better than we are used to it starting out. This weekend was mostly cloudy weather, but we definitely saw some sun -- and the temperature reached about 70 degrees. Saturday was better than Sunday, but both days were nice and quite enjoyable.

Here are some shots of Kristina's tomato plants. She has two different types, but one of them had two tiny little tomatoes. She was so excited. 

 

Here's a shot of her container with the tomato plants on the ends -- romaine popping up in the middle. She did romaine last summer, and it was so nice to go out and grab a chunk of it for dinner. We hope to repeat that this summer. And so far, it is looking good. It has grown at least an inch since she planted the starts!

This is her basil. She started this from seed inside. She does this every year and normally we have a good crop of basil for cooking. The leaves weren't as large as she would like (sign of a lack of sun), so she transferred them outside this weekend. Grow basil grow! 

The mint survived the winter and is coming up again. We use lots of mint for iced tea over the summer.  You could also use it for some Mojitos too! Hmmmm....

This is the herb container. Kristina has planted sage, parsley, and thyme. It is all doing just great. She rotated the container this weekend to even out the sun exposure. The parsley was already starting to LEAN. 

Whenever the sun is out, you always want to take full advantage of it. We decided to plant a few more things. So after a trip to Molbak's, this is how things looked. We planted some Foxglove and Lupine. Both plants add a lot of color, and the bees LOVE them.

 

This is a container that Kristina planted last spring. As you can see the Hostas are going crazy! We might have to move the other plants in the container so the Hostas can take over; the Hostas are shading the other plants.

And lastly, this is Kristina's latest container. It has a bunch of different plants in it. We went to the Woodinville Garden Club's annual sale a couple of weeks ago and bought an assortment. We can't wait to see how they look as the summer continues.

May Rain

Well, we can't believe that May 2013 is already on its way out of existence! Time sure flies fast when you are a grown-up.  :) That being said, we had a pretty good May in Western Washington. It started off well -- summer like weather, but then we had at least a week of 10 degrees below normal temperatures. We could have just lived with the summer like weather, but as with most things in life, you have to take the good with the not so good. For May 2013, it looks like we had a total of 2.87" at our house. That seems like a lot less than our previous three May months, and weather.com confirms this by saying that the average is 3.39" in Woodinville for the month of May. Anyway, that's our snapshot.

On another note, can you believe that as of May, we have lived in Western Washington for 3 years?? Talk about time flying...

Cotton, Cotton, Cotton

Well, it is that time of year where the Cottonwoods are shedding their cotton.  While we have less cotton this year since we cut down our HUGE Cottonwood Tree last fall, there are plenty of Cottonwood Trees around to fill the gap.  Here's a shot of one now...

This is the stump from our old Cottonwood Tree, if you look closely, you can see all of the cotton sitting on the mulch around the stump.  That mulch is typically solid black.

In this shot of the yard, you can see the cotton all over the grass.  In some parts of the yard, it actually looks like snow there is so much cotton.

Our one iris bud that turned into an actual flower -- you can see the cotton on it too.

And this is not a blurry photo, it is focused on the cotton floating in the air and not the background.

  

 Here are some shots of our Thimbleberry bush; no berries yet, but there is a ton of cotton all over the bush.

And of course, the Salmonberry bushes have their berries. The wildlife is the backyard will be happy to have some dessert now!

This is a cool shot of another stump we have in the backyard.  It is actually the root of one of the stumps.

The backyard is coming together and looking quite nice these days! 

Indy on the deck watching her backyard (you can see all of the cotton surrounding her).

Kristina's lavender is looking quite good -- and the bees are REALLY enjoying it.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day 2013!

We had a good day here. Kristina started the day by playing tennis with Akiko. After tennis, Akiko and Kristina headed back to Jared and Kristina's House in Woodinville. Adrian and Alice (Akiko's husband and daughter) arrived there as well and we all had a late Mother's Day breakfast. Kristina made her famous sourdough waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit -- and our guests brought Mimosas.  It was an excellent breakfast and a perfect way to follow up playing 90 minutes of tennis.

After we finished breakfast, we hung out in the backyard for a while (as usual, the weather was iffy -- but it turned out to be better than we thought).  Anyway, we all decided to head over to the river for a walk around and some play time for Indy and Alice.  Indy did her normal swimming and running around full throttle while Alice just LOVED the water.  It was a decent day, but the water was still pretty chilly -- even so, Alice braved the water!  By the time we were done, she was soaked!  Luckily, her rock star parents had an extra change of clothes for her in the car!  Everyone seemed to have a good day...doesn't Indy look happy?!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

After spending a few hours in Fremont without Indy, we decided to head back to the house, grab the littlest dog in the world, and head over to her FAVORITE spot -- the Tolt River.  We needed to wear off some of the great food we had at the Mobile Food Rodeo and Indy needed a walk, so it was a perfect combination. Here we are at her favorite spot in the river and she is really fetching that stick today.

Of course after every stick retrieval, she had to go over and see Kristina.  And Kristina was nice enough to give her a treat each time.  What a spoiled little dog! 

Today after swimming in her favorite hole, we decided to go up and cross the bridge and hike along the Snoqualmie River Trail.  It was a very nice trail and could literally go one forever.  We hiked for a while and then we turned around -- all in all, we probably went on a 5 mile hike.

After we got back to the house and relaxed a little, Kristina decided to make watermelon margaritas, homemade flour tortillas, and some spicy pork tacos for dinner -- in honor of Cinco de Mayo.  We didn't spend all of the those years in Arizona without bringing some of that culture with us to Washington.  hahaha!