Posts that are not all about Natalie are few are far between these days, but I finally got around to putting one together. In actuality, we have just finally done enough things that I feel like I have enough for a whole post. :)
Back in May we took our annual morel hunting walk in an undisclosed (and super secret) location in the woods. Heh heh. Jake says that real foragers never tell people the location of their finds. ;) We found some morels in the same location of last year, but it was a little harder to expand our search since I was wearing Natalie in the carrier. It's hard to watch where you're stepping with a baby on your body! This year we decided to bread and fry them (last year we sauteed them with garlic). They were delicious, as usual!
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| Before cooking |
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| After cooking |
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| I hope no one can triangulate our super secret location from this picture. :) |
Another fun activity we did this summer was to visit the university's Nichols Arboretum Peony Garden. It is the largest public collection of historic herbaceous peony cultivars in North America. They have 270 cultivars and the garden can display up to 10,000 blossoms at peak bloom. Last year we missed the peak bloom by a long shot, and this garden was unimpressive and disappointing. This year I think we were there pretty close to the peak bloom, and it was spectacular. I have way too many pictures! Here are some of my favorites.
Last, is our visit to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. I've mentioned our trip out west to visit our families, and I posted the pictures of Natalie, but I didn't post any others. Craters of the Moon is about 30 minutes from my hometown, but I have only been a couple of times and not since I was pretty young. It was a very hot day out on that black lava rock! It feels a little bit like being transported to Mordor, but it's actually kind of beautiful: black rocks and blue skies as far as the eye can see! (Hopefully not Sauron's eye, though!)
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| A candid shot of Ryan, Colin, Will, and Katie |
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| It's just amazing that these pretty flowers can grow on a bed of black rocks! |
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| Katie, Will, my dad, and Jake |
The only cave that I went through on our visit was the Indian Tunnel. I had heard that parts of the ceiling had collapsed since I had been there last, like I remember what it looked like before. But there were these really incredible holes in the ceiling and a huge pile of rocks beneath. It was very cool to see. Those piles of rocks made for a lot more climbing than I had anticipated, so getting through the cave was very challenging with a baby on my front. I was so scared I would scrape her leg on one of those sharp lava rocks, but she came out unscathed! Caving success!
It has been a fun summer! We are sad to see it go, but fall is our favorite season, so I think we'll get over it! Bring on the autumn leaves and the cider mills! To end with a side note, I'm very excited about the apple cider this year because the first year we were here, there was no cider because the apples had frozen, and last year I couldn't drink the cider because it is unpasteurized, and I was pregnant. This year, nothing is going to stop me! Fall, here we come!
