O Christmas Tree

Oh, HI!! I haven't posted in a while! I really miss blogging, I take so many more picture when I do and I love looking back at what we did in previous years. So I need to catch up a little!

We went to Johnson Tree Farm, a beautiful local tree farm. We could have spent the day there (or moved in)! We hiked around and cut down our tree, played on the slide, playhouse, and vintage tractors, bought things from their wonderful gift shop, checked out the goats and chickens, and the owner was super nice! I didn't take many pictures, but there are a few-

Johnson Tree Farm will definitely be a yearly tradition for us:)

quick picnic

The other day our plans fell through at the last minute and Kylan really wanted to go somewhere (he always does), so we went for a very last minute picnic at a beautiful park about 10 minutes away from us. I think we will be doing this more often;)

Hope you are enjoying the last week of summer!

*many blessings*

berry season

Ahhhh, berry season, my favorite! I'm just waiting for the wild blackberries around our property to ripen...yum! We recently went berry picking with a playgroup at Swanton Berry Farm . If you are ever on the coast north of Santa Cruz, please go there. I didn't get pictures of there farm stand, but we go there often. Its a sweet set-up. Lots of homemade treats and coffee, tables, chairs, couches, wooden toys, old school wooden games and books. Outside of the farm stand they usually have some kind of play area with hay bales set up. The staff is great and I recently bought 3 jam flats of berries for cheap:) Organic of coarse! We LOVE it there.

We had never picked there before, but we picked strawberries and olallieberries. It was so beautiful, a perfect cool coastal farm. The boys had so much fun! Sorry the pictures arn't too great. It seems that if I take less then 500 pictures of the same thing I don't get great ones:)

serious berry picker

strawberry fields

now that's how to plant strawberries!

Bugs keep eating mine, I think we will have to make some raised rows and transplant ours!

I do wish I could find a blueberry farm around here:( No wonder they cost so much!

I made a small batch of strawberry jam last week. I have been freezing them as I get them, so I'm hoping to get them all canned up in the next week or so:)

Happy berrying!

beautiful days

The weather has been so lovely...cool, sunny, then rainy... I love it! We went to a local park that my son calls 'spider beach', it's actually called Highlands Park. It had a lot to offer...a skate park, a senior center, a ball field, lots of wild outdoor spaces, hiking trail, play ground, a spider web like climbing structure, a tennis court, party areas, a preschool, lots of events, a river...one area near the river is sandy like a beach, others rocky. We spent a couple hours there the other day and it was so renewing! I had never really hiked around there before, it was quite beautiful!

rain boots and puddles

Gratitude for the day

Today was a beautiful, perfect fall day. One of those days where you tell yourself to slow down and actually do! We went to a Henry Cowell State park to walk through the redwoods and then walked over to Roaring Camp Railroads to picnic and feed the ducks. We even got to see two deer, peacefully grazing on the grass in the shade. They were near the tree we picnic at and hung out and ate for a while.

Everest didn't want to be in the stroller, he wanted to walk, most the time holding my hand. He wanted to walk very, very slow...pick up sticks, touch the dirt, sit on every bench we passed...so we did. At first I found myself rushing them 'lets finish the hike so we can go feed the ducks', but then realized it's not about where we are going to these little ones, it's about what we are doing right now, in this moment. We slowed down, we had a beautiful day.


This is my favorite willow tree by the pond, we use to picnic here when Everest was a baby, but picnicing near a pond is not very relaxing with a toddler, so our new picnic spot in in a very large grass field by some big piles of dirt and a low, climbable tree.

I am grateful for the day, for my beautiful boys, my hard working husband, and our health. We are so fortunate.

recent outings:)

We ventured to Waddell Beach , which is part of Big Basin State Park. It was a beautiful, cold day-

We went to a Halloween sugar-cookie making party. I didn't get many pictures because my camera ran out of batteries:( It was a little wild, several preschoolers and there toddler siblings all making sugar cookies, but it was so much fun! The germs get baked off...right?

Kylan in a bonnet:)

We also took a trip to Half Moon Bay to Lemos Farms. There were LOTS of people, including a few school buses full of children. A bit overwhelming, but Kylan did get to ride a pony, a train, pet goats, pick out a pumpkin, and have a picinic:)

Good times-