Blueberries at Spooners

Summertime at Spooner's!  Here is your current installment of "soaking in the summer sun" - brought to you by "This is our last summer here so I will squeeze every single outing I can into every free morning we have!" LLC. One thing's for sure, this place has tons of different outdoors stuff to do! There's a local fruit farm here called Spooner's where they let you pick strawberries earlier in the summer and blueberries in the later months of summer. They also sell some delicious raspberries and marionberries, which apparently are not the same as blackberries but equally juicy.

Remember when I said I was usually able to round up a girlfriend to part take in the play date ju dour?? Well, with little persuasion needed, she met me again with her adorable brood of boys -- y'all get a little taste of that scrumptious baby below! I'll just smooch him for you... 💋💋

I was't sure if B would be into the whole idea of carrying a bucket around and picking blueberries, but to my surprise he loved it...a lot. So much so that he may or may not have skipped the bucket portion of picking and put the berries straight in his mouth! Haha! I just chalked it up to quality control for the berries that we'd actually end up taking home. 😉👌🏼

^^^ I mean, y'all...get a load of that sweetness!!

^^^ Quality control check #1😋

^^^ Quality control check #37...

"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory." - Dr. Seuss ❤️

Lemons to Love,

Low tide at Tolmie

Summer is finally here and it feels to already be slipping through my fingers! I'm trying to find all the summer outings that exceed a toddler's level of activity while still maintaining my own level of activity. 😉 Ya feel me... Thankfully I can usually convince a girl friend to come along and *poof* we have a play date du jour! This little friend of ours, Cooper, you may remember his cuteness from our visit to the pumpkin patch last year?? These two blondies are a hoot together!! Cooper is a little over a year older than Brooks and their age difference shows (i.e. level of understanding, following directions, and 'sharing'). He is very good at 'being the boss' and laying down some ground rules for the day, while Brooks is very good at challenging 'said' rules and seeing how far he can push Coop into annoyance. It's quite entertaining, well, for me at least. 🙊

It was a fun day for the boys to explore low tide, but mainly for the moms to catch up life and non-toddler conversations!! #adulttalk

^^^Let me set the scene: Coop: Brooks! Don't throw mud on me please!"
Brooks: throws mud anyway and enjoys the reaction.😣
Side note: don't judge, I am parenting y'all...just from a comical distance 😜

^^^Look at this lil dream boat!😍

These two are so fun together the older they get. These moments and friendships will definitely be what I'll miss most! ❤️ *holds back all the feels*

Thanks for reading, y'all! Stay tuned for more summer fun on LtL!

Mt. Rainier, Sunrise Point

Last weekend we crossed off another hike on our PNW wonderland tour and the wait for nice weather was definitely worth it! These views, y'all, I could've sat there for days staring off into the horizon never boring from what the skies had to offer. It was beautiful blue skies with sweeping panoramic perspective of perfection (my mom should be proud of that alliteration right there). Sunrise Point is actually the eastern side of Mt. Rainier, the other side from what we're used to seeing here and here. It's the highest point that can be reached by car and reaches a *comfortable elevation of 6,400 feet (text from National Park Service website).
*Edit: hiking at a higher elevation always humbles any physical endurance I think I've accomplished during my weekly exercise routine...really brings my heart rate and heavy breathing RIGHT on up to the equivalence of a 3rd trimester taking the stairs type of scene.

Anyway, not a pretty picture. 😜 However, I'll tell you what is ...please scroll further to find out.

^^^This little guy may be nearing his end in family hikes. 😧 He's usually a great car companion, but this particular trip he screamed for basically the last 1.5 hours of the trip. Then once we got to the mountain and he was freed from the torture device (known to us as a car seat), and he was like oh HECK NO, you want to strap me into another contraption?! *sigh* We tried to give him breaks, but even those weren't very 'freeing', ya know, hence the massive drop offs that gave me anxiety to even think about.  Thankfully this hike was on the shorter side so we called it quits and let him roam near the designated picnic area. *massages temples for relaxation*

^^^Anyone else singing "The hilllllssss are aliveeeee..." *followed by a few twirls*

^^^Picnicking with a toddler means they eat wherever the heck they want to. Shoot, I honestly don't even care if he actually eats, as long as he's happy!! He can eat in the car on the way home! Can I get an AMEN?! 🙌🏼#rollwithit

^^^This kid, obsessed with dirt, rocks, trucks, and more trucks. I secretly love it when he's covered in filth after playing -- makes me feel like I'm doing something right as a mom. 😅

^^^This is Mt. Adams, it's about 50 miles south of Mt. Rainier. It sort of looks like Mt. Rainier's little sibling, doesn't it? Hey little buddy! 🙋🏼

And that's our hike to Sunrise Point!! It's so pretty, y'all! A definite recommendation for anyone looking for a gorgeous hike (check), with views (check) and differing levels of hikes and distances (check check).

Only a few more weeks of summer left...and many more miles to map out!

Don't forget to check out my video montage below! 🎥▶️

Thanks for reading!

Lemons to love,