June 2018. Hallelujah, Summer's here!!

I love, love, LOVE summer.

Not just for the weather, although that's pretty awesome, too. I think I love it more for the sense of freedom .... from the school year timetable and demands. And maybe by August, I'll be ready for a schedule again. But for now -- bring on all the classic summertime fun!!

Which, .... apparently for us, starts out with a little summertime work, as we went out one morning at the beginning of June, [before it got hot] and planted our corn:

Emma asked me if it was worth it, for the corn-on-the-cob later.

Um ..... yes!! Absolutely!!

Interestingly, ... as I write this, the corn is now up, but so are the weeds. Ugh!!

As part of summer, Emma wanted to repeat our "17 Adventures" (Also HERE), from last summer. Hey, I guess it was a hit, right? Of course, she slid right into the trap I was trying to avoid: making into 18 Adventures this year, because it's now 2018. But, since her 18th Adventure on the list is "Advance to 4th Grade" -- I can live with that.

We got started right away, again with the library's Summer Reading Program Kick-Off Day:

We went early, because she also had a birthday party to attend. As a result, she didn't have to wait long for the activities. She did love the giant bubbles. 

We did have to wait outside for a few minutes, for them to open the doors.

She wanted to do the Virtual Reality upstairs ... there was almost no wait for that.

But she chose the same program as she'd done last year. I was kinda hoping she'd do a different one.

Months ago, Shelly (Todd's sister) let us know that this June was Alexus' high school graduation, and she wanted EVERYONE to come. While we couldn't round up the entire family, we did take Emma and make the trip south to Winnemucca, Nevada. We also brought Grandpa and Grandma Huffaker with us, since we were all heading to the same destination and it made it easier for them to not have to drive it.

On the way there, we stopped in a tiny little place in nowhere, Nevada, called, Orovada... it's not even really a town, but it was a needed bathroom break with a convenience store. There we found some fun bottled sodas in flavors that you just don't see everywhere:

Todd and I split that huckleberry one ...

Other flavors we picked up:

The point of the trip was to see this girl walk and get her diploma!

(She looks so much like Shelly!!)

(I had to steal that last shot from a phone screenshot.)

The day we were to leave, we packed up and checked out of our hotel. It was a little odd to pull out onto the street (the main drag, mind you!), and see absolutely NO traffic. Anywhere. In either direction. I mean, it was weird. A little bit eerie.

Then as we drove, we started seeing people lined up on the sidewalks with lawn chairs.
You guessed it! We were right on the route for that day's parade! Whoops!!

It's not a big town, and it was not a big or long parade, so we pulled around a couple of blocks, and then parked at the barricade for the 20 minutes or so that it took for the parade to pass by.

Turns out, that weekend was the annual Basque Festival in Winnemucca!

I was a little late on the video for the dancing, so I only caught the last part:

Who knew, right?!

On the way back home, we broke up the trip by staying overnight in Boise. It gave us an excuse to visit with Alyssa and Andrew, at least for a few hours!

Alyssa treated us to dessert that night from a place called, "Nothing Bundt Cakes".

It was fun to share a few bites from each of the different flavors: White Chocolate Raspberry, Lemon Raspberry, Confetti, and Carrot Cake. They were all very good, and very moist! Yum!!

I'm not prepared to say whether one of those flavors was the inspiration for my own baking adventure, ... but I can say this:
After 2 or 3 fresh batches of jam with this year's raspberries, I wanted to try something different. So here was my first attempt experimenting with a Lemon Raspberry Quick Bread (a recipe I kind of adapted from a different favorite quick bread).

I'm showing you the first attempt, because the second time through was a fail. I'm also not prepared to admit that I may have inadvertently "helped" it fail (read: FALL) as I was trying to hurry it out of the pan so I could finally go to bed! Annnnnd ...... the third time (different recipe) was also a fail. What the what??? There's got to be a good version of this, that tastes nice and lemony, and doesn't fall apart, and doesn't FALL, period, ..... and doesn't stick to the pan with a vengeance and tear the bread apart in efforts to remove it from the pan ......

At any rate, this experiment definitely deserves further investigation, and we've still got some raspberries on, so why not?! Mmmmmmm!!

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We had a warm Friday evening, so Emma and I slept out on the trampoline .... which is all fun, until the birds wake you up at 4:10 in the morning!!

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And finally, this year, we'll be hosting another Duerden Family Reunion at our house!! (I'm super pumped to have my family coming!) We have all the Siblings coming, and any of the next two generations who come will be bonus extras!

First, I do have a surprise activity in mind for my siblings, that I know they will really enjoy. I'm kind of  excited about that one, and ready to burst with that little fun secret!! Shhhh!!!

Anyway, as Todd & I were thinking about the upcoming reunion weekend and also about the LAST Duerden Family Reunion (we took them to visit Dworshak Dam), we wondered if they'd be interested in seeing another dam. So, to that end, and before offering it to the siblings, we decided it would be worth it to revisit the dam, because it's been years since we've been there to see it ourselves.

So one afternoon, we took a dam trip!

This one is lower on the river and it has a lock (the wall-looking part on the left of the photo below) for boats and barges to pass through.

This one also has a fish ladder right there to see:

Plus there's an indoor, underwater-viewing room, so you can watch the fish swimming by. Spoiler: they don't actually jump out of the water up the fish ladder.

(And they're not all salmon, either:)

We timed our visit so we could take one of the dam tours that they offer. They supply you with hardhats -- this is Emma wearing the real thing, not just a kids' flimsy plastic one.

They don't allow photos on the tour. But I can tell you they take you inside the dam, show you a turbine, they take you up on top of the dam, and over to see the spillway. Our guide did not take us over to the lock, and I suspect part of that was because there were 4 seniors on our tour, and the distance to the lock might have been more than they would be able to walk.

Emma lucked out because she was the only kid on our tour, so she got to do things like open gates and push elevator buttons. When we finished the tour, she got a little swag bag with coloring things, stickers, and a compass-key chain.

So, after we finished the tour, we decided to drive across the dam, and take a different route back home. This is the view east from the top of the dam:

And this is a shot of the lock:

So now we just need to have the family decide if they want to go see another dam during this reunion, and if so, plan it out!

We did enjoy our afternoon at the dam, and I think we may have just turned that into one of the EIGHTEEN Adventures!

Party it Up!

 

Apparently, we don't have parties often enough at my house.

 

Because if we DID have parties often enough -- I'm sure we'd be better at it. Practice makes perfect??

 

We did throw a graduation party (well, "open house" -- does it make a difference if you call it something else?? I think not.) ... for Alyssa, a couple of days after graduation. It was actually a good idea to wait, since so many of her friends had graduation parties on the day before or the day of graduation -- and we were hopping, just to get to drop in on all of the parties! So we were pretty glad to do it on a different day!

 

This party maybe wasn't "perfect" -- but in life, what is truly perfect? It did go quite well, and it was so nice to visit with friends for a couple of hours. Here's Alys with her cake:

 

We were still doing some yardwork that very morning -- which was NOT part of the plan, but it did look nice when we were done. You can see the new flowers and bench area in the background here.

 

 

Ok, AND the fire table. AND the food table.

 

There was a flurry of food preparation, also at the last minute. I had baked 3 kinds of bar cookies, plus made some Oreo truffles. Todd was grilling up a storm that afternoon and evening. He had skewered chicken [2 kinds], skewered steak [also 2 kinds], veggie kebabs, and "moink balls". (Moink = moo + oink ---- they are actually bacon-wrapped meatballs.) And there was also chips & dips (using some of our favorite meat rubs) and that cake, and water or cherry limeade to drink. Whew!!

 

It was a LOT of food!! But, judging by how challenging it was to keep the serving platters full, I would say that people seemed to like it.

 

I also did an idea from Pinterest..... the "keys to success" frame and activity:

 

It didn't turn out quite as I'd wanted, but it was one of those things that I ran out of time for, and it is what it is. I don't think any of the guests knew any different. The idea is that each guest writes a little note to the graduate, giving them a piece of advice, or their own "key to success". It was fun to read what people wrote to her!

 

(Some of Alyssa's memorabilia from her school years.)

 

I'll say it again -- we're sure proud of this girl!!

 

 

(I love these lights we found in Spokane. I think I'll just keep them up all summer long!!)

 

 

 

And, in the interest of "keeping it real" .........  at the end of the day, the kitchen becomes a magnet for all kinds of party fall-out!!

 

Good times!!

 

(Uhh.... good times that took me 3 days to completely clean up afterwards!! Ha!!)

 

 



 

 

Graduation {Class of 2013}

Can I just say that once again, I am loving the fact that summer is here and the daily grind of deadlines and appointments and schedules ... has relaxed into something just a little bit more leisurely. And it's only a little, because life is still wild, believe me!

It felt like a wild ride -- a race to Graduation, and the end of the school year. With both the girls in high school, and one of them is a senior: it makes for two different "finals weeks." Plus, all the end-of-the-year events: concerts, practices, luncheon, induction ceremony, [I'm sure I'm forgetting some things] ..... whew!

But we made it. And more importantly, ... SHE made it.

 

It serves as yet another reminder to me that our kids are growing up, right before my eyes. How is it possible that we have three kids now graduated from high school? Where did their childhoods go?

 

Yet -- we're once again so proud of one of our kids. She's pretty amazing. (The gold cords are her National Honor Society cords.)

 

 

 

 

And Darcie played with the band for Graduation -- and without Alyssa. Obviously, she doesn't need Alyssa with her, but usually I see them sitting side-by-side. (Darcie's just to the right of center of the photo - see her red hair?) 

 

 

Receiving her diploma from our friend (who also happens to be on the school board) ...

 

I love her excitement! 

 

 

 

Hey, Alyssa! How do you *really* feel about graduating from high school?? 

And Grandpa came to watch her walk the walk. Grandma would have loved to have come too, she just wasn't feeling well that day.

 

Moving on.... to new life chapters, and new adventures. 

 

Good luck, Alyssa! You are going to be awesome at whatever you put your mind to. Love you, Sys!!

 

Pomp and Circumstance

After weeks (well, ok -- it's been months) of senioritis, Cameron can finally relax. He walked the walk, and has graduated with the Class of 2010!! We are so thrilled for him!!

We did our now-traditional photo of Mom putting on his mortarboard:
At least I didn't injure him in the process. Cameron graduates with his cousin, who is 3 weeks younger than him, but a couple inches taller:

The photo doesn't include their feet. On purpose.

Ok, since it's my blog, I'm putting forth my opinion. Can I just say that today's trend of graduates wearing shorts, flip-flops, grimy tennis shoes, etc. ..... really bothers me. I saw one girl get her diploma barefoot. I feel like it's disrespectful and cheapens the accomplishment. Todd and I discussed it a little, and I'm thinking that rather than put out rules and a commencement dress code, maybe these youths need to just learn a lesson on gratitude for how blessed and fortunate they are. I don't think they realize how bad they look. I feel that they need to see and make the change for themselves. I totally understand kids wanting to be individuals, but that should be expressed a little more conservatively at graduation time.

I am so glad Cameron dressed so nicely for this. This photo was supposed to be our graduate with Mom and Dad, but when we stood up to pose, Emma came over and stood right in front, like she was supposed to be in the picture, too!! Dad took pity on her and picked her up.

His old Scoutmaster is on the school board, and he made sure he was the one to hand Cameron his diploma cover and shake his hand. VERY cool!!

The whole family, minus our Jamaican missionary:

So afterward, we drove to the school for a couple of shots as well. Cameron is pretty excited to be done with high school:

Hey, Cameron, ........ You just graduated from high school! HOW DO YOU FEEL??

That pretty much sums it up!