Hello all! We’re back after a fun and busy 2 weeks down in Humboldt county. Since our trip was packed with lots of different things I’ll take a few blogs to share some pictures of our time…. starting off of course with the family. So good to be with all of Andrew’s family again and spend time with them.

Lots of yummy dinners and fun BBQ’s…

The six siblings together again-

Sushi dinner for Rachel
(the youngest sis) at the Ritz- so good!

I couldn’t get Jude to eat some of my yam
and avocado rolls but he did like the rice!:)

Blueberries from the Fouche garden…

…and a much overdue trip to the ocean.

Jude checks out the waves…

Andrew tries to throw me in!

These pictures are just a highlight of our time with all the family. We are very grateful to have had some quality time with them- we miss them all very much and hope they know how much fun we had with all of them!:)

…of Jude’s favorite new food- a ‘moomie’, otherwise known as a smoothie!

In our smoothie today we had frozen banana, strawberry, watermelon
(cut into chunks and frozen), yogurt, a little water, & a touch of honey.
*So yummy*

I’m getting these pictures on here while my laundry is running and Jude’s napping- I have 2 1/2 days to get us unpacked and packed up again for California! We are so excited for our trip down to Eureka- seeing family and friends, 2 weddings, one of which Mr. Andrew Fouche will officiate, as well as speaking (Andrew) at a 8th and 9th grade camp. It will be fun and busy! I won’t be writing again for a couple weeks so I’ll leave you with some pics of our Whidbey Island trip!

The beach house we stayed in

Lots of yummy food

Light house

World war 1 guns at one of the old forts on the island

Jude and Grandpa playing at the beach

Jude LOVED playing in the sand and
in a little creek running into the ocean

With Gramma in a cute little hat

Andrew gets friendly with the locals

Jess gets really friendly with the locals!

Lavender everywhere on the island

The fooshes at the ocean

We just got back today from our lovely 5th Anniversary trip! We stopped off at Erika and Audrey’s (Mike too:) for one night, then Jude went to my parents and Andrew and I had our first day/night alone since the little guy was born… bliss. I’d like to say we slept in really late but at 5 am the sun was so bright through our beach house window that it was like someone was shining a flashlight in on us! Nothing a little coffee couldn’t fix. We had a wonderful time eating yummy food, exploring Whidby Island, and just being together celebrating our first 5 wonderful years of marriage. My parents came to stay the next night with Jude and we all explored the island some more and played at the beach. And of course ate more yummy food.
Such a great trip, pictures coming soon…

18 months old!

A bowl full of cold ripe cherries.

We had a relaxing 4th of July yesterday- hanging out in the sun and grilling up steak served with potato salad and fresh cherries. We went to a local concert at the park in town, followed by fire works over the lake that were really hard to see- next year we’ll be right down on the lake. We put Jude to bed (hours past his bed time- he was totally wired from staying up late and talking to everyone he could make eye contact with at the park!) and then made popcorn and smore’s in our fire pit out back under the stars.

Quick and easy- I painted plain wooden frames green, added some already painted wooden jungle animals (my mom found the frames and animals at Michael’s craft store), and stuck on a few letter stickers from the dollar store for Jude’s future jungle room. The picture is slightly blurry but you get the idea!:)

Here’s the crisp recipe we used last week with fresh fruit from the roadside stand near our house. We used about a 1/2 to 1 cup less sugar, and added about 1/4 cup less butter. I’ll put the original recipe here and you can play around with it to make it how you like it.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Mix in a large bowl:
1 cup white sugar
3 Tbs flour
3 cups sliced strawberries
3 cups diced rhubarb
Toss together and place in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

Combine the following until crumbly:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup rolled oats
Crumble over the fruit mixture in the baking dish.

Bake about 45 minutes in an oven preheated to 375 degrees,
until crisp and lightly browned. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream- YUM!