The Dahlia Farm......

 (These photos are from our visit to the Swan Island Dahlia Farm in Canby,Oregon.)

Oh, the beautiful trees...

 I'm sorry my blog posts are late and all over the place. It has been a very busy month with family visits, a last minute summer vacation, and school starting again.
I am far behind on posting anything but I still wanted to share some of the photos from our little trip north to the Olympic Peninsula.

I took hundreds of pictures and mostly of trees, but come on, they were so amazing!

Take a look:

(so hard to show the scale, it was huge my head would have barely touched the lowest branch)

I saw pictures of this tree on the internet when I was researching places to go on our trip to the Olympic National Forest and the Lake Crescent area and I wanted to find it so badly. I knew it was somewhere along the lake so did a lot of hiking and exploring around the shore but we just couldn't seem to find it. I almost gave up hope as we packed up our campsite on our last day by the lake but on the drive out of the campground we saw it right off the road down to the boat ramp. We had never used that road since a short path led to the lake from our campsite. It was right there the whole time.

 

Here are a few more gorgeous trees that live around Lake Crescent:

Back to school time!

Well, let me start by saying I love all my children dearly, and I am forever grateful to have them all in my life but I have to say this summer was incredibly challenging for me with all three of them at home, together, all of the time. My two eldest children just do not get along at all for even a moment.....EVER, and I have heard enough shrieking and screaming to deafen a small country. Sollie started picking on his little sister too and she started taking on his insanely high pitched shriek of defense.

But.......something wonderful happened this week. 

School started!

This may sound harsh to some of you parents out there, but for me(doing the parenting alone in week long stretches)  trying to keep my kids happy all summer long was the most exhausting task I have ever had. I have put my own needs on the back burner for so long that I feel I am not even my own person anymore. Kids don't understand that their mother is a person too and I don't think that really sinks in for anyone until they have a child and can put themselves in their parents shoes for the first time.  As a Mama and a person in general you can really only put your needs completely aside for so long before you start to lose it. Without the backup of my husband  during the week I am unable to get the breaks I need to refresh and feel good, about anything.

With school starting again and my middle child starting full time Kindergarten this year, it has opened up a small window of sanity in my day. A small chunk of time where I can go for peaceful neighborhood walks with my youngest to look for kitties, or go to the park with her to watch the ducks. I can clean my house and do laundry while my little one plays quietly with her toys and listens to music. It is so quiet and peaceful, I can even hear my own thoughts again!!!

 

My sweet tired guy the morning of the first day of school.

I was a little sad about Solomon starting school full time. It is bittersweet. He was my buddy and my sweet little guy for so long. He still is of course, but I can tell he needs more than time at home with mom. He loves school and I am so proud of how he just walks so easily into new situations because that was not at all easy for my oldest child.

Sophie is in Middle School,7th Grade, which I am sure you can tell by the look on her face. Sophie has always done better with a daily schedule and routine, I think despite the freedom that comes along with summer break, not knowing what each day would bring stressed her out.
 Just for fun, here is a look back seven years ago to her first day of Kindergarten:

Awe...so little and sweet!

Here is to a new school year, new friends,new lessons, new challenges....... and just a little bit of quiet.

Lake Crescent

 

Lake Crescent has the most amazing blue water. In the deeper areas it is a dark almost cobalt blue that thins out to an almost tropical teal color in the more shallow areas. It was amazing and I have to admit I was pretty let down by the rain and the fact that I wasn't able to swim. 

 

It was still fun to explore the lake and it's incredible beauty. 

 I had a peaceful time drinking tea on the pebbly beach an watching the clouds as they would float over the lake, brushing the tops of the hills that surrounds it and vaporizing into the enormous trees. The warm moist weather made it feel like we were camping in the clouds and it had a beauty all it's own.

The Lake Crescent Lodge was at the other end of the lake from where we camped but we stopped to hike around in the in the amazing old growth forest and take in a view from the dock.

It was a beautiful place and Ben and I daydream about going back some day and renting one of the sweet little cottages that are right on the water,  and having a relaxing dinner in the lodge in the sun porch. He could go fishing and I could paint or knit on the shore of the lake. Hmm, this must be a kid free trip we are planning...

18 Months!!

Wow time flies! My sweet baby girl just gets sweeter and more fun to be around . She has been saying "Vegetable" since she was  about 13 months old but refuses to ever do it on demand. We finally got in on video while waiting in the car for Papa to get coffee. SEE! One of her very first words was Vegetable! Oh Goobie, you crack me up!!

Thanks for coming into my life sweet baby Goose! You bring us joy every single day and I still can't believe your little face is real, too cute to believe!

Hurricane Ridge: Part 1 of our Olympic National Park adventure

This view literally took my breath away.

A visit from Nana

 

 A few weeks ago we were lucky to have Nana( my mom) come visit us from Wisconsin

We were very busy that week and saw all kind of interesting sights such as:

A swinging dog.

A wildfire.

A soap box derby.

(sorry for the lame picture, they were so fast this is the only one that wasn't a blur)

A street fair.

We also visited a popular place to cool off near my old college...

and we visited the Dahlia Farm.

We also hung out near a lake(with strawberries of course)...

and went for a hike.

It was so nice having her around. We miss you mom!