get your motor running....

Training wheels have officially been removed and we now have a speed demon on our hands. Well not really since Ethan has not quite figured out how to stop and start yet but he was able to ride around the track by himself which is AWESOME.

And I have to say that learning on a track was so much easier than learning on the concrete. Plus, everyone that is running and walking around the track cheers you on as well.

Thursday thoughts...

"That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be twelve years old." -Walt Disney

It rained buckets the last few days and I found this little guy out near our front door.

farewell summer...

Well, I'm not ready to give up on summer quite yet. I know that there are some sunny warm days still ahead but school starts next week (eek). We have been savoring the last few weekends to do as much as we can to soak this summer up.

cheapest cat toy ever...

What do you do with a cardboard box from Costco? Absolutely nothing if you live at my house. Just leave it out in the open and within a few minutes I guarantee that your cats will be all over it. As you can see from the picture I captured that there was an issue with both not fitting into it but luckily they compromised and shared.

Did you know it was black cat appreciation day on Saturday? I did not either until we went to a local farmers market that had the humane society adoption truck there that was full of black kittens. Luckily we already have two black cats otherwise I think that I would have tried to take them all home.

capturing summer moments...

After our hectic weekend last week today has been a pretty mellow sort of day. Even though the weather wasn't perfect we enjoyed what summer has to offer - farmers markets and blackberries.

what to do with a bunch of roma tomatoes...

Typically I am the type of person that is drawn to convenience and always bought the canned marinara sauce that is on sale that week which my son typically hates. This past weekend I swung by our local veggie and fruit stand to check out what they had to offer and picked up a bunch of fruits and veggies, including a bunch of Roma tomatoes. I am trying to eat a little better (aren't we all) and finally figured out that yes, I do feel better when I don't eat a bunch of junk food. ;)

I took out the ingredients I thought I would need since I didn't really have a recipe available and most included sugar which I am trying to avoid so I kind of winged this one and it is actually one of the best marinara sauces that I think I have had if I do say so myself and this again, was totally by mistake.

Here's what I did...

let's go on a hike up in the mountains...

I meant to post this quite a while ago but unfortunately during our road trip my camera broke and I lost a bunch of pictures from this adventure. Thankfully I had downloaded a few of the photos before this happened. :(

Ethan, my dad, and I were able to head up to Mt. Baker near Bellingham, WA to go and explore since the snow was pretty melted by this point. We picked the perfect day to head up and take in some sunshine, play in the snow which I could not keep Ethan out of, and explore the great beauty of nature.

We are going to sign Ethan up for the ski bus this year so we should be back to pay Mt. Baker a visit in the winter.