July 4 Memories

As Dave and I shared some favorite 4th of July memories with the girls, we realized the only consistency in our memories was that there wasn't much consistency.  Sure, some things repeat, but where we celebrate and who we celebrate with changes from year to year.  Last year, Dave watched his fireworks show over Chicago...from an airplane!  We've seen fireworks everywhere from the downtown bridges of Grand Rapids, MI to Shaver Lake, CA to the polo fields of Oakbook, IL.  For this 4th, we again embraced some new mixed with some of those standard 4th of July memories from childhood.

   

I remember decorating my bike with red, white and blue streamers and spending hot July 4ths riding around on it in all its patriotic glory.  This 4th, we took the girls to the church parking lot where Ella began her lessons in riding without training wheels.  No video to show you yet of things clicking and Ella taking off...but hopefully soon!  

 Another big part of 4th of July for us has always been the food.  The menu I planned was what I grew up eating each summer-- BBQ chicken, cold cucumber salad, corn on the cob.  I couldn't bear to turn our oven on in the afternoon's 108 degree heat, so we skipped the cake and just dipped our berries in cream for dessert! 

A parade, friends and fireworks make repeated appearances in our childhood 4th of July memories.  We hit all 3 in the evening.  We watched a small neighborhood "non-motorized" parade.  We went to a BBQ dinner at our school and loved being surrounded by a community of people we knew, hopping to three different tables to fellowship.  Then we spread our blankets and waited for dark.  This time may have been my favorite part of our 4th this year-- playing paddle ball and cards, practicing cartwheels in the grass and dancing around with sparklers.

It could be something totally different again next summer-- that's something I'm realizing is pretty cool about the 4th of July.  But, July 4, 2011 was one full of memories.

It's Exhausting Being Disciplined!

I've been tweaking her nap schedule, so this probably explains the behavior that earned Delia a seat in the time-out rocking chair. :)

So Blue

Today Ella is spending the day at Chloe's house, so Delia and I went on a special outing together.  Blueberries are actually the one fruit Ella does not like, but they are one of Delia's favorites, so we went berry picking!  Delia was a great blueberry picking partner and had me laughing all morning with her enthusiasm.

Though we spent over an hour in the fields, we took just over a pound of blueberries home.  Why?  Delia's picking strategy was "put one in my mouth, then put one in my bucket."  Then, when I examined her empty bucket and asked, "Delia where are all your blueberries?" she said, "Oh, I accidentally ate them." (Very Blueberries for Sal!)

Picking blueberries is actually hard work!  There are about 10 different shades of green/red/blue/purple and getting ones that were perfectly sweet and ripe was tricky.  When Delia would find, and sample, a clump of those darkest blue ones, she'd exclaim, "Mom! You gotta try these!"

It's been a while since I've shared a recipe and because I'll be using this one in the next few days, thought I'd pass it along.  For years I searched for an outstanding muffin recipe.  This one, from Jetta, is my new favorite!

Berry Best Blueberry Muffins

1 cup sugar

1 Tbs. soft butter

1 egg

1 cup sour cream

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

dash salt

1 1/2- 2 cups blueberries.

Sift dry ingredients together.  Mix wet ingredients.  Combine.  Fold in blueberries.  Pour into greased or papered muffin pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until tops of muffins are set.  Makes 1 dozen muffins.  (These muffins are best eaten warm and fresh, straight from the oven. When they rest even a day, they get a little mushy.)

Required Fun for Summer

Ever since we returned home from camping last week, Delia has been sick.  Yesterday afternoon she finally perked up and today has been back to her normal self.  Because we've been just laying around and taking it easy, we were more than ready to leave the house for a destination other than the doctor.  We're well into summer, but haven't had time for a trip to the fountain park yet, so off we went!

Though it's been summer for a month and we've already had a whole ton of summer fun, with today's outing, we kept saying, "It feels like summer now!"

Guess Who

Ella's crazy imagination + a sizeable trunk of dress up clothes =

Recognize her?

It's Candy Land's Princess Frostine, of course!

Happy Campers

From these continuous vacation posts, you are probably getting an idea of what our summer calendar looks like.  You are right to assume that we jump from one fun thing to the next with few days in between.  This week, it was our family camping trip to Pinecrest.  Since we soared into triple digits here this week, we couldn't have been happier to drive off into the mountains where it was 30 degrees cooler.

Our campsite this year was huge!  The girls had ample room to run around and one giant log provided hours of pretend play-- circus tight rope, pirate's plank, gymnast's beam. We also attracted some little neighbor campers to our site, so the girls had fun playing with some new buddies.

 

We passed lots of time playing cards, as you are supposed to do when camping.  For this stage of life, it's Crazy 8s, War, Go Fish and Uno.  I can't wait for the day when we can introduce the girls to competitive games of Canasta, Euchre and Phase 10.

I'm actually a super organized packer, but since I've packed up the whole family three times in one month now, I was a little sloppier this time around.  I ended up forgetting all the flashlights and batteries for lanterns.  When the sun set, our fun had to be done...or so we thought.  We found a very entertaining game involving a black tent, a camera flash and some surprise goofy faces.  Here's one I captured from Ella in our no-lights fun!

 The big thing we tackled this year was a hike around the entire lake.  I do mean BIG-- the hike was 4.2 miles, the longest one the girls have ever taken unassisted.  They had their moments, but mostly they were troopers and we are encouraged that longer hikes will continue to be in our family's future!

Ella found a cool walking stick and was inspired to strike some interesting "hiker girl" poses with it!

The sights of the hike made it a pleasurable one.  The terrain was varied, from needle covered forest trails to rock climbing in the sun.  Several times we had to either plan careful steps on rocks, or, like Delia, just plunge our shoes into bubbly streams of snow-melt.  A lovely view of the blue mountain lake went with us the entire hike.

Pinecrest Lake is actually a dammed river.  Our favorite was the footbridge over the roaring river that feeds into the lake.

The hike was also enhanced by hundreds of Swallowtails fluttering around.  We often plan destinations that boast migrating Monarchs, but this week in Pinecrest saw more butterflies than any other intentional butterfly hike we've gone on.  Dave said he felt like he was in a butterfly garden.

After such a long, hot hike, we enjoyed a dip in the cool lake.

Again, I'm serious about the word "cool".  The water was a refreshing 55 degrees.  You can actually see some snow on the rocks behind Ella!  How are kids so resilient when it comes to swimming in cold water?  While Dave and I could hardly stand splashing the numbing water on us, the girls charged right in and played all afternoon!

When it comes to setting up a nice camp (well, except for bringing lights for when it gets dark!) and campfire cooking, I have to say we shine.  Good thing, because when it comes to fishing, we're quite lacking.  For our 3rd try, we still didn't get a single bite!  Oh well, I guess there's always next year!

Train Day

Just as we look forward to our day at the beach, we also love the tradition of Train Day.  This day is spent taking an hour long, open air train ride, through the Redwood forest, down the hills to the Santa Cruz boardwalk.  The girls love the excitement of riding the train with their friends and the sights and smells of the boardwalk, I love the peace of 2 hours of riding (there and back) to just sit and chat, or watch the sun shift through the trees.

I've been saving some news about what made family camp extra special for us this year-- Jeff, Amy, Jonathan, Grace and Benjamin were able to come at the last minute!  Though we got to see them continuously throughout the week, we made sure we spent Train Day with Amy's family.

I was excited for Teri and Amy, two of my best friends, to finally meet.  We enjoyed the company of these two favorite families on this day.

On the boardwalk, things were a little different this year.  Having just done Disneyland, I didn't really want to buy all those tickets for the girls to ride the little boardwalk rides.  We spent our time just strolling around and taking it all in.

The girls used a little Mount Hermon cash Gramma Jean had given them to pick just one ride. They decided to ride the helicopters together and spent the whole time making it jump up and down with the controls and shrieking with laughter.

Mount Hermon did something new this year too in giving us Boardwalk Bucks-- vouchers we could spend on food.  Since this is a special day, we decided to have ice cream for lunch!

Mount Hermon does its best to wear us out!  By this time in the week, I always love the opportunity to just chill on the train and have some quiet time on the ride back up the hill.

Beach Day

As we do every year, the girls and I joined our friends in an afternoon off Mount Hermon property at the Santa Cruz beach.  This trip to the beach is designed to meet up with Dave and the HiCampers, so we enjoy spending some time with him.

What fun we had this year!  I hardly had our blanket and chairs spread out before Delia was buried.

A game of "You can't get me!" was played with the waves, Delia always running the entire stretch of sand to dramatically escape.

And the hunt for sand crabs was on.  We filled the giant bucket with hundreds of them!

Since the sun was sizzling and the girls seemed up for tackling all new things, we actually ventured into the icy ocean for a while.  The girls jumped waves and tried to stay on their feet as the surf came crashing in. 

After we left, Dave was swimming when a seal popped up right next to him!  For our few hours at the beach, though, the sand crabs and pelicans were the only wildlife we spotted.

We love our day in the surf, sand and sun!

Banana Slug Love

Besides the fellowship, another thing I love about Mount Hermon is the cabin we always stay in, which is a complete retreat in the woods.  I've written before about the bubbling brook that flows right beneath it, the sound of which soothes us to sleep each night.  I love looking out our wall of windows and seeing nothing but giant trees.  On the path up to our little cabin in the woods this year, we found the infamous Mount Hermon banana slug every day.

I believe banana slugs are only found in this coastal region of California.  They are fat and can stretch out to several inches long, or squish up into a ball.  They are bright yellow and secrete a substance a lot like rubber cement.  They are fascinating and always a treat to find! 

It is known around Mount Hermon that if you are to spot the special banana slug, the thing to do is kiss it!  Since we were finding so many this week and getting braver about touching and holding them, slime and all, Ella decided this was the year to take the dare! 

Yes, Ella is now a member of Mount Hermon's "I Kissed a Banana Slug Club"!  She thought it was hilarious that she did such a crazy thing and proudly brags about it now.

To remember our year of abundant banana slugs and Ella's oozy lip lock, the girls got some chocolate slug suckers from the bookshop.  Oh, the things you'll do at summer camp!