Blueberries please.

Please read on..

Mt. Dickerman: On Monday, Amy & I ventured out towards Granite Falls/Darrington in search of blueberries on Mount Dickerman. We'd heard that it was a 'tough hike, but doable'...there is tough and then there is grueling. We completely underestimated how difficult it would be as well as how long it would take to reach the top - leaving us a little disappointed. We did switchbacks nearly straight up the mountain for 2.5 hours, getting passed by a couple that could have been our grandparents, very encouraging, obviously. Finally, after calculating the drive back into town and trip back down the trail we realized we could go no further if Am's wanted to get back when Andrew arrived home from school. Thus, we seated ourselves in a sunny clearing overlooking the ice caves and enjoyed our sandwiches and chocolate while ouhhing and ahhing about the Twilight series. The two of us together is no good, we just gush and gush...and then gush some more. Eventually, our infatuation will end I'm sure, but for now we like to giggle like little girls over the romance & passion of Twilight. Ahh. We made it back down the mountain with shaky knees, a few spills that ended in a twisted ankle (ahem, Amy) and lots of whistling/chitter chatter to keep the lions and tigers and bears away. :) Hence, no blueberries, only measly huckleberries that grew abundant in our childhood backyard. It was still a lovely afternoon spent with my bestie, lord have mercy on the cheese!

On to other news...Sean and I have made it a month (like either of us had doubts!). We celebrated with a little dinner at Outback together on Monday evening, including a slice of cheesecake. Yes, we splurged. ha. This past weekend I showed Sean our walking spots..Padilla Bay, he was mildly impressed, and the airport trails, which he enjoyed thoroughly. I was actually a little shocked too, Plop & I walked along the wooded trail last time which proved to be too scary to do again, but this time we wandered among cat tails, blackberries and open fields - much more pleasant.

This past weekend I also managed to finish up the album for our Jamaica pages, check it out - completely homemade. Supplies: Foam board, paper, fabric, ribbon and spray adhesive. Not too shab, eh?

And some more layouts...

Raft Adventure: July 10-12, 2009 Amy, Marcus, Andrew, Molly & Jim (Marcus' mom and dad), Ma, Sean, Penelope & I all headed over to Leavenworth to camp - in our case on the RV- and to go rafting on the Wenatchee River. We brought along some disposable cameras so the photos have much to be desired but we also dished out a little dough for the pictures taken by the rafting company so all in all we ended up with a lot of pictures to remember that adventurous weekend by. Going rafting so late in the season there were only a few large rapids left on the river so the company offered to let us take turns in a kayak to make things more exciting. And, to every one's amazement, including my own, I sprung at the opportunity to try first. Mind you, I've never kayaked in my life, in fact, the last time I've ever held an oar was when I canoed at Girl Scout camp back in the day. It ended up being a good idea to go first because they saved the most intense rapids for the end of the trip. I just tried to keep myself headed straight behind the raft and enjoyed the float. We all thought Sean & Amy got some pretty big rapids but were blown away by the one poor Marcus had to navigate. In our raft you hear our guide chuckling to himself like, 'good luck man' or 'hehe, hopefully he'll flip'...he wasn't disappointed. After we tackled the last rapid of the trip we all turned back to see Marcus flipping over the kayak and fingers sticking up out of the water searching for something to grab on to. In all honesty he did very well, held onto the oar AND the kayak while letting the river drag him toward us. No injuries, just a lot of cold wet bodies from the water that were rejuvinated with some hamburgers, hot dogs and live music. The first page is for the scrapjacked challenge this month.