Weekend Wrap-Up

On Saturday we drove over to Selah to attend the Skewered Apple BBQ Championship at the Tree Top Headquarters. It was a two-day event, with the bulk of the cooking and judging taking place on Sunday, so while there were plenty of tents set up, we didn't really get to sample any of the food.

 

There was also a handful of food vendors selling to the public, like Porky G's, who was actually from Coeur d'Alene. We tried the brisket, pulled pork and a hot link.

The main event, as far as Tyler was concerned was the apple pie eating contest.

He was in the 8-12 year old category, but let's be honest...he never had a chance. Look at the size of some of those kids! The girl in the white shirt (second from the left) won the $25 prize.

Oh well, he still had fun.

And on our way out we stopped at the Tree Top gift shop/visitor center and grabbed a few bags of our favorite snack: dried apple cinnamon slices. So good!

Then on Sunday we went to the local family blueberry patch over on Zier Street. In the past they've had their blueberry patch open until October or whenever the first frost of the season strikes, but they told us that the berries for this year were all but gone. What!?! Still they welcomed us to go in and look for whatever we could find, so that's what we did.

The trick to finding the last few berries was to get down low and look toward the bottom and/or center of the bushes.

In the end we were able to pull in around 5 lbs, but it was seriously hard work. Tyler thinks we should make a pie with our berries, but I was thinking more along the lines of muffins or scones.

August Favorites

Here they are...the best of my Project Life pictures for August.  Well, you know, besides the ones I already posted here during the course of the month. So maybe that makes these the 2nd best. Oh well, whatever you call them, they're good so take a look.

 

I love this picture so much! I already shared one like it, but this one is from a different angle and you can really see the huge grin on Kyle Bear's face.

Another vacation photo you never saw. This one is of the pool at our hotel in Spokane. Tyler loved jumping in with various degrees of craziness.

This one is also from the hotel and in case you don't know...Kyle loves milk. He lives for the stuff. So he was as giddy as can be to see us warming up his cup in the microwave. He was literally on the verge of hysteria, he was so happy.

Here Kyle is playing in the ball pit he got for his birthday and one of his favorite things to do is to try and throw the balls out of the hole in the top.

Over the weekend, Rick took Tyler over to Sarg Hubbard Park so he could practice his fishing. The whole time Kyle was off to the side being a complete ham, giggling and running about.

Tyler never caught anything that night, not even a bite, but I did get some nice pictures of the sunset.

We also went over to Randall park not too long ago to feed the ducks. There must be some shift of power going on in the pond because all the ducks were up in the grass right next to the parking lot and the pond was filled with mean old geese. So we fed the ducks and hardly had to get out of the car to do it.

Wonder of wonders, Kyle suddenly enjoys swinging. In the past, I could never get him to stay on the swings for more than a few seconds and now he's loving them.

Here he is at another park yet, this time going across the wobbly bridge, down the slide and back again.

Be careful what you ask for. This is what I get when I tell Tyler I'm taking his picture: a super goofy close-up shot. A little blurry because I didn't have my macro lens on the camera, but you can still see my handsome boy, so ha...I win.

And taking a page right out of big brother's book, Kyle also stuck his face right in front of the camera. Um, hello Kyle Bear.

Back to School

Today was Tyler's first day back at school, so to make it special I made him some homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast...one of his favorites. I usually only make cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, so it was a pretty big deal.

 

I may have unwittingly started a new tradition though, as Tyler will surely ask for them again next year, but that's okay. I can handle making cinnamon rolls twice a year.

Here's his first day of school outfit...a brand new shirt, shorts and some Vans. He even got a new backpack this year. Looking sharp!

He also switched to a new school this year and since there are no buses, I'll be dropping him off and picking him up on a daily basis. I'm feeling good about the school and his teacher, so hopefully Tyler does well. My only disappointment is with the playground equipment...it's just so old and outdated. Nothing but metal slides and monkey bars, but I guess it comes with the territory. The school has been around since before Washington became a state (1889), so there's some serious history there. Still the playground could use a makeover soon.

Mobius Science Center

On our last day in Spokane we went to the Mobius Science Center. It's right there in the downtown area where we'd been the day before near the Riverfront Park and the walking tour. What's neat is that they have two separate buildings, one of which is like a Children's Museum and the other is more like a Science Center. So you can visit one or the other, or get a pass to hop back and forth.

 

 

We started off on the children's side and spent several hours over there. The boys loved the water table and I'm sure they could have spent the entire day at that one exhibit. 

 

Another fun exhibit was the digger where you could use the controls to dig around in the big basin full of lentils. Dig. Scoop. Dump.

 

Kyle also enjoyed the camping exhibit with the tent and toy grill. He was cooking up hamburgers left and right.

 

A lot of the exhibits were on the verge of being too young for Tyler...things that wouldn't interest him much, so he spent the entire time between the water table and building a gigantic house out of Lincoln Logs. After a few hours we left the children's side of the museum, had a lunch break and then headed over to the science center.

 

One of the first things I saw when we walked in the door were the turtles. So much fun to watch. I was a little mesmerized.

 

Water Rockets...always one of Tyler's favorites.

 

At the flightworks station you could build your own flying device using a conical shaped paper cup and then test it out in the updraft chamber. Turns out the cup flies the highest if you cut it into a spiral shape.

  

Then at the Mind Ball station Rick and Tyler strapped electronic brain sensors to their heads and tried to use brainwaves to control the ball, each trying to push it to the opposite person. We tried this one over and over again and the ball always moved to the left, no matter who was sitting there...Rick, Tyler, Me...it was always the same result.

 

The Jump Time exhibit seemed innocent enough where you see how high you can jump and you can record it all and watch it back on a slow motion replay, but this is also the exhibit that almost landed us in the hospital for the second time in one vacation. Rick jumped up determined to reach the 9-1/2 foot ball, but landed miserably and seriously twisted his ankle. At least he didn't break any bones and he was able to hobble away. His foot is still pretty swollen and bruised though....good thing he's still on vacation (from work) and has a few more days to rest and heal.

 

Tyler loved the ball drop exhibit where you set up different tubes and joints and ramps to get the ball to run down the wall. I almost couldn't get him to walk away, even when the museum was closing.

 

We went upstairs to look at some of the other exhibits, but honestly with Rick sitting in the corner with ice on his foot, it didn't seem all that fun anymore. Who knows...maybe we'll be able to go back one day when everybody is all in one piece.

Spokane Food Tour

Monday was our first full day in Spokane and we scheduled a walking food tour for the early afternoon. Our paperwork said to meet at the "big red wagon" in Riverfront Park. We didn't really know what that was at first, but we found a map painted on the ground at the park and followed the directions until we found the huge radio flyer wagon.

 

It's really neat. It's actually a play structure that you can climb into and slide down the handle in the front and there's also a set of monkey bars underneath. Great for Tyler to burn some energy.

While Tyler was playing on the wagon, Kyle walked over to feed the geese. The only food we had at the time was a few pieces of graham cracker, but Kyle gave those right up and offered them to the geese.

Our tour guide arrived right on time and handed out headsets so we could hear what she was saying on the tour without having to stand right next to her. We learned on the course of the tour that she is actually an English teacher and the tour is just her summer job. Not a bad gig if you ask me.

The first stop was at Soulful Soups & Spirits, which is a cafe during the day that serves things like soup, sandwiches and salad and then at night they are more of a bar/lounge.

We tried the tomato basil bisque and a slice of their beer bread. The soup was great and so was the bread, but Tyler was a little hesitant about eating tomato soup. He went on to tell the group..."My mom makes the worst tomato soup, but this isn't so bad." Um, thanks Tyler.  It's not like I make tomato soup on a regular basis or anything. I just made a super terrible recipe one time a good 4 or 5 years ago and Tyler still can't let it go. It was the only thing I've ever made that even I couldn't eat. It was that bad...but still, it's not "my tomato soup".

Next at Steelhead Bar & Grille we tried the smoked salmon crostini, one of their most popular appetizers along with a beer sample. None of the ladies on the tour cared for beer though, so we all tried the Angry Orchard Hard Cider.  Yum!

Our third stop on the tour was at a French bakery called Madeline's.

We tried the chocolate eclair and a mix of pistachio and grapefruit macaroons. It was all good, but my favorite was the grapefruit macaroon.

Next we went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company and tried a slice of the avalanche caramel apple. Tyler thought it was the best thing ever, but for me with braces, I couldn't even bite through it, so I just stuffed it in my cheek like a hamster. I probably should have just skipped it all together.

Our next stop was at the Davenport Hotel, which used to be the place to stay in Spokane. Apparently all kinds of presidents and famous people have stayed there over the years.

Across the street from the hotel is a pizza place called Fire.

We tried two different pizzas. The Gordy had dates, mozzarella, gorgonzola, and a balsamic reduction. The other was a Margherita with mozzarella, tomato and basil. Yum! So good!

Then our last stop on the tour was at Bruttles Candy Shop, which specializes in soft peanut brittle. The sample tasted exactly like the inside of a Butterfinger candy bar. It wasn't the easiest thing to eat because of my braces, so I wasn't much of a fan. More trouble to eat than it was worth.

 

After the tour was over we headed back to Riverfront Park to walk around a bit more and see Spokane Falls. Such a beautiful park!