Friday's Food: Watermelon carving

I won a watermelon at a Fourth of July party this year (before the 4th). When we decided to add watermelon as one of the dishes for the brunch/dinner, I decided I wanted to carve it. Pinterest is full of impressive carvings - being a "wanna-be-beginner" I searched for simple designs and found one:

This proved to be more difficult then it appeared - so here is my version. :)

credit

After making an even place for the watermelon to sit, I cut the top off and, with Madeline's help, emptied the watermelon of all it's delicious goodness.

Following the tutorial (from the photo credit), I used toothpicks and a cookie cutter to mark out the stars - the attempted three stars didn't work, so I switched to one star and then scratched out small stars in the back. :)

 When I was finished, this is what it looked like. Watermelon "carving" is fun and - well, I'm glad it's the beginning of the summer so that I can practice some more!

The Starlight Run

Rachel, Sarah, Lauren, Susanna, and Jonah

When we were younger - Dad was our distance running coach. We would start the year with "Running with the Wolves" and end the running year with "The Starlight Run". I'ts been years since I've run the starlight run (over 7 years ago). It was a unique race in that it was (1) at night, (2) in Portland, (3) right before the rose parade, and (4) always ended at Burgerville.


Sarah remembered that parking always took forever and then you had to walk a distance to the race (we sometimes parked up at the Rose Garden and walked down to the school). After we arrived in Portland, I think it took us about 30min to find parking. Since we had scheduled up to an hour to find parking, we had plenty of time to get to the race - though it didn't really feel like way too much time. :)

After the Race

We all finished and lived - though running in 95 degrees is tough. (I totally see why it was our last race of the running year.) This is such a fun group to run with - I get pushed yet can go my own pace . Running - it's just fun. What can I say?

I think this is my last race for the summer - I haven't signed up for anymore at this point. Next race that I know for certain to be doing is in October. Until then - good bye summer racing!

A "Brilliant" Summer

It is no longer Summer! Sometimes I don't know what I've done - I don't have a huge clue or a day-to-day schedule, but here are some of the highlights of my summer and not in any particular order - just the order they came to mind. :)

Soccer:
Kaytra, Titus, Josh and I got to play Tuesday nights - in a word, it was "brilliant".

If you're curious, yes, that's a gallon of Gatorade

Texas:
Such a fun time with Grandparents and cousins!

Fair:
Always tons of fun ;)

Cliff Jumping:
This, soccer, Church Camp, and Family Vacation - they are my favorites!

Running:
I ran two... :)

Church Camp:
How do you explain it? :)

Family Vacation:
Wow - totally amazing!!!!

So if you were me, and you had to describe your Summer in a word, what would you say?

Hope you all had a good Summer! Now throw on your sweaters and scarfs, and pull on your boots and gloves. It is officially Autumn!

A Beautiful Day in the Gorge

I love my home, family, friends, and Church family - with those four things, you miss home whenever you're away.

Susanna and Bethany

12ft - not big unless you're scared of heights

After church on Sunday, several of us went down to the Gorge to go cliff jumping - tons of fun! Hope we do it again soon!

No event, no matter how fun, is ever completely complete without some sport - soccer, frisbee, or volleyball. We settled for frisbee while playing Duck-Duck-Goose. :)

Paul and Rebecca's dogs were very popular. ;)

 After this, we headed to Angel's Crest for a hike that would end us at the top around sunset. We headed up at a good pace (we decided that we definitely got some sort of work out in).

on the way up

Sitting up at the top and enjoying the beautiful creation that our God and Creator has made, we began to sing songs of praise to Him - there is not a ton much better than singing to God with your friends on the top of a mountain looking at a sunset.

Anna, Bethany, Susanna

Kaytra and Sarah :)

We got someone to take all of our picture when at sunset - about 9pm. Such great friends - I am so blessed by my church family. :)

After meeting various parents, we arrived home quietly with the soft drops of rain. Sticky from the hike and dirty from the lake, we were all quite ready to take a warm shower, get a glass of cold water or warm tea and settle down for the night (or morning, or whatever you would like to call it).

Fun at the Fair

The Clark County Fair started Friday!
We all did well with what we entered.

This is just a sample of what was entered....

All this was fun - fun Friday to be precise. On Wednesday, we bring our animals (I mean Josh, Grace, James, Zachary, Megan, and Madeline bring their animals) to the fair.

And I have to post about Saturday. "The Deiter 100" took place and we raced all over Clark County and Northern Portland.

This Superman Team was pretty super!

("The Deiter 100" is like the "Amazing Race".) 

Zachary James and Ryan David

Oh! By the way, the family I'll be staying with had their twins July 27th! Since the picture was posted on Facebook, I've place it on my blog. :)

Have a fantastic week!

A Fun-Crazy Week

Super busy this past week and busy still this week.
Here's a quick overview:

Wednesday Fun

Thursday 4-H

Meg was flying with this lamb!

Saturday Flower Girl Preparations

Sunday with Friends

 So there you go - that is part of last week. Hope you all are enjoying this great weather!

The Ape Caves

Saturday Morning -
Ah, it was beautiful and peaceful. After we had all woken up at a leisurely hour, we read a chapter in Exodus, and left with whole wheat rolls and Pam Tarts to head to The Ape Caves - we left our house at about 8:30am (almost an hour after we had "originally" spoken of).

We went here:

Whoops! We weren't here. It just looked like we were. :)

Photo credit









We went here to The Ape Caves:

We tried to get pictures inside, but the lighting was being difficult.

,

Windy Ridge: After we had tramped around the Ape Caves for a couple of hours, we headed out to Windy Ridge. It was a beautiful drive. 

The panorama view from one of the stops.

Upon arrival at Windy Ridge, we noticed a ginormous staircase leading up a hill and were soon mounting it. 440+ steps (actual steps up, not just walking) later, we reached the top. It was such a beautiful view from there - just look! As mumsie would say, "And we live here!"

At Windy Ridge

The drive back was quiet and peaceful - I'm sure that has nothing to do with how many people were sleeping...

Middle Row

The driver was NOT sleeping...

Yes, you do see a clothespin on Emily's hair.

Hope you all had a fantastic Saturday! We certainly did. :)