Life on the farm has begun!

Fun in the moving truck!

Sela and Nina made zucchini chocolate chip cookies with the zucchini they picked.

Nina playing in the grapes.

Where's Sela?

The kids love this little maple tree right outside the front door.















What a crazy couple of weeks we've had. I feel like I've been saying that all summer, but the pace is finally slowing way down. Moving with little kids is no small feat, but thankfully, we have the bulk of it behind us. Zig rented a big truck and the kids were very excited to ride in front way up high. We met our first neighbor, Dana, when Zig backed the truck into her fence. Minor damage and instant get to know your neighbor moment :) We are fortunate though, we have some very nice neighbors. Many of the neighbors have stopped by. Some even brought us cookies. There are several little girls Sela and Nina's age very close by.

We got the keys to the new house last monday and moved a huge truck of stuff over on Wednesday. Our first night here was Thursday. We just listed our other house so we had to leave most of our furniture there for awhile. At least the cleaning and packing of little stuff is DONE! And best of all, we don't have to live there while it is shown. Super hard to keep a house with three kids perfectly clean every second of the day. The vacuuming alone in that house (which has to be done everytime we show it) is enough to make me want to camp outside rather than live there any longer. We don't even need our big vaccuum at this new house. We can get the job done with our tiny little glorified dust buster adn the girls can do it.

Now that we are here, the kids are just in heaven. I have felt no desire to leave home and it just feels so peaceful. Zig is like a little kid in a candy shop. He is beyond happy to be living here and he keeps coming home early and during the day. He seemed to even enjoy mowing the yard with Rollin last Saturday. It took him about 3 hours and Rollin fell asleep in his lap. The thought that went into this home and especially the yard/landscaping is something we really appreciate and are noticing more each day we live here. I am loving the simplicity of the floorplan and the one level. Everthing is smaller than our other house, the house lives so much better.

Right now there are Asian Pears and another variety of pears, apples, italian plums, white raspberries, grapes, blackberries, and tomatoes that are ripe. Well, the grapes are almost ripe and there are at least a hundred bunches hanging from the vines.

One outing we did take this week was to a farm a couple miles from here. Last year we picked apples there, but this year we went earlier and to my surprise, there was u-pick everything. We came home with five varieties of carrots...purple, red, yellow, white and regular orange. Sela picked rainbow chard, lettuce, huge heirloom tomatoes. Nina was excited to discover the beets all by herself. We also picked honeycrisp apples, galas and one other variety I hadn't heard of. We were all filthy but it was really fun. Rollin of course had a diahrrea episode because he eats things that aren't ripe and goes overboard on blackberries. He was eating carrots that the girls pulled straight from the dirt. And to try and stop him is impossible. His immune system must be quite strong. That little guy is quite I wonder, I tell ya!

The Treehouse Adventure

Well, we expected complete chaos, and our little darlings delivered! Darcie and I went to the treehouse resort in southern Oregon with all six little ones and we were both so exhausted today when we finally made it home. How we would have loved to drop the kids off with Geoff and Zig, hop right back in the car and keep on driving! But alas, there is no rest for the weary. It was quite an adventure and I think Darcie and I are bonded for life, kind of in the way people who have endured some sort of trauma together bond :)

Actually, it was quite a fun few days and a totally new experience. Sela and Nina are already planning to go back. I loved the atmosphere, and it was a child's dream. Treehouses everywhere, bridges in the air, berries to be picked, horses, and lots of delightful children to play with. The kids will have great memories of hours of carefree running around and exploring. There were about 14 treehouses of varying sizes and heights. We were in the largest one and it wasn't too high in the trees. We had a big deck with a view of the spring fed pool which was nice. Under our treehouse was a rope swing and hammock. The girls and Rollin spent most of their time running around , playing on the various rope swings, petting the horses, and meeting friends. The pool was wonderful and though the girls thought it was too cold to get entirely in, they played around it a lot and took little dips. There was so much access to the horses all over the place so Sela was in heaven. She was able to go on a trail ride on her own big horse which was so exciting for her. They trotted and went across a stream and spent time on trails in a national forest that bordered the property.

There was plenty of drama with five girls and Rollin did his part to make sure I never ever sat still. Between trying desperately to kill himself climbing up the ladder to the loft, pouring gasoline all over his legs, and climbing up dangerous stairs to the bridges up in the trees, he completely wore me out. He is such a little sweetie and so good natured, but he has no fear and is totally determined to do EVERYTHING he sees the older kids do.

Our drive down was almost perfect...we left early and the kids were happy and excited and content. Thank goodness for the DVD player. Coming home was another story. I can't revisit it yet. But we definitely had an adventure and I'm glad we did it. We haven't been on many road trips with the kids, so maybe I'm a big wimp but it was a long day coming home. I would love to go back in the future. I think having our husbands with us would have made it so much easier for me and Darcie. We laughed a lot together when alone we might have cried. Ahhh, life with small children. I wouldn't trade it but I can't say I wasn't a wee bit envious of the women with children a few years older lounging at the pool without a care in the world.

I tried to figure out how to post a slideshow and somehow it posted twice...I cannot figure out how to delete one. So any of you (all two of you who read this) who know how to get rid of the slideshow, please advise.

Five Minute Post (quick update)

I don't have much time to post because the last two weeks have been crazy. We have been busy, busy, busy getting the house ready to list. It is totally exhausting. I signed papers at the escrow company today for the new house but Zig and I couldn't find a time to go together so he will do the same tomorrow. Lucky me, I got to sign with the circus going on in the background. When Rollin wasn't jumping up and down and trying to flip off the swivel chair, he was trying his best to crawl up on the table and scribble on the official documents or push my hands while I tried to sign. Such fun.

John left us on his trek to Washington DC last week and the girls were sad to see him leave. We all were. They mentioned today in the car how they miss three people....sarah, eliza, and john. We are excited for he and Erin as they embark on this new adventure. We're also excited for John's new job which sounds wonderful. I didn't succeed in getting them to move to Seattle, but I have faith the day will come.

The kids have been helping me get ready but we did get out and do a few fun things last week. We went to Dave adn Lisa's along with lots of other friends for dinner on Sunday. Our friends Heidi and Riley were visiting with their kids and we met them in Kirkland so the kids could watch the juggler. Later in the week a big group of us..Davis', Horlachers, Hansens and the kids and I met for Thai food. But other than that, it's been lots of work. The girls both gave talks in primary. Nina gave her first scripture and prayer and Sela wrote and gave her own talk. We practiced a lot and she did great. On Sunday as we were driving home from church, we had Zig pull over and pick some blackberries real quick for a blackberry pie. Blackberries grow wild EVERYWHERE here so he had enough for a pie in about ten minutes.

Sela had an art camp last week completely devoted to drawing horses. She loved it and learned a lot. Her art show was on Friday and we were really surprised at some of her pictures. It was fun to go and see all she had been working on all week. She is now trying to sell them to us.














I went to Lake Chelan this weekend for a bookclub retreat. It was wonderful. I haven't spent much time in the sun and I got a major sunburn on my legs. We are always in the sun but I am never still and just lounging like we did this weekend so the burn was quite a shocker. Luckily I wore sunscreen everywhere else. We just floated around in the lake. Some of the girls rode waverunners and went boating, but I was soooooo happy to lay on my raft and float. We also ate at this amazing little restaurant for breakfast called Blueberry Hill. Oh. My. Gosh. The best coconut creme waffles I have ever tasted. We were all just dying at how yummy everything was. That alone was worth the three hour drive. We had fun crusing in Debbie's baby blue bug with the top down :) The company was great and even though it was a short getaway, it was a blast. The kids and Zig were fine and also had a great time.















Now for the crazy next few days....I made plans for us to go to the Out n' About Treehouse Resort in southern Oregon this week and Zig had meetings come up that he couldn't miss. I cancelled half the reservation but knew I had to take the kids for at least part as they were looking very forward to it. So we traded Zig for Darcie and her three girls! We both know it's crazy....two women and six kids under 7, but we're doing it and we are both totally excited, as are the girls. We expect total chaos and are looking forward to quite the adventure. We're packing the car tonight and I'm picking them up at 4am tomorrow. Whew. That's all for now. Back in a few days....

Breaking in the fire pit

After a long day of hard work yesterday, we took it easy today. We went to church and rested this afternoon. Sela has been dying to build a fire in the fire pit and make s'mores so I got all the supplies last night...... handmade marshmallows,dark chocolate and cinnamon grahams along with nitrate free turkey dogs. John lit up the fire and he and Zig keeping it going for a couple of hours. John had a special technique for everything, roasting the weenie and making s'mores. He is definitely a seasoned campfire boy. Zig even broke his no meat except fish rule and had a hot dog. I had to tell them how pure they are (at least as far as hot dogs go ;) He didn't do the s'more though....he has such restraint. I ate an extra one for him. It's dark chocolate so it can't be all bad, right?!We had sooo much fun sitting out under the stars and all of us felt so happy just watching the fire burn. It was a cool clear night so it was just perfect. We all stink like smoke but the girls were so tired they fell right asleep in their clothes. I had a twinge of "I'm going to miss this house," but I had to replace that thought quickly since we are moving in a couple of weeks. I guess we'll just have to make a fire pit at the new house. Your house always looks the best when you're about to move, that's for sure.

Who knew taking down the safety nets could be so fun!

Saturday was another huge work day as we widdled away at our huge to-do list to get the house ready to list. It is never-ending. I started taking the trampoline down and just getting the net off took a couple of hours. Then the girls wanted me to move the tramp near the rock wall so they could jump off. They must have done this all afternoon. They had so much fun.


Zig transplanted some more ferns and worked on the yard. Our new lawn was put in on Friday and it looks really nice. John did some touch up painting last night and I ran all over looking for a light fixture, a hammock and an umbrella for outside since ours blew off into the woods and snapped on a windy day. Another busy week ahead. I will be so relieved to be done with this.

We found the blueberries!

Our favorite u-pick farm is not doing blueberries this year, so today we tried a different place in Bellevue. It was great, but Nina and Rollin ate so many that Sela and I could barely keep up. Rollin did pick some on his own which was a first and we applauded hugely when he dropped them in the bucket. Then when he wasn't looking, Sela quickly threw them out along with the little rocks that came with them. When we went for our total, it was $2.43 after at least an hour of picking. We probably picked about six pints. We will definitely have to make a couple more trips there since everyone loves blueberries. The girls had a lot of fun pretending to be zebras in the brush trying to make it to the water and though Rollin tried, he could not make it through the thick grass, thankfully. After we picked, we went to a nearby park so the kids could play and have a little picnic.

Captain Bogg and Salty concert in Kirkland

This morning Mom, Moriah, and Erin left. I told mom not to wake me up because I don't like to say goodbye, especially to little Moriah. We have become so accustomed to having her around. She and Rollin are good little buddies. We will miss them tons.

I took the kids to one of the Kirkland waterfront children's concerts this morning, Captain Bogg and Salty (pirates). I had thought it would be too hard to make it to them this year with Rollin, but I decided to give it a try because it was such a nice morning. We came about 45 minutes early, got a very close parking spot and laid our blanket down in front for the concert. Then the kids ate their snacks and fed the ducks before the crowds arrived and the concert began. It worked great and Rollin sat through most of the concert and danced quite a bit, as did the girls. It wasn't stressful and I am excited we gave it a try.