Loganberry Festival

What’s a loganberry you ask? I did too. It’s just a blackberry crossed with a raspberry. Apparently, Whidbey Island houses the nation’s largest farm for said berries. Greenbank Farm is a 150-acre former dairy & loganberry farm in the middle of the island that is really a community center that houses open fields, cafes, wine & cheese shops, and even some wetlands and wildlife preserves. It is also the host of the annual Loganberry Festival!

greenbank farm barn

There were a lot of booths with delicious foods from the local islands. I think Lopez Island Creamery is my sister’s favorite. Blackberry ice cream? Maybe she should try the Loganberry!

a line a mile long

There were many families enjoying the beautiful weather and fun atmosphere. The kids enjoyed the rocks and playing king of the hill.

king of the hill

There was a woman carving stray pieces of wood and fallen trees into masterful works of art. Like this bear holding a salmon wearing an eagle. 🙂

bear fishin

Not sure what she was carving here. But it was fun to watch the sawdust fly.

roadside chainsaw carver lady

A young girl who was about 10 years old was cruising around on her stilts like she owned the island. I would have been terrified!

stilted youth

These two cracked me up with their shared slice of pie.

sharing

digging in

eat up quick!

The local 4H club (and I think another club for horses, city girl roots showing here) was there with some saddles, some horses, and some cows.

ride 'em carter joe!

CJ was pretty impressed by riding the saddle. Thrilled? Sure.

daaaad, this is my saddle!

He did, however, fall in love with the horses. He immediately reached out to pet them.

carter's new bff

He was so fascinated by them and wanted to get as close as he could.

i want the horse

Each new horse we approached needed to be pet.

so soft

So much so, that he wanted to jump right out of Scott’s arms onto the horse!

later guys, i'm riding off into the sunset

So Scott rested him on the ground next to a little pony. He was careful to keep a tight grip as our little speed crawler is also an escape artist these days!

can we take him home?

After we visited with the horses for a little bit, we decided to go check out the cows.

mom!? is he serious?

Carter has a fear of cows. Make the cow sound? The lip curls and the boy wails. It’s the saddest thing ever. And we have no idea why. But he was equally unimpressed with the live animal.

i don't trust you, lady

Scott did some hay bale jumping with CJ. Which he LOVED. He cracked up the entire way. The series is a lot of fun.

the most fun time ever

One of the most noticeable things about the island is the beautiful gardening. Every house has amazing gardens and landscaping. One of the houses had a series of old fence posts stuffed with sedums trailing down the sides. I took this picture while Scott was driving, but this was one in a series of 10 posts overflowing with hens and chicks.

hens and chicks

That evening we really celebrated our anniversary with fresh Penn Cove mussels steamed in white wine and butter, grilled steak and a gorgeous view.

al fresco

We sat on the patio until the sun went down and the chill crept back in. Then we headed in to read by the fire.

here's to many more

It was a perfectly relaxing anniversary weekend! I can’t wait to go back to Whidbey Island again!

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Whidbey Island

Scott & I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on July 22 and decided to head up to Whidbey Island for a long weekend. Our goal was to have a low key weekend where we might be able to have a conversation. It feels like it’s been a few weeks since we just sat down and visited. So we hopped a ferry on a chilly, drizzly July evening and woke up in paradise (with sunshine).

mom? dad? um. where are we?

It was a crisp, very chilly morning on the island. We woke up and sat by the fire (read: kept Carter away from the fire), watching the water while we drank coffee and made breakfast and waited for the sun to warm things up a bit.

someone getting some early wind

There were a ton of birds and hummingbirds visiting us while we were there. This little feeder with the goldfinch on it was covered in finches of many varieties all day every day!

american goldfinch

An eagle or two lived in the neighborhood as they were constantly following us around when we came outside.

bald eagle hovering over our backyard

CJ loved the big warm back yard that overlooked the water. He was ready to hit the beach, despite the 50ish degree morning temperatures.

later guys, i'm going swimming

We honored his wish and headed to the beach. It was a little rocky. And cold. But CJ didn’t care. He loves sand, water and sun.

mom. stop it. im building a castle.

And even attempted to build his first sand castle with a moat around it.

seriously. stop it with the camera! i'll eat some sand if you don't stop!

I think he tried to eat the moat.

told you so

When we came back from the beach, the eagle was perched just outside our back window.

eagle visiting our back patio

I guess he was checking out what remained of the fishermans’ spoils that morning.

checking out the views

It is pretty awesome to sit in the back yard with this kind of view.

is the sailboat bringing in dinner?

Apparently our little man thinks it is funny to scare off the eagles.

scarin away the eagles

Our first day of vacation was quite relaxing and we got some much needed sun. The next day was even more fun! Stay tuned…

Friday Flowers: Hydrangeas

Two of my four bushes. This has been the best year yet! For some reasons, my blooms are finally agreeing and turning a deeper blue and giving off bigger flowers. The bushes are just giant. They were itty bitty things during their first summer 3 years ago (they were planted almost 4 years ago).

the little man adds a little perspective

Water Baby

I think I have one! Oh my, does he love the water! He learned just how much when we were in Texas (I still owe you some pictures and videos of that good fun). This week, we got one warm (72°) day and decided to hit up Greenlake to enjoy the sunshine. It turns out the wading pool was open. I wasn’t sure how Carter would feel about it as he does tend to clam up in new situations sometimes. Not this time. He sat in my lap while I dipped my toes in the pool. Then I tried to dip his toes in the pool. He immediately stuck his little legs out at a 90° angle demanding to sit in that water.

I didn’t have his swimsuit on, so I just plopped him back in my lap while we watched the action. But he would have nothing to do with that. Squirmy pants mcgee wanted to be in the middle of the action.

I stripped his shorts and sat him down. He immediately started splashing and giggling.

ah, so nice and cool in here!

Surprising me and himself with splashing his face and not getting upset about it!

splash splash splash!

And then he was off. He did not want to sit still. Not one bit. The pool is about 75 yards long, maybe? It gets deeper (probably about 2 feet deep) in the middle. At one point after chasing him, I stopped helicoptering stepped back a tad and let him crawl thinking he would turn back when it got too deep. I finally stepped in as the water got to his chin. He would have kept going.

gotta go talk to that cute baby girl with the belly

I tried to force him into some breaks as his knees and tops of feet were getting skinned up from the gravel bottom (talk about pool toe!). He was a little more content in the deeper waters.

cooling his jets for a minute

When we got out of the water, I dried him off and put him back in his non swim diaper and shorts which was a major challenge. Diapering has become a battle (you’d think it was baby torture) as it is since he started crawling, but now that he was so near his beloved water? Oh my. I finally strapped him back into the stroller to go home and he was a pouty pants about it. He usually is pretty easy going about being strapped in and going places with me. Not that day!!

staring longingly at the water

He drowned his sorrows in his sippy cup full of cool water. He drank the whole thing on the way back to the car (I’ve struggled to get him to take more than 1-2 good sips per day!).

depressed about leaving the pool

I suspect the Greenlake wading pool will become a summer stop off for the Lpod. So much fun!

Friday Flowers: The Dahlias Are Here!!

My first bunch of dahlias have bloomed. Here are some pink ones for this fine Friday.

semi dinnerplate pink dahlias from my 'cutting garden'

Nine Months

My little buddy turned 9 months old on July 1. It’s so hard to believe. Call me cliché, but whoa. WHERE does time go?

why do we do this every month mom?

He’s just turned into a big kid. Who loves to sit in his big kid chair. He pushes back on it to see if it rocks for him.

don't you know i have skills to master?

But mostly, he poses for pictures. It’s pretty funny that he’s so agreeable to pictures.

seriously? did you see me crawl into the hallway today??

The click of the camera (over and over and over again) had him dancing at one point. He LOVES to dance. Sometimes, I think the music plays in his head as he just shakes it like no other. He rolls his whole body and sometimes throws his head into it. It’s pure awesome.

how about when i pulled up on the coffee table?

He also loves to give kisses. BIG kisses. He’s been kinda smooching all along, but this is the real deal. He makes the noises that go with it. And beware, you will get soaked. But it’s the best soaking ever. If I never have makeup on the right side of my face again, so be it. I will never refuse a Carter kiss.

and pulled 2 weeks worth of mail off?

He’s crawling like a maniac. He started crawling a bit in Texas, but it really picked up when he got home. Now when he cruises around a corner or leaves a room he starts laughing uncontrollably. I think I’m in trouble. This boy likes having independence and freedom (takes after his mama?). 😦

and tried to eat it! yummy mail.

I’ve been trying to teach him some sign language for very basic communication since 6 months. He usually just laughs at me when I say “all done” while shaking my hands at him. Just the other day instead of laughing at me he just said “all done.” Just like that. Then the next day? Unprompted. “All done!” Whoa. Slow down, kid!

are you telling everyone about how cute i am?

His other favorite words are:
ersh
dadadadadada
bababababababa
ahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

i can make some faces

His last favorite words are actually done in a song. He’ll just sing to you all day if you sing with him. It’s the sweetest sound ever.

and ham it up with my teeth

His favorite thing to do these days is make a big goofy grin at you. Teeth and all. When he does this he breathes quickly in and out of his nose. He thinks he is hilarious when he does this. If he’s sitting on the floor he kicks his feet in and out while doing this mess of activity.

or i can be serious and scare everyone

He is also pulling up on everything. I mean everything. I am so behind the curve on babyproofing my house. He’s pulled a tall speaker down on himself, slipped while pulling up on the rocking chair, and just face planted (wearing jammies on the hardwood floors while crawling) into the tv cabinet. Oops. Mom of the year nomination #5. He survived. And I’m working on figuring out what will be next on his list of destroying/hurting him before he knows it.

wait, we're in the playroom. why pictures again?

But we’ve made a lot more progress on  his playroom downstairs. Hopefully, he’ll just hang down there more often.

are you kidding me?

He’s eating mostly big boy food. I still need to do a lot of purees as he needs the calories (yep, you heard it). But his favorite foods are:
blueberries, broccoli, pasta with olive oil, filet mignon (oh my, what have I done?), salmon, and if I let him have it: cheese.

do you see this earth i need to travel?

He is a terrible sleeper. Just terrible. We had a brief period where he slept 13 hours a night. Even if he skipped naps, 13 hours, no questions asked. For the last 2 months or so, he’s been waking AT LEAST by 4am. Mostly though, 3-4 times a night. Needless to say, this mama is purely exhausted. We’re working on it with his pediatrician and trying to figure out why, but we think he is hungry.

i gotta go, mom. two more seconds

Yeah. HUNGRY. My chunky monkey has actually lost weight in the last couple of months and gained a total of less than a pound since his 6 month appointment.

that's it

He’s still apparently 29″ long, 20lb 8.5oz and his head is 47cm round. Our little blockhead.

i said two more seconds

Regardless of his waking and poor napping, this is one happy kid. He’s thriving and happy. He laughs ALL the time. Most days when we’re driving in the car, it will be completely silent and then I’ll hear this giant outburst from him. He’s just laughing away. He does this at home all the time too. He has an amazingly sweet personality and loves people.

i'm outta here

We’re the luckiest parents ever. Love you, sweet CJ.