Summer recap

Well, the last 3 weeks were jam-packed with summer goodness due to our to-do list. We got through all of the kids' items and all of mine except the Ballard Locks. I didn't really try too hard to cram that one into this last week. It's there all year round, so we'll go see it on a weekend sometime.

Riding the bust to Seattle to go up in the Space Needle was very interesting. The fares were very confusing as they are based on time of day, where you get on the bus and age. So I just asked the driver how much our total would be and paid that. We missed our first stop after arriving in seattle and got off the bus when I realized it. That resulted in a half mile walk through the city while aiming us toward the Space Needle that I could see above all the buildings. The kids were pretty excited to be at the Seattle Center, but I could tell when we got there that the carnival rides at the base of the Space Needle were looking way more appealing to them than the Needle itself. But we went up anyway, and they didn't ask me too many times to go back down and ride the rides.

I think my favorite wish-list item was the ferry ride to a sandy beach. We went to Port Townsend last weekend and spent 2 days bumming around the beach, touching animals in the touch tanks at the Marine Science Center, geocaching, swimming in the hotel pool and playing at a park. It was a nice relaxing weekend with the family.

Maybe next year we'll make our list at the beginning of the summer, but then I guess we risk forgetting about it and cramming it all into the last 3 weeks like this year. But either way, I think the kids and I had a fun summer to remember.

3 more weeks of summer

Starting today we have 3 weeks of summer vacation left before the kids have to go back to school. I'm starting to feel the push to cram as much summer goodness as possible into these last 3 weeks. This morning the kids and I made a list of things we wanted to do before the grind of school sneaks up on us. Here is daughter's list.

1. Go to the Space Needle
2. Go to the Woodland Park Zoo -- have to see elephants and flamingos
3. Go to KidsQuest Museum
4. Ride the bus to Seattle
5. Go to a pool (even though we've done this a lot this summer)

Here is son's list:

1. Go to Starbucks
2. Go Hiking
3. Ride Bikes
4. Play in the toy aisle at Target

Here's my list

1. Visit the Ballard Locks
2. Go to the Camlon Fair
3. Ride a Ferry to a sandy beach

I'm thinking that son's list will be super easy and daughters won't be too hard either. Mine's the toughest of the bunch, but we've got a couple of weekends left and may be able to do everything.

On the garden front, I'm getting a ton of beets, lettuce, cukes and zucchini on an almost daily basis. The green beans are growing vines but not producing many beans yet, and the soybeans will probably be ready to pick any day now. I'm seeing quite a few butternut squash growing now and could probably pick a rutabega or 2 when I want them. Pumpkins in the separate pumpkin patch are not doing very well. I only see 2 or 3 very tiny pumpkins in the whole patch. The 4 plants I put in the garden already have 3 fairly good sized pumpkins on them. And the corn is not doign well either. According to my dad I should have put a lot more nitrogen rich fertilizer on them earlier on. They are short and may not produce any ears at all. And the pole beans I planted next to them are growing huge and have started to break the stalks. I think if the corn was healthier the beans wouldn't have hurt them, but they did. Next year I won't plant pole beans around the corn, only bush beans. And Next year I'll put more nitrogen in the soil for them.

The apple tree is dropping some apples. I think the lack of rain this year has made the apples smaller, but they still taste good. I've got a good sized box of them so far and there are a lot more on the tree. Apple Pie here I come!