Fair Week and Other Bits

Last week the Fair was in town.  I went on Thursday afternoon with my sisters and Mom.  Then on Thursday evening Hubby and I went in the evening with friends.  From a calorie standpoint, that was plenty.

My Grandpa had Belgian draft horses and they bring back wonderful family Fair memories.

One of my favorite NW Washington Fair bits is to visit the agriculture display and score some cookbooks.

This year Cheryl was on duty and she let me in the back room to take whatever I could find.  Oh my!  Yes, that is a butter cookbook.  Dairy and potato cookbooks=YUM!

 Sam came home this weekend and helped me clean the garage on Saturday.  Actually half of the garage.  It's a BiG mess and it's going to take two sessions.  Cleaning the garage is motorcycle storage payment at our house.  {evil laugh, bah hahaha...} This task makes young men want to sell their motorcycles.  We found some tiny treasures, little plastic soldiers and holsteins, among other things.  

Oh my gravy!  Tons of junk.  I'm gong to the dump, to the recycling center, the thrift store this week.

Sunday morning Sam brought me a mug of soldiers and sang me a little ditty.

'Best part of waking up... is soldiers in your cup...'

I love That Sam I Am and his wit.

Enjoy your Monday!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Our vacation, staycation, workcation is over.  Hubby and I had a wonderful time finishing projects, starting projects and perfecting projects, not necessarily in that order.  Hawley enjoyed his time having both of us around all day and he supervised between naps.

 Since we purchased three boxes of peaches in Thorp I needed to freeze peaches.  Every.  Day.  I peel, slice and chop, layer on a parchment covered cookie sheet and freeze.  Once the peaches are frozen they get broken up and stored in gallon zip bags for breakfast smoothies and pie.

 I baked peach pies.  We shared peach pies.  We ate peach pies.

 We went to garage sales out in the county and saw some interesting garden art.

 I painted and sanded many "smalls" and one large project.

 Hubby put up some missing trim in the bathroom.  It's been missing since we moved in twelve years ago.

 Hubby installed new flooring and hung new doors in the bathroom.

 Hubby sanded, stained and then applied many coats of urethane to our front door.  He originally built it and it  had weathered over the years.  Now it's all shiny again.

Hubby mowed, pruned and then pruned some more.

I cleaned out closets.

I painted some more.

Hubby cut the ivy back within an inch of its life.

We were relieved to go back to work this week.  Summer vacations can be exhausting.

Garden Party 2013

Remember Garden Party?  We have a progressive dinner with two other couples and rotate courses from house to house.  It's always a summertime highlight, it's always elegant, and it's always a 5 star quality dinner.

Well, we get tired too.  We get busy too.  We sell farms, remodel our homes, have kids home for the summer and sometimes even this elite foodie group calls it quits.

So, that said, Garden Party 2013 is a bit different than past years.

It was a potluck.  We each kept our assigned course and we cheated.

Big time cheated!

We went to the farm, Karen brought the centerpiece because she had already made it for our usual style of Garden PaRtY.  Shelly still brought out real dishes to the barn because we aren't that pathetic that we'd use paper.  No tablecloth this year, we were slummin'.  Vern was still in his swimming trunks when we arrived.  It was a casual Garden Party.

 The weather was beautiful, we had our appetizers out by the pool, they were served by Mark and Karen.

They served Sangria from a box, and a nice selection of appetizers from Trader Joes and Cash and Carry.

 Hubby and I served main course in the barn.  We served a leftovers style dinner with leftover BBQ tri-tip that we had in the freezer from reunion, sliced thin on slider buns with a nice selection of Kraft BBQ sauces, corn salad made from leftover corn from the night before, and ruffle potato chips with ready made french onion dip.  We served a red meritage wine from Barbed Wire.

 Vern and Shelly served chocolate peanut butter pie and blueberry pie ala mode purchased from Bellewood Acres.  It was served with a espesso hazelnut vodka over ice.

 While it wasn't swanky the friends were still great, the food was actually good, the setting was beautiful, the weather perfect and we had entertainment from the Abbotsford Airshow.

Karen's flowers were a hit and I hope to get a lesson.

 As for 2013, we get tired too, it's all we got, folks.  

Rest assured, we will be back next year in all of our glory!

Max's Fan Club

When we got to the farm in George on Saturday morning we were happy to see Max.  Since he has been busy harvesting wheat we didn't actually think that we'd get to see him.  It rained on Friday so he was off work for two days.  I think as crazy unhappy as Max was to be off work I was that crazy happy to spend time with him.  He was on call.  Hubby and Max were getting caught up when the fans started arriving. 

 Gabe and Owen were so happy to see Max.

 They hang on just in case he decides to get up and go someplace.

 Later that evening Jared was really trying to convince Max to do something.

 They are always trying to convince Max to take them swimming in the canal or play hide and seek or tag.

 I kind of like how Gabe is giving Kassie the stink eye in the picture below.  He may be thinking- "Max is ours, we have plans; nice you stopped by and all but Max is busy with us so don't get any ideas."

 On Saturday morning little sis Kelly got to Max first.  I wanted her to look at the camera and smile but she only has eyes for Max.

I

Max didn't say it but the phrase, I'm  kind  of  a  big  deal, came to my mind.

Sheesh.

Reunion 2013

 Over the weekend we went to Hubby's parents for a family reunion.  My father-in law's family has a reunion every year on the first weekend in August.  On the way home Hubby and I counted 70 people that came and went over the course of the weekend.  There was family, neighbors, friends and Watershed (concert at the Gorge in George) campers.  

Honestly, there were probably people there that we didn't even know about or see.

It's all good.

 

Sam and Angela came just in time to build a rocket for the launching of the rockets.

 The rockets involve plastic soda pop bottles, cardboard, and duct tape and... water, a compressor and an alfalfa field... and a competitive spirit.

 

At our family reunion we have a soft ice cream machine.  There are toppings, cones, root beer for floats, peach cobbler for under neath and it is changed out between chocolate and vanilla.  The littlest of the family may help themselves.  It does get closed an hour before meals so everyone has an appetite.

 At our family reunion we have a set of 16 year old twins, I didn't get a picture of the big twins.

Kelly and Nate are the little  twins.  

Nate was born and stayed with his Mama right before their Daddy went to China to pick up Kelly.  

They are so sweet together.

 At our family reunion we have a BiG BBQ grill.  On Saturday evening we had grilled chicken, 

ribs and beef tri tip for dinner.  It takes all afternoon.  Hubby's Dad does the grilling with tons of help from Uncle Dave and others.

 At our family reunion we have all ages.  Hubby's Dad is the oldest in his family and Hubby is holding Emmit, who is just six weeks old.  Hubby told Emmit's mama to go ahead and eat while he took care of Emmit.

She could not believe her good fortune but really I think Hubby was the fortunate one.

 At our family reunion there is love and the littles love the BIGS.  I'll share more later about Max's fan club.

 At our family reunion there is a pinata after dinner.  There is a big bouncy house, there is a craft table for the kids, this year there was a playdoh table, there is a pool and swimming in the canal.  

There are tents, trailers, and beds everywhere.

 At our family reunion there is a fat boy breakfast in the morning with teens running the grills.

At our family reunion there is a lot of visiting, catching up with family and there is a whole lot of love and respect for family.  Everyone pitches in with the meals and the activities. 

And behind it all are Hubby's folks, they host every year.

My mom-in law is a saint.

Truly.