2013-AUG

Mt. Zion 32 images	Sam messy eating 9 images	Spokane and Grand Coulee 91 images
The Hobbit 7 images

1 Gramma also sent this picture to me - I love it. This is me pushing Ben after dropping Sam off at Kindergarten in Kailua. This particular picture happens to be ON Sam's 6th birthday in 2011. This is what Ben and I did nearly every morning. I miss those days!	2 And here is what I did later that morning, with Mom and Richard's help running to Honolulu for dry ice! We are doing a volcano cake experiment for the kids in Sam's class. They REALLY liked it, and it was fun for us to do. Look how Ben is packed in there? He is nearly 3 here.	3 Just another view from one of my running routes. This is Port Madison.	4 Dahlias in full bloom now!
5 Out on a jog with Sam for the first time! All the way to Bay Hay and back (3 miles). We had a lot of fun, and everyone who went into the coffee shop that morning, we knew! Everyone! It was like the unexpected party in The Hobbit. So funny!	6 These boys polished off some "spare" croissant.	7 Back at home now. He is pretty good looking all sweaty :)	8 Stretching out afterwards.
9 NutriSystem lunch - always a big hit!	10 My cow friend. I moo to this guy when I run by. He mooed back once :)	11 This globe is so much fun. You work against the timer to identify 10 countries (or rivers, states, continents). So great for geography. I have learned a lot!	12 At Bay Hay with Gramma and Richard.
13 Morning garden inspection :)	14	15	16 It's Gramma's birthday! We picked a bouquet from the garden, one flower from each of us.
17	18 Then we took a drive out to Port Gamble for breakfast, and Dungeness Spit for a walk. Such a nice day. These are in Port Gamble.	19	20 As big as your hand!
21	22	23 As big as Ben's head, too!	24
25	26 Nice walk on the beach. It is 5.5 miles long - very narrow spit that is growing at a rate of 12 feet a year. Lighthouse at the end.	27 We didn't get all the way to the end because we wanted to build a fort.	28
29 Ben quickly made a new friend.	30	31 Building a fort with Daddy!	32
33 So strong! Yikes!	34	35	36 One for each of us :)
37	38 The door.	39 Looking into the kitchen.	40
41 All done!	42	43 Big enough for mommy!	44
45 You can see how long the spit is.	46	47	48
49	50 Some time with Sam in his rock quarry, cracking rocks open and examining the minerals.	51 Studying where to do the next crack.	52 "Ohhh! Mom! Look at this!"
53	54	55 Planning the next crack.	56 I had such a nice time with you out there, Sam. Thank you!
57	58 Chickens having such a pleasant time while we work.	59 Plums are ripe!	60 Ben's word wall.
61 Another library-sponsored event - fossil time.	62 Then to Rockaway Beach to see the tide pools because it was low tide. We had one of Sam's friends with us, Axel.	63 Careful, Gramma! Such a trooper.	64 Seattle in the background.
65 And another friend with us - David.	66	67 Big starfish.	68 Big fat jellyfish!
69 Ferry, and way beyond that Mt. Baker.	70	71 Narrow little ledge - erosion on an old pier from the mosquito fleet.	72
73 Pretty fun to climb.	74 Cool, huh? Made me a little nervous crossing it.	75	76
77 Seeing if whipped cream spreads like shaving cream :) Not so much!	78 Seeing if Richard will notice something amiss...	79 Ahhh!	80
81 And still, he kisses her!!!	82 Love this shot!	83 Out on another jog with Sam. Yay!	84 So handsome! Seriously! Getting a reward at Bay Hay again :)
85	86 Hmmm...a Da Yan Zhan Chi in there? Stickerless? Speedsolving cube?	87 Another run snapshot :) Port Madison.	88 Mattress shopping for new bunk beds!
89 Richard built this with Ben - such a nice mentor.	90 Unimog putting corn on the plate.	91 Putting together new bunk beds built by a really nice man out in Port Ludlow. So much fun to know the builder. They are made with Douglas Fir, which is all around us. They're rock solid construction - deck screws and everything.	92 Getting a peek at all the lighting Richard installed. It is GORGEOUS!
93	94	95 We feel like we are living in a resort now.	96
97 Finally, flag is lit up, too.	98 Thanks for getting us some of these, Mom!	99 A little birthday treat for Richard - it was his birthday the day he left :(	100 Cool treehouse we found on a neighbor's property during the studio tour.
101	102 Ben likes the roof :)	103 Great rope net to climb up.	104
105	106 Meeting some neat artisans on the studio tour - this is a beaded snake!	107 All the projects Richard and Gramma have accomplished while here for 6 weeks - and I'm sure this isn't all of them!	108 Mountain biking with my boys :) Always fun!
109 Finishing the summer reading program! 100 hours for Sam and 10 for Ben (learning to read, too!).	110 Sam earned a SHIRT!	111 Picking out an animal to put on the board with his name on it.	112 And Kitsap County Fair tickets!
113	114	115 Hatching plans to beat mom at flag football :)	116 So cute!
117 Love it!	118 A neat visit from a real geologist who works for a consulting company here on the island. He was kind enough to stop by on his way to a wedding reception to check out Sam's big dig. Thank you, Matt!	119 Tools of the trade - geologist hammer, and coffee!	120 This is how you crack rocks open. Use your foot to stabilize it.
121	122 Talking about gacial till, the formation of drumlins, and soil horizons.	123 Glaciers raked down Bainbridge, creating ridges and valleys. We live on top of a ridge, called a "drumlin."	124 Cleaning off our finds before cracking.
125 Now friends are over to play in the fort/test pit.	126 Making knives and other weapons for The Hobbit tomorrow!	127	128 New rock display shelves - velveteen on the bottom, just like the museums, with an LED light on top to make the crystals sparkle.
129 The whole display as you enter the boys' room. The picture on the top is Sam in safety glasses. So funny - I just found out that is what he was thinking when he drew that self-portrait.	130 A close-up now.	131 Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us! And we really appreciate the rock hammer - that is a fantastic tool. The loop really makes the crystals come alive - we love seeing the minerals up close. We will enjoy growing into the Manual of Field Geology, too. Thank you soooo much! That was a lot of fun.	132 Ben and Anna in their "pantry."
133 They found a potato! They promptly hid it in their pantry for a treasure hunt.	134	135 Woke up to this guy in the SHOWER! Hobo? Or large house spider?	136 Ben is learning to tell time from the wide variety of clocks around! Out here, if I say come in for dinner at 5:30, they can tell what time it is while shooting hoops. How cool! Thanks, Richard. Another great feature of that sprinkler timer!
137 Sunflowers are opening up!	138 In the "RV" going to the Rock Ranch :)	139 Out on a hike now and we noticed that Aspect consulting helped build this bridge. Awesome! We know someone there now!	140 Great boardwalk that Aspect helped install. The large stump is really impressive. Such a huge tree that was.
141 Hey Matt, we found a stone that was mauve inside!	142 There it is!	143 Daddy is really into this rock thing now!	144 Another huge stump!
145	146 Checking inside another rock!	147 This is getting a lot of good use!	148 Again? :)
149	150 Wonder what this one is?	151 This is what Ben sees around him all the time. I have a bunch of pictures from our waists down because Ben was photojournalist :)	152
153 Great shot, Ben!	154 Another funny shot :)	155 Nice!	156
157 Now for some rocks we found in our "mine" today. Daddy had some fun cracking things open. Nice to get some POWER down there. We brought him all the ones which had beaten us during the week. Interesting ring in this one.	158 And striations here.	159 More green rocks down there - some olivine perhaps.	160 This is pristine glacial till. It's a bunch of rocks rolled together like a dough. The dirt is very dense and crumbly. This would eventually become a rock with time and pressure.
161 Interesting rock on top was from the trail. Maybe citrine, Sam thinks? Very gold. The bottom is a peridotite from our mine.	162 Closer look at that possible citrine.	163 The peridotite. We are still really excited about this find. Peridotite is from the mantle, so 10s of miles down. Rocks are formed during a huge, long composting process. Some are formed quickly during volcanic eruptions, others undergo the glacial till to rock process much more slowly. These rocks can work themselves up to the crust (where we have a chance of finding them). Eventually they may find their way back down to the mantle as the tectonic plates move over each other. I think I sort of understand. I'm sure I'm vastly oversimplifying and missing a lot. It is so fun to have this world literally opened up under our feet. I am so thankful for curious boys!	164 A quartz with green in it - maybe more olivine or peridotite?
165 A lot of pink in this one.	166 This is the mauve one that I find so interesting.	167 One dahlia is doing ok at least! The planters are still recovering from some kind of chemical assault.	168 Daddy enjoying a ride in the "RV" to the rock ranch now :)
169 Silly Ben!	170 Sam really likes this song at church.	171 School dad in checkers! Ben is pretty good, actually!	172 Harvested some kale - what was left after the chickens marauded it despite my hoops and nets! It was really good baked with goat cheese. That is my baguette behind it. Yummy dinner!
173 Here's the finger food dinner last weekend. Pretty good!	174 They love meat and cheese. More salami, please! :)	175 Picture of the grass that mom worked so hard on to get the moss under control.	176 A sunrise on Sunrise Drive! Out on a jog.
177 Looking toward Seattle.	178 Peaceful way to start the day before the boys are up.	179 We've had fun with friends (neighbors) this summer. Here the dominoes came out for some fun! They are building the Tower of Orthink from The Lord of the Rings.	180 And now for some stick bomb time! This is what is going on behind me while I work! The last three weeks have been VERY busy. I've been working about 20-30 hours on three projects which all came in at once. One of them was writing content for mobile health apps, another was a CME slide set. The last one was some data analysis for the school related to predicting success on a standardized test so we can intervene more proactively to get kids the help they need.
181 Growing the stick bomb. We need more tongue depressors!	182 Ingunn, our other neighbor who is mommy to little Esther, is a HS physics teacher! She really dug right into the stick bomb. She likes stored potential energy! I think that is what boys are, period. Stored potential energy unleashed rather violently sometimes into kinetic energy!	183 SAM! The Seattle Art Museum. We're on our way to an urban dig with a friendly geologist.	184 The play treehouse at REI.
185 In a rock store! We RAN to it so Sam could see it while Daddy waited in the truck at the ferry:)	186 Ooooh...	187 Seattle from the ferry.	188 Making a yummy dinner while daddy travels to his cousin's wedding. This is for strawberry shortcake!
189 And here we are hosting a new student social - these are my helpers delivering freeze pops to the new kids so they feel welcomed and have a few friendly faces to look for this week when they start school.	190 I didn't know Ben could do this! He came up and said, "Mom, watch this!" and went right across!	191 Three Bens! One in fourth, one in third (I think) and one in K!	192 Ben wouldn't stop picking his nose or making funny faces. :)