The Oval Lakes 2011

Day One after the hike.

The campsite.

Casey fishing. Below: Fish on!

Cooking kale from our garden for supper: trout, couscous and kale!

Dayhike to Middle Oval. The wildflowers were out with a vengeance!

Up at the pass. Trail to Tuckaway lake in background.

The view from the pass looking North, back down towards the Twisp River Valley. Canada is in the distance.

Wildflowers!

Supper: Trout (cooked in Larry's special sauce), kale, and rice pilaf.

Birthday girl on the hike out. We spent the night in Leavenworth on the way home.

Crab Feast!

It's crab season! Larry, Liz and Grandpa Jim raked in 26 big beauties one day and we had a magnificent feast at the end of our camping trip!

Cooking them up.

A Weekend in Florence with the Hess Families

In August we went camping with the Dave and Jenni Hess family and the Brian and Sally Hess family, along with various other folks. It was a good time for all, and ended with a visit to the Deck beach house in Florence for a crab feed (see next blog).

The Sweetest Little Flower in the Garden

August, So Far

In an effort to get in shape for our upcoming backpacking trip, we managed to fit in a hike in the Gorge a few weeks ago. We did the loop up to Triple Falls (where we stopped for a picnic) then on to Ponytail Falls and back out to Horsetail Falls. Gretel is a good little backpack rider except that she repeats over and over again "I want to get out Papa"! If we walked at her speed, who knows when we'd get home!

We also had a quick visit from Grandpa Lar, who came to go fishing with Casey. Here we are enjoying a meal in our outdoor dining area.

Oh yeah, and here's our first beet harvest of the year. We pickled most of these but Casey also tried canning for the first time, which was a moderate success! We hope to get another round of beets in the ground for winter/spring harvest soon.

Getting to School (and work)

This sweet ride is how Gretel and her mama have been getting to school (and work) this summer. Although there's still a fair amount of fussing going on with actually getting buckled into the trailer and putting the "hat" on, once we get going, all is good! I'm pretty sure that Gretel actually secretly enjoys the ride.....or perhaps that's just a mother's pipe dream.

Not into the street Gretel!!!!

At the Beach with the TPs!

A speedy Sunday jaunt to the beach with our favorite neighbors the Tappan-Pecks led to much fun in the sand (if not sun). Gretel had a ball playing in her sand "house" and then jumped waves in her birthday suit for a long time. Needless to say, she slept the whole way home!