Museum of Miniatures

There is a doll house museum up in Carmel I've been wanting to go to for at least a year now, I just never wanted to go by myself, and it takes a special kind of person to stare at tiny knitting baskets and umbrella stands for over an hour. My husband is not that person. I love him too much to subject him to what he would undoubtedly see as torture.

Luckily, Meghan came to town.

After a delicious stop at Red Robin we arrived.

I know the pictures aren't great, but this place was amazing.

And I just love this picture of my tiny friend standing on the stool put out for children, so she can see the tiny things.
Look at how perfect all this stuff is. It was so fun. I recommend this place to any girl who loved doll houses as a kid or has little girls of her own.

Meghan's visit was too short, and It's devastating not knowing how long it will be before I see her again. Our other adventures on this trip included the Children's Museum, the Drive-In and lots of lounging around talking. I miss you girlie! Have fun in Dallas!

Strawberry picking

My best friend Meghan came to see us. I haven't seen her since last summer and once a year is definitely not enough. We had lots of fun things planned to do with her and the first was strawberry picking.

It was a Beautiful day

I wanted to get lots of cute pictures of Daphne crawling through the plants, stuffing berries in her mouth. However, I have a strict no-crawling-through-poison-ivy policy. Unfortunately the patch was really overgrown with weeds, (including poison ivy and stinging nettles) and the berries were super tiny, so we just had to pick them for her.
She still had a good time playing with and eating them.

And of course, we made yummy jam when we got home.

Fruits of Summer

There are so many things to love about this time of year; longer days, warm weather, picnics. And of course, FRESH seasonal produce. This week I'm especially excited about:

Strawberry & Rhubarb

They're pretty delicious all on their own, but together...

Amazing.

Today's goal was to make a pie. Not just any pie, a strawberry rhubarb pie. One of my ultimate favorite foods. I used this recipe.

And I have to toot my own horn just a little. It's the best thing I've ever made. That's not saying a lot because baking is not my strong suit. But let me repeat, It is the best thing I have ever made.

I added a teaspoon of dried Valencia orange peel. It was too delicious to just have one piece.

Try it!

(and if the pie wasn't enough to make it an amazing day, I only have to
wait 2 more days until my Meghan comes to see me!)

A little help?

We got home from Jamaica last night. Sigh. I miss it already.

I will be posting about it later, but for now I could use some help...

In the month since school got out for the summer, I have managed to knock out my entire summer reading list. So I could use some book suggestions. What have you read lately, what is your all time favorite?

All recommendations are greatly appreciated!

I'm outta here!

Beach towel, sunscreen and a stack of good books. We leave for JAMAICA on Monday morning and I am ready!

Last night we tried to take a picture of the fireflies. There are so many, it looks like someone is dumping gold glitter all over the trees. But fireflies don't show up very well against the black.


Sometimes when Bryce is supposed to be mowing the lawn, he ends up playing around taking silly pictures. Usually they're of his dog, but sometimes he experiments with other subjects.

And here is the tummy at 26 weeks.

So I hope you all have a nice week. The Fortners will be in paradise!

Meet me in St. Louis, and Kansas City and Omaha!

We took advantage of Bryce's week off last week to do some sight seeing and family visiting in the Midwest.
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First stop: St Louis, MO where we saw a Cardinals game,

Went to the zoo and the World's fair sight,
Visited the famous arch, and walked along the river where we could see the steam boats going up and down,
And went to the Temple.Next stop, Kansas. We got to spend a couple of days visiting with Bryce's brother Kyle and his wife Kristin. Their little girl is stinking cute, but I didn't get any pictures of her.
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We went to a Kansas City Royals game. The team pretty much stinks, but I think Kauffman Stadium is my favorite of all the ball parks we've been to so far.Then we hit up the church history sites in the area: Independence, MO, Liberty Jail, Far West and Adam ondi-Ahman. I loved the visitor's center at Indepedence. Their presentation about families was so touching, and the video segment of President Monson's talk on Finding Joy in the Journey Now was super inspiring.
We were the only ones at Adam ondi-Ahman when we visited. Incredibly beautiful and peaceful! (there was a shocking rainbow behind me, but you can't really see it)

And finally we stopped for one day in Omaha, NE to visit Bryce's sister Becky and her family. They took us to the Mormon Trail center and Winter Quarters temple. Another great visitor's center! I think my favorite part of this visit was while walking home from church, Charlie (four-year-old in the yellow shirt) asked me, "So what do you like about plants?" We discussed the subject all the way home. He likes trees and grass the best.

These kids are so well-behaved! I hope that's a trait all Fortner children are born with, and not just a result of Becky and Justin's superior parenting skills.

We didn't really get our fill of Bryce's siblings, but luckily we will see them in Seattle in a few weeks for a family wedding!

For our next summer trip we are going a little more exotic. Jamaica, I will see you in a few days!

Paddle boats on the Potomac

Two weeks ago we went to D.C. These are some of the fun things we did:

Visited all the monuments and memorials





Stood in front of the white house



Saw the amazing man who plays water glasses. He let Bryce help him play a little!



Took an awesome tour of the Capitol building, (Thanks Ryan!)


Went through MANY of the Smithsonian museums. Our favorites were the Natural History, National History, Air & Space, and the Conservatory & National Gardens.


And road a paddle boat around the Tidal Basin. (If you ever happen to go paddle boat-ing, don't wear a skirt!)

We also saw lots and lots of squirrels, sat in the Senate chamber and watched some of the senators vote, walked a ton, watched planes take off at plane park, saw Old town D.C., Visited with my dear friend Michelle, and had a nice (but too short) visit with the love-of-my-life Meghan and her hubby Ryan.

As a capstone to our trip we went and saw Night at the Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian after we got home.
Super cute movie. It was really fun to see all the sites we had just visited (and I have a girl crush on Amy Adams).

It was a great trip, I highly recommend DC as a perfect vacation destination if you like to go to free museums and walk 10 miles a day.

Summer = Bugs

The heavy summer heat brings with it all the bugs. The rollie pollies that inexplicably inhabit my front porch, the mosquitoes the devour me every time I step outside, the flies that find their way in even when every door and window is shut and the giant wolf spider with a body the size of a quarter that crawled across my shoe the other day. Oh, and let's not forget the ants that have been steadily invading my kitchen and eating my dogs' food. Bugs are gross.

But they're not all so bad. I love watching the dragonflies skim the pond in the morning sunlight. They come in so many colors and sizes that I don't get tired of staring at them. and...

FIREFLIES!

If you are not lucky enough to live in a place where fireflies light up the night, then I hope you will at some point in your life! They almost make the drenching humidity worth it, (almost.)

Last night I went outside just to watch them. On the other side of the pond there is a little forest, and right before dark there are so many fireflies that it looks like some great hand is dumping gold glitter all over the trees. The last little bit of sunlight turned the sky into an orange and peach and blue paisley. A great blue heron flew right over my head and perched in a tree behind me. Except for one obnoxious frog it was very quiet, and if I was trying to design a perfect fairytale or romance setting I couldn't have imagined anything better. I couldn't believe the amazing beauty surrounding me. I kept expecting a unicorn to come trotting out from the trees or something.

No pictures of this, you just have to imagine it for yourself.