First Taste

What a fantastic video of children tasting a food for the first time! I love that it was captured in slow motion…and, my heart absolutely jumps for joy at the girls’ reactions to an olive and yogurt! This will make you smile!

Travelogue: Lake Chelan

Recently, we spent a week at Lake Chelan sharing a vacation home with our dear friends- Amy, Phil, Johanna, and Britta. It was nothing short of gorgeous and immensely fun! The glacier-fed lake, which is nearly 55 miles long and located in northwestern Washington in the Cascade Mountain range, looks like the Caribbean Ocean with both turquoise, greens, and dark blues coloring its clear water. And, the surrounding hillside reminds me of Tuscany- gently rolling hills dotted with homes, villas, the occasional tree- ponderosa pines, vines of grapes, a patchwork of lush green orchards, and many wineries. One afternoon, I took a walk and was able to get to a height above an apple orchard- it was especially pretty looking down on the neat rows of apple trees leading to the Caribbean blue waters with the Tuscan-looking hills in the background. Off in the distance, the mountain peaks still held snow, making the landscape even that much more rich and stunning. What an insanely beautiful place!

We hit several of Lake Chelan’s wineries while we were visiting- there are more than two dozen wineries surrounding both the north and south shores of the lake. Our first tasting was at Wapato Point Cellars and the bonus here was that it is family friendly and has a small play area on the grounds. This means the kids were well entertained while the grownups tasted wine!

Both couples enjoyed a date morning (sans kids) where we did something active as a couple and then enjoyed a wine tasting at the Lake Chelan Winery. This winery had my favorite wine of the trip, a white Syrah, which went perfectly with our grilled vegetable and mozzarella pasta dinner.

We also did a girls only outing to Vin du Lac , a charming French inspired winery (note the Eiffel tower in the second photo) with amazing views! The weather was perfect and we indulged in a few wine flights on their lovely patio and then ended with a glass of sweet and florally Gewurtztraminer.

One morning, we hiked at Echo Ridge…it was fun to see a different part of the area and to try to picture what the cross country skiing would be like around there, but the older kids weren’t that into walking so the dads ended up carrying them and, of course, baby Britta was carried, which left me as the only parent free of carrying extra kid weight! We saw a few deer on the hike, lots of pretty yellow Baslamroot flowers, and great views! The kids had fun looking for bugs- we found a cool lizard- and building a “bird nest”.

We spent a lot of time playing on the beach and just really trying to soak in the views! Jack looked at us from time to time while involved in play and said, “it’s really pretty here, right?”. “Yes, baby, it is,” I always replied with a smile and a happy little sigh.

This was really a perfect trip to do with friends! The area is so relaxed…it was a joy to be able to spend so much time with our great friends with no real agenda. We ate fantastic meals, soaked in the hot tub for hours, indulged in many tropical drinks and local wine, and were able to comfortably spend lots of quality time with each other without rushing home for naps or bedtime! Our rental house, Lazy Creek, was the perfect find (thanks to Amy!) with a pool, hot tub, multiple outdoor seating areas, great views, and lots of space to claim as your own.

Jack and Johanna “got married” several times during the week which looked like lots of hugging and tumbling and spinning around…clearly, they are quite fond of one another!

On our last day, just the three of us visited Blueberry Hills Farm where we had brunch. It’s a few miles outside of town. Looking out from the restaurant’s elevated back deck, you see rows and rows of blueberry bushes which we explored after our meal. They smelled wonderful as they were in full bloom…too bad we weren’t there during the picking season! On our way out of town, we made one last stop to Lake View Drive-In. We weren’t overly impressed with our lunch there earlier in the week, but, man, their milkshakes are delicious- we had to have another one for the drive! My favorite was peanut butter hot fudge, which had a rich peanut butter flavor and a ribbon of thick hot fudge marbled evenly throughout…mmm!

I also found a home that I’m pining for right on the north shore of the lake!…I took pictures of the home and will do a separate post next week. Oh, house dreaming is fun!

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Mamas, especially my own! I hope the day brings you fun and happiness and peace, and quite a bit of pampering! I’m looking forward to a bloody Mary brunch made by my boys…they went shopping together today to buy all of the ingredients!

Travelogue: A Two Week Visit in Seattle (with Nonna and Pops)

It feels like we have been on vacation for weeks! This is not to say that I would not be eager to hop in my car or board a plane tomorrow- I’m always ready to travel and explore!- but with my parents two week visit here and then our recent week away at Lake Chelan (more on this trip later this week), we’ve been spoiled with travels and explorations and that lovely break in routine that only vacations and holidays bring.

Having such a long amount of time out here (which never seems to be quite long enough…), we were able to do lots of fun day trips and activities around the city with my parents. One of our first adventures was a day trip to Edmonds, which is only 11 miles north of Seattle yet it has such a small town feel with brick sidewalks, small cafes, and quaint bookstores and toy stores. It is situated on the Puget Sound and on clear days has views from the shore of the Olympic Mountains. Most people know it for the ferry service which takes travelers to Kingston, but it offers so much more with sandy beaches, easily stroll-able sidewalks, and good food. The sea life left on the rocks and sand at low tide was fascinating to explore- rockweed, bull kelp, sea anemones, sea slugs, snails, clams, mussels, sponges … this is reason alone to go back! If it wasn’t so windy and cold on the day we were there, Jack would have been happy playing at the beach for hours!

On the day after Edmonds, we played in Volunteer Park. After enjoying the new play area, we climbed the water tower and had a clear view of all of Seattle and its surrounding area.

One of our weekend day trips found us admiring the many fields of tulips at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival about an hour north of Seattle. It was such a unique thing to see- hundreds of acres of rainbow colored tulips and daffodils amidst beautiful farms. Unfortunately it was raining when we were driving through so we didn’t get out to walk through the fields, but it was just as stunning from the car.

After all the tulip viewing, we meandered up Chuckanut Drive all the way to Bellingham. We stopped for lunch at the Rhododendron in Bow and explored the beach at Taylor Shellfish Farms, which is the largest producer of Manilla clams and Geoduck in the United States.

We ended our “tulip festival day” with a stop at Kerry Park, a spot where we love to go to admire the houses, to look out over the city, and to take photos.

As shown in the photos, we had tons of fun! There were lots of other memorable moments that I don’t have pictures of and that you should definitely add to your Seattle bucket list- a Mariners baseball game, a Huskies sporting event- we saw a baseball game, runs along the Burke Gilman trail, a driving tour and dinner in Madison Park, and a Pacific Northwest seafood dinner on the water- among others!

“You can’t eat all the jellybeans at one time!”

Despite the number of times we uttered this phrase over the weekend(!), we all had a really fun time in the surprisingly springy weather painting eggs, hiding and hunting plastic eggs filled with toys and candy, cooking food on the grill, and enjoying cocktails in the backyard.

We started a tradition last year that Jack plants a jellybean on Easter Eve and in the spot where it is planted, his Easter basket appears the next morning…he loves picking out just the right place and making sure the jellybean is completely buried under the dirt. And, his excitement the next morning is completely infectious!

What a smile new Crocs (indoor shoes for school) can bring, especially if they are super hero ones!

I hope you had a fun Easter weekend too!

Conversations with Jack: Episode 1

Our sweet little Jack is a real story teller and, overall, a big talker. He’s quite particular about all of the details and one can just tell that his detailed thoughts are swimming through his mind and filling his wild imagination. We have some of the best conversations with our little man. It’s difficult to capture the true brilliance of them on video, but here’s a shot at it. This video was shot shortly after Jack woke up after a long nap so he’s still a little sleepy. He received the new pajamas and the Spider-Man glove that he’s wearing in the mail that morning and, he didn’t take it off for about 3 days!

Rustic Blueberry Biscuits

When you give your toddler the choice between a locally baked ooey-gooey cinnamon apple breakfast bread or baking your own biscuits, and he chooses baking your own biscuits despite how appealing you made the ooey-gooey bread sound…then, you march straight to the kitchen, roll up your sleeves, and start searching for ingredients for your baking project. After sighing and thinking it would have been so much easier to buy that loaf of bread, you smile and cherish the thought that you have a little food lover on your hands!

I’m so glad that he chose the biscuits. These were fun to make together and very easy (bonus!). I love how rustic looking they turned out and how scrumptious they tasted slathered with butter and topped with raspberry jam. They were the perfect accompaniment to our sautéed greens topped with fried eggs dinner.

And, just as soon as he finished the last biscuit, he said “We can make these again soon. Right, mama?”

Blueberry Biscuits
minimally adapted from Pink Pistachio

Ingredients:
2 cups white whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup blueberries

2 cups organic whipping cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Add blueberries and toss gently in the flour mixture until coated. Gently fold in the whipping cream (it should look lumpy- the key to light and fluffy biscuits, like pancakes, is not overworking the dough).

Lightly flour your countertop and knead you dough (about four turns) into an 8×8 inch square, about 1 inch thick. With a pizza cutter, carefully cut the dough into 12 biscuits making sure not to cut all the way through (leave the dough as one large piece).

Transfer the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and cake tester comes out clean. Serve warm with butter and jam.