Christina Zecha - Guest Blogger

Big Sister's trip to San Jose de Las Moras, Mexico.

Everyone loves fresh fruit. When we arrived to Tia Manuela's (Daniel's aunt's) house to stay for the next ten days, I took one look at the pomegranate trees growing in the backyard and knew that I was going to be happy as a clam. Fresh fruit, fresh tacos, fresh tortillas, and best of all- 10 worry free days in Mexico with Daniel and our two friends, Emily and Kevin.



The last semester of high school was a bit rough. Lack of sleep and a serious case of Senioritis made it really easy think about nothing except the upcoming trip to Mexico. Daniel's parents generously took us back to their home town, where they promised us a relaxing vacation. Relaxing indeed- our schedule went a bit like this.

12 pm: Wake up
1 pm: Get out of bed to have breakfast (homemade refried beans, tortillas, pan dulce, and fresh fruit)
2-4 pm: Play cards, read books, and sit on the roof
5-8 pm: Siesta time (...I love Mexico...)
9 pm- 2 am: Go taco-hunting for dinner, legally drink cerveza, play more cards, and watch the lightning storms

No wonder we look so happy, huh?



I'm 18. That means that I could order and drink as many of these as I wanted.



We visited Daniel's grandparents in a smaller town further east. The little puppies made the 9 hour drive so worth it. That, and meeting Daniel's sweet abuelitos.



Kevin is the one who took this picture. He was exploring his inner photographer while we stood on a huge bridge over the railroad. From here, we could see everything. It was beautiful. Everything was.

Sweet Times

July 20th (tomorrow) is Alex and my 5th wedding anniversary. Cole and I made a pie for Alex with raspberries and boysenberries from the yard.

The beginning of the crust.



My recipe comes from Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts. A dear friend gave this book to me on my 20th birthday. The inscription reads:

Heather -
This is for all those luxurious, sweet times ahead in your new decade(s). Happy Birthday and Enjoy. Love, Sid

These are sweet times.





Cole sprinkles sugar on the "sugar pies". My grandma, the true pie goddess, taught me to make sugar cinnamon cookies from the left over crust edges.

Sand Puppies

Our trip to the Pacific Science Center on Thursday was fun for both Cole and Audrey. Cole has adapted to "summer camp" and now looks forward to visiting his new friends. The culmination of two weeks of science discovery ended with a trip to the science center where we saw something new - naked mole-rats. Naked mole-rats live in burrows in the deserts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia where Native Africans call them "sand puppies". The students studied the animals in class this past week - reading books and making their own set of teeth for an art project. We also played in the Gemini capsule (of course!) and spent some considerable time in the toddler area so Audrey had fun too.

Grandpa and Tutu, in from Hawaii for a wedding, brought a perfect summer dinner over. T-bone steaks, corn on the cob, and tomatoes. Daniel came for dinner as well.



Grandpa and Cole fed our neighbor's chickens the cobs. Chris, our neighbor, says this is their favorite food after slugs. I'd like to have chickens someday, especially since a dozen organic cage free eggs goes for almost $4 these days. Seattle Tilth offers a class but I doubt Sudden Valley Community Association allows chickens.

City Chickens 101
Good Shepherd Center Room 140 (Senior Center)
Aug 02, 2008 10:00 AM
An introduction to chicken husbandry in an urban and suburban setting.





Cole has been waiting to set off his fireworks since we bought them on the 4th over on Bainbridge Island. We kept saying we had to wait until Grandpa was here. Here Cole is showing off his arsenal - pop its, party poppers, smoke bombs, and a couple fountains. When I was a child I would orchestrate firework shows for my grandparents at the ranch in Idaho. I encouraged Cole to think of putting on a firework show for us.



Setting up the extravaganza.



Big Sister helping with a popper.





Me not behind the camera for once.





Grandpa and Cole.



Cole loved the smoke bombs though breathing the dye particles is probably something to avoid.



Grandpa and Audrey.



Zecha Kids

Yummy food

As an aside I was excited to have the opportunity to cook something new today. I attempted two recipes from a website called 101 Cookbooks - Spinach Rice Gratin and Salt-kissed Buttermilk Cake. Everyone (Alex, Cole, Christina, Audrey and myself) liked both and I will certainly make them again.

I blissfully picked the raspberries for this cake today in our backyard thinking all the while how very lucky I am.



Cole is in summer camp July and part of August. These past two weeks they studied entomology, biology, paleontology and chemistry (according to his teacher!). The two week study culminates in a trip to the Pacific Science Center tomorrow. Upcoming units will be on cooking and ocean life.

Our dear neighbor Margaret came by for a visit while we watered in the front yard today. She is lively, funny, full of interesting stories, and adores the kids (all kids). She's 88 and raised her family in Lake City when the roads were dirt.



Margaret thought we should get a picture of Audrey with the pink flowers that matched her outfit. Audrey didn't feel like cooperating for the photo shoot.



Cole wanted me to take a picture of him with his light saber.

Use the force Luke

First there was a fascination with back-hoes, big machinery of all sorts and job sites.

Then there was the enduring fascination with fire trucks, fire men, fire hydrants, etc.

Then Rescue Heroes made a brief but enthusiastic appearance.

Now it is Star Wars. Oy, enough with the Star Wars. He talks constantly about some aspect of the story.

We've been holding off on letting Cole watch the movie though we have checked out books at the library - DK Readers with titles like "Ready, Set, Podrace" and "Attack of the Clones". This weekend, however, he got to watch Episode 1 and 2 and he was over the moon. I'd not seen them myself since I first watched them as a child. I'm often asked to tell a Star Wars story in the car or at bedtime so now my memory is refreshed and the stories will be more accurate.

Weekend in Port Angeles

We went to a wedding this weekend in Port Angeles. Sarah's niece, Jackie, was the beautiful bride. Cole and Christina call Sarah tutu. Tutu is a term Hawaiians use in the same way they use "auntie". It's a person who is like a grandma to you but not really a grandma (I think).

Tutu, Richard and Audrey on a visit they made last summer. She is holding the quilt she made for Audrey.



Grandpa and Audrey at the rehearsal dinner. Alex was extremely impressed with the groom's parent's land and shop. He said he could get used to living out there. I promptly informed him that it was only like this 1 month out of 12 and the rest of the year it was cold, drizzly, overcast, and wet wet wet. I've lived in Port Angeles.



On Saturday before the wedding we took a scenic tour with Richard, Sarah and her cousin and sister from out of town. We ate at the Family Kitchen in Joyce - Home of the 1 pound hamburger for $14.75. If you're interested and have notable facial hair you can compete in the beard, mustache, and goatee contest at Joyce Daze on August 2.



We then went to Salt Creek. One of my favorite beaches. It was recently featured in Sunset Magazine.



An unfortunate fact not mentioned in the Sunset article is that the biggest part of the beach is off limits unless you pay $5/person to Crescent Beach and RV Park. On the day we visited there was a person stationed near the boundary with the state park to keep the hordes at bay. Cole was given the boot by Johnny Law.



Cole wasn't too bothered. When playing by a creek Cole wants to damn it or build a bridge over it. Sticks and driftwood are blasters or lightsabers.





The wedding was held further west at a place called Silver King with stunning views of the straits and Mt. Baker.

Audrey was a doll in her bumblebee dress.







Weddings are a good excuse to get posed family shots.



Christina looking as beautiful as ever.

WALL E

Mom, Cole and I went to see WALL E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) at the Cinerama downtown today. This was Cole's first time seeing a commercial movie at a movie theatre with popcorn etc. We all loved it.

Alex and I made a counter-offer on the house in Bellingham today as well. Barring unforeseen roadblocks, I think we bought a house. It's exciting and sad at the same time. I love Seattle. The traffic gets to me and this house gets to me sometimes but mostly I really like living here. I've got good friends and there is a ton of fun things to do especially with kids.

Bellingham has a lot going for it too ...

music

beer

mountains


ocean


some culture because of Western Washington Universtiy

and my mom of course.

House update

We made an offer on a house in Sudden Valley last week. It had sun, was on a double lot with a creek in the back, and was on a quiet street with lots of families with young children. I thought ok we're really doing this but there is a hitch. The owners of the house declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy the day before we made the offer. So we are now in limbo and not sure how it will all turn out.

Meanwhile the yard has started to produce yummy fruit for us. We've been eating strawberries for a couple weeks but the recent rain and sun has brought out the raspberries.



I hope we get to eat these cherries before the crows get them.



We took a trip to the library today and got a new stack of books. Cole was excited to find Guji Guji, the story of a crocodile that is "born" into a family of ducks. We first heard this story on a website called Storyline Online after following a link from the Seattle Children's Museum website.