Soulstice Celebration 2010

Summer is my favorite season and so last year we started the tradition of celebrating the Summer Solstice by inviting those we love most to a celebration in our beautiful back yard. How can you go wrong with a roaring campfire, dripping watermelon, loaded squirt guns, a fabulous tire swing and loads of monster sized marshmallows? Mother Nature even blessed us  with warm, sunny weather… it seems the entire day was cloudy and cold just a few miles south of Bellingham! 

JoshQ warming up the strings in my bathroom.

Just how many kids can you fit in a hammock anyway?

 

Apparently beer dipped chips are the best!

 

Even the adults get in on the tire swing action! Go Tyler!

Brown eyed girl! Hannah loves having her picture taken : ) 

Parker waited all day to tell me he loves me. I love you too, Parks!

 

Austin and the cool new dump truck Dad gave him for his birthday! 

Rory posted up next to the plate of chocolate covered cherries : 0

 

Got s’mores?

 

Time to sing Happy Birthday to Austin, who requested brownies instead of cupcakes. He  was feeling a little shy so big brother Connor handled the blowing out of the candle : )

Gabe tries a radish for the first time!

 

JB always takes that exit!

 

My goofball boyfriend : )

Love these girls!

And these girls too!

The resident 14 year old punk ass.

 

…still posted up at the cherry plate!

 

Smiling people everywhere!

Everly scavenged the recycle bin for left over root beer!

 

We ended the night with the delightful voice of JoshQ… and a good time was had by all…

Ma’s Tulip Tree

We are blessed to have a lot of beautiful trees in our yard, but the most special one to me is the tulip tree  that Ma planted on the property several years ago.  My landlord Gary tells me that Ma was pretty sad to learn that tulip trees take up to fifty years to bloom. Knowing she would never see its flowers,  her family gave her the beautiful magnolia tree that stands outside my bedroom window.  Above you can see Ma with the tulip tree in its early days, standing about 8 feet tall… below you can see that it’s become the largest tree in the yard! Last week we realized the tree was blooming again when Chris found one of its buds laying on the ground below it! I was so happy to actually be able to see one of the flowers as they boom so  high up in the tree that they are hard to see!

Last summer my girlfriend Leah and I decided that my yard was sorely in need of a tire swing. What better way to honor Ma than to put a swing in her tree? Fortunately the tree had a nice sturdy branch in the perfect place for a swing… unfortunately there were a couple of smaller branches blocking it. I’m generally a DIY kind of girl, but climbing that far into a tree didn’t sound like a good idea for someone as clumsy as me : ) So, I decided to find someone willing to trade a photo shoot for helping me solve this problem. James Rowe of Earth First Lawn Care came to my rescue and now every kid who comes to visit heads straight to the tire swing upon arrival : )