Silverwood!

I went to Silverwood with my sister, her boyfriend (Phil) and Kamron last weekend to be a Nanny. It was a blast! I can't wait to go again and actually enjoy some rides and the water park.

This is Poliwog Park inside Boulder Beach, a place for kids to splash around. There are a few really small slides, the water is very shallow (a foot or so deep) and that big bucket on top fills with water, then dumps over the whole thing!

I haven't been to Silverwood in years and now I'm thinking that I need to go back every year. Next time with Mike for sure! He hasn't been yet, but I'm thinking this is the year. I missed the train ride this time and that has always been one of my favorite attractions. Apparently, they have added real live bison or buffalo to the train ride. They also have a little "hillbilly skit" in the woods and you get to ride around the whole park while the conductor gives a history of the park. Silverwood also has a "ice rink" where they have live shows, there is (I think) a magician or some sort of act at the Pizza place. There are carnival games, and a carousel too.

Kamron's and my first stop was at "Tinywood". There are rides here for the little ones. I didn't get a picture of the roller coaster, but Kamron loved it. It's just a simple oval with a slight slope on one side. There is also a fort to climb around it as demonstrated here by Kamron...
Below the fort. What kid doesn't love these springy rides...

Kid friendly ferris wheel. Kamron was so cute, he asked the operator..."does this go fast?" He was very worried as this was the first ride he had to go on alone... He cracked me up when he would smile for the camera all the way around, but when he got to the bottom, close to the operator, he would go back to serious face, then back to smiling after passing the operator.

A little pilot!
After Tinywood, we did the bumper boats! I forgot to get a picture. Oh, what a blast! We were soaked when we were done. Even if you don't want to go to "Boulder Beach", there are several rides to get wet on. There are the bumper boats (with water squirters), the log ride (for 4 people) that goes up a roller coaster track then comes splashing down, and "Thunder Canyon" a raft ride for up to 8 people taht goes through some rapids and a cave... Kamron and I were going to ride "Thunder Canyon", but he had to go potty, so we had to get out of line, then it was time for food and rehydrating, both inside and outside.

BOULDER BEACH

Kamron bobbing around in the wave pool. This kid has no fears. He bobbed around in here for quite a while all by himself...
a picture of the whole wave pool... The waves come on and off at maybe 10 minute intervals, so there is time to relax and float around.
Sachi, Phil and Kamron waiting for tubes so they could float the "lazy river". One day I will ride this and stop at the swim-up bar. Oooh, what a way to spend a day...

The water slides!

I don't know these people. I tried to get a picture of Sachi, Phil and Kamron coming down, but I missed the approach. This looks like a blast!
Kamron going down the big slide. After two runs, they told him he was too short (by half a stupid inch) and couldn't ride it any more. He was devastated and started crying. He wanted to leave right then, but he snapped out after finding "polliwog park" and the "wave pool"

This slide has 8-person tubes!

Tubeless slides. These are the fast ones. Also the one Kamron was too short for...
More tube slides for one -three people

The Roller Coasters

Snapped these pictures of the roller coasters from across the street in the parking lot. The tall one is one of those things where it pulls you to the top and drops you...

Those two towers are part of the new roller coaster "after shock" where the track is above you and you are in a car dangling from it.


Like this! This was taken at a vertical part. Not sure if I could do this one. Sachi said she probably would do it again, but Phil LOVED it!

The Garden Grows 4

Goodness! I am so far behind on my posts. I have been cheating and creating a post on a day that I have something to post about, so that when I get to posting, it will show as posted on the day it happened. Trouble is, I haven't gotten around to posting those pictures and I want you to see what the garden looks like now, not two weeks ago....

So here are a few pictures of how great the garden is doing. I am SOOOO proud of our garden. This is our first year having our OWN garden and we're learning a lot of lessons as we go. For instance, next year, we won't plant a whole packet of lettuce seeds in a 3x4 area. The lettuce grew like crazy, and we've been eating a lot of salads as well as giving lettuce away, but it was just getting too crowded. The other evening, I dug up about half of the lettuce and thinned out the rest. This weekend I will plant a new crop and this time I will thin it when it is 2 inches tall as the instructions point out. We also cut down a lot of other plants so that they will have more room to grow. We will still have PLENTY of veggies, but I feel bad killing perfectly good plants. We cut down about 6 corn stalks, 9 bean plants, 12 basil plants, and pulled up one bunch of carrots to transplant into rows for, hopefully, better growing. The carrots we planted ended up being in 2 giant clusters from the peat pellets and peat pots we started them in. Next year, the carrots will all be planted in rows, and started 1 seed per peat pot...

The corn and Japanese cucumbers are doing great! We have 2 eggplants growing that will be ready to pick soon! See picture further down...

The (american) cucumber plant is huge and has a bunch of baby cucumbers growing.

Tiny baby cucumbers!

Broccoli! All 4 plants have a baby broccoli. Will each plant only get one head? I have no idea. This is the first time we've grown it...

We picked one cherry tomato last weekend. I cut it in half and we each had half on our salad. Very tasty and fresh! We have several more cherry tomatoes growing and a few romas too. I forgot to snap a picture of the romas.

The gorgeous Japanese eggplant. There is one more about this same size, I'd say these are about 4 inchces long right now. I'm not sure how we'll eat these. Maybe a tempura, maybe pickled. I need to read up on some ways to prepare them...

The garden grows 3

The garden is coming along so nicely! I get so excited when I see the area getting greener and greener as the space fills up. Everything is doing really well, and we don't have any pests to speak of!

The flowers are all doing really well too. I'm surprised since the dirt in around the flowers is eroding away through the rocks every time we water. So I've been trying to lightly sprinkle the water over them from high up to minimize the water impact. It seems to be working. Next year (or maybe later this summer), I'd like to do something to keep the dirt from eroding through the rocks. I'd also like to get some mulch for around the flowers, bark or rock chips...

But before we get to that, we need to finish the sprinklers. We got a GREAT start on them this weekend. My dad and Phil came over and we got the first (main grass area) zone done and started the side grass zone on Saturday. After we finish that, hopefully next weekend, we can get the grass started and edge out some flower beds! I am so excited to finally have the back yard looking like a back yard. It is so hot and dusty back there now. I CAN'T WAIT to have grass!

Corn and Japanese "Ichiban" eggplant

Tomatoes. Still just one roma growing. There are many, many flowers though, so I'm expecting more tomatoes any time....

The lettuce keeps growing and growing and growing.... And it's so tasty. We've been eating a LOT of salads. I still think I may need to pull up half of it and start a new crop (spaced better) before this gets too out of hand.

Green beans. Doing pretty well. There are a lot of new leaves growing. No flowers yet.

Green beans closer up....

Left to right: carrots, basil from seed, bell peppers, basil from starter plants... The basil is doing incredibly! We have been picking it and putting it in a lot of salads and I added it to a homemade salad dressing. So yummy. It did start flowering, :( so we had to "pinch off" many of the tops of the plants, but that should keep them growing leaves for a lot longer. At least while we wait for our seed basil to get bigger.

The broccoli seems well. It's getting very big. I have no idea how long until we actually have "broccoli", but the leaves are getting massive.

The cucumber plants we got from Mike's work are getting big. I'm worried that the cucumbers, zucchini and squash are WAY too close to each other....

Butternut squash. I hope this grows well. I would love to make some butternut squash ravioli or soup.

My sad zucchini plant. We started this from seed in March. It's green and has a flower or two, but the stem looks dead. I don't get it at all....

I can't believe that my seed lavender is growing. It growing very slowly, but I think it's going to make it. I LOVE lavender. I put a few of my larger plants out front in 16" pots and put lighting in them. I'll put pictures up next week.

The flowers:

Don't remember what these are called, but they're the ones that I posted last week that had a few buds on them.... They bloomed beautifully!

The blue camanula. Still blooming. I love this one!

Cactus thing with tiny flowers. I had no idea it was going to get flowers. So cute!

My "lotus blossom" is still growing babies.

Not sure what this is doing, but I like it!

Summer is here...

We know summer has arrived in the Inland Northwest when we get the first big thunder/lightning storm...

I took this video on Friday night from our back deck.

10,000,000 Strong For Giving Cancer The Bird

10,000,000 Strong For Giving Cancer The Bird

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I'll Miss This Kitty

Sachi and Phil got back from their vacation on Wednesday night. Or technically Thursday morning (they were delayed getting in until after midnight). Mike was awesome and went to pick them up for me since I was already exhausted from driving to Missoula and back plus working a full shift, and he didn't have to work in the morning. The kitty was sleepin with me, and hesitated to come out when Phil called for her. Mike had to shake the food container. She wanted to stay and sleep with me, I just know it. She was so sweet and I love having her around. She was a biter, but I haven't know a kitty that wasn't. I'm sure she was just teething and will grow out of it.


When I came home from work yesterday, I called out "where's the kitty?" (more or less as a joke since I knew she wasn't there), and I burst into tears because it made me sad she wouldn't be there anymore. I'm going to look for a kitty today. We really need one. It was nice having something to cuddle with that would follow us around the house.

I'm super excited to get sprinklers in this weekend and *hopefully* grass. It looks like it may rain though. Yikes....

The Garden Grows 2

I was at Target yesterday to pick up a prescription, but the Pharmacy was closed for lunch. I had about 20 minutes to kill, so I wandered back to the "seasonal" section where they have the garden and outdoorsy stuff. There, I stumbled across a garden fertilizer that looked EXTREMELY interesting. The brand is "Terracycle" and the fertilizer is all natural and contains worm castings. Mike and I needed to get fertilizer for the garden anyways, and I knew it would be a while before I got to the Nursery in town that we usually like to buy from, so I bought this stuff. A gallon container only cost $8.99. A steal for an all natural fertilizer. We fertilized the entire garden with half of the gallon and it should feed for 3 months. I went online to check out this company, and I LOVE them!! All their packaging is from re-used (not recycled) products. This fertilizer came in a USED gallon milk jug, the liquid fertilizer comes in a USED 20 oz. soda bottle that has been fitted with a spray nozzle, which is really cool. Each bottle is different, you can tell which was a Coke bottle, which was a Dasani... On their website, you can sign up to collect used candy wrappers, drink pouches, yogurt containers, corks, etc., etc. I can't say enough good things about them. Check out the website and watch the youtube video below... I think you'll agree, they are AWESOME!

This week's stand-outs in the garden:

The lettuce is growing like CRAZY! I'll never have to pay for a bag of lettuce during the summer again. This is great! The top right is the starter lettuce, the rest is from seed... just 4 weeks along...

I've begun haresting the leaves of the starter lettuce this week. Mike and I both had a salad on Friday night with homemade meatloaf, and tonight I had a HUGE salad alone for dinner. It was so tasty and fresh. I can't wait to use it in tacos, or tuna salad wrapped in a giant garden fresh lettuce leaf...

The basil plants we got from Mike's work are growing so fast. I harvested some the other day for a tasty pasta salad with balsamic vinaigrette and it already grew back to where I could pick more rihgt now if I wanted... Basil is by far my FAVORITE herb. Mike grew some in a hydroponic container at the apartment and we used it in everything. I'm hoping to dry some to use this winter.

Progress

I spent a lot of time working on the backyard this weekend. I had planned on digging the trenches for the sprinkler system, but instead got things "leveled out". I had big piles of dirt at the edges of the "wall" I dug out, so I spent a few hours yesterday moving the dirt with a shovel and raking it out. Now the upper part of the back yard is pretty level. And as close to level as it will probably get. At least now, we won't be mowing on a huge slope. Today, I shoveled and raked a little more and cut the stairs cleaner. After Mike got off work, we went to Walmart and bought 10 retaining wall stones to edge and define the top step. It's a baby step toward getting that wall and stairs done. I mostly wanted to see what the stones would look like.

Yesterday, I bought most of the sprinkler supplies and my dad is coming to help out next weekend. I can't wait to have the sprinklers done and the grass started. I want the grass to be established before Janna, her kids, and Sophia come up here in July. They need some space to run and play. Plus it's just hot and dirty out there now. The grass will keep it cooler and prevent dirt from getting tracked into the house.

I lent my camera to Sachi to take to Vegas and San Diego, so these pictures were all taken with my phone....

The new stones marking the top step. I'll have to pull at least a few of these out to dig the sprinkler trench through, and probably to level them more...

View from below...

and above...

Cat sitting

We must buy a kitty!

We are kitty sitting my sisters cat, Sylvia, while Sachi, Kamron and her boyfriend, Phil are in Vegas and San Diego with my parents. I volunteered to cat sit at our house, so the kitty wouldn't be lonely... It also gives us a chance to see if our house is big enough for a kitty and if we have a decent space for the litter box. Turns out, yes and yes... I took a door off of the cabinet in the main bathroom and put her litter box there. So far, there is no odor and I think she likes the privacy there. She also runs around like crazy, loves hanging out by Mike's computer, is VERY curious about the toilets, and makes the CUTEST little whimper noises when she sleeps. She's a licker and a nibbler, but I think its cute. So... one of these days when we have the money, and the back yard is more done, we're getting a kitty!

Mike even loves her. The first night here, my sister warned us to keep our door closed because she likes to climb all over them when they're asleep. Mike was busy cuddling with her while he was lying in bed and didn't want to put her out, so she slept with us, between our pillows. Mike is crazy about her, and it's making me feel more like he is ready for a (human) baby... But first, I gotta get this yard work taken care of. No way I can do it while being pregnant.

Getting into trouble... I think she knows more about the computer than I do. She steps on it, and all kinds of crazy things pop up...

Akward position for sleeping on Mikey's lap...

Sleeping in my lap...