Cousin Love

Since my last post, summer disappeared again. Seattle was lost in thick gloomy clouds for another couple weeks. On August 16th, blue skies appeared and the beautiful Northwest sparkled! And just in time for my sister Renee, Dan and my niece Lydia and nephew Henry to arrive! Renee, Dan, Lydia and Henry arrived on the 20th for a 10 day visit. They were thrilled to excape the triple digit Texas heatwave, we were excited that summer arrived in time to do some things with them outside!

We did a family hike up Little Si - about 25 minutes east of our home. The little ones did great in their backpacks and the big kids hiked all of the 3-ish miles, much of which was pretty steep and rocky. (Jeremy didn't pick a family friendly trail).

And we managed to get out for dinner together with Jeremy and Dan. What? A picture of two of us? This never happens!
Renee and I spent lots of time at the parks and out for walks around the neighborhood while Liddy and Colden took turns on the bike and scooter.

We had fun feeding the alpacas at the zoo and seeing the new baby joey!
We missed the 10:40 ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge, but managed to make the ferry ride over and back with a super quick stop for lunch and ice cream at Mora Creamery... YUM! Renee took the big kids to a local farm/amusement park for the day while I baked and cleaned in preparation for Colden's birthday party. Renee and I even managed to sneak out to enjoy a spa treatment one morning while Jeremy coralled the kids! It was a great visit... so glad you all came!

Raspberries!

With the lack of sun and warmth, our local produce is ripening very late this year, but at least it is super plump and beautiful due to the surplus of rain in the NorthWest!
So, finally raspberries were ripe in the last week of July! Colden and I headed out to the farm on the opening weekend and picked 5 pounds of beautiful berries. They were so easy to get, it only took us 30 minutes. Colden was a great picker and eater... he didn't really contribute much to what we brought home though!

I promptly made a batch of jam, a raspberry tarte on a shortbread crust and a rhubarb raspberry crisp that is the best I've ever had (my recipe below)! Now I have to work it all off since I ate my share of the tarte and the ENTIRE crisp! Rhubarb Raspberry Crisp
fruit mixture:
3/4 cup white sugar
2 Tbl cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
3 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 heaping cup raspberries

topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup oats (I used regular, but you could also use quick oats)
1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8X8 inch pan (or something smaller and deeper).

2. Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Add rhubarb and raspberries and coat them with the dry ingredients. Pour mixture into the prepared pan.

3. In a separate bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and oat. Add the melted butter and mix together to make a crumbly mixture. Spread over the top of your fruit mixture in the baking pan.

4. Bake for 45 minutes or until bubbly throughout.

If Only All Vegetables Grew On a Cob!

Pictured below is Blakely's second cob of corn that he cleaned almost as well as his first. We just wish that broccoli and asparagus grew on a cob as well ;)

Colden just wanted to be part of the photo-taking!