The Johnson Family

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Here are the finished cookie's for their dads. Didn't they do a great job!

Oh and then they each got to make one for themselves to eat! Not a candy morsel was wasted.

Porter may have had his peach cobbler but Brittany has a fancy for frosted sugar cookies. I mean FROSTED sugar cookies. She made sure I had enough for the girls and then she hid the rest for us. What I mean is she hid the rest for her! After the girls left she frosted the left over hidden cookies with the left over frosting. It didn't matter if it was pretty, it just had to have plenty. I knew she liked the pink frosted cookies from Costco but I had no idea how much until last night when I realized its more like an obsession. By the way, I always put almond flavoring in my frosting as well. I guess you could say, I have an almond obsession!

Day 1 - and so it begins...

9 am and the grapes are in the steam/juicer.

Aren't they beautiful? The flavor is amazing.

While the grapes were steaming, I canned peaches and started cooking the plums

Here is the finished product 10 hours later.

18 quarts of peaches and 40 quarts of white grape juice.

About 9 pound of plums are cooked down and ready to make into sauce.

I was so exhausted that I headed for the tub. While I was soaking my aches and pains, Rick ran to the store and bought me a bouquet of flowers. What a guy! Even though fruit is his least favorite thing, he appreciates my efforts in storing the harvest.

Farmers Market

I had so much fun at the market on Saturday. It has such an amazing aroma; basil, lavendar, and even kettle corn. But that didn't distract me from what I came for. Tucked away in the back corner is Haas Farms fruit stand. I have been purchasing from them all summer. They have an amazing selection that changes with the season. Here is this weeks purchase:

Niagra grapes - Welch's purchases this variety for their white grape juice.

I bought 5 boxes!

O'Henry peaches! They are so flavorful and juicy.
I bought 2 boxes.

Sorry the picture is so dark but these are dark purple plums - yum, yum!

I bought 2 boxes!

I bought 1 box of tomatoes and 1 box of onion/pepper combination to make more salsa!

and 1 box of Jonathan apples! Did anyone total that box count? That would be 12!

Now the work begins!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Lake Quinault & Quinault Rain Forest

Hiking trail to the lake on the north shore.

A break in the trees for a view of the mountains.

The sun shining through the rain forest. They get about 142 inches of rain a year. We had the most perfect day to explore the area.

This waterfall is located on the south shore road just after crossing the bridge from the north shore.

Lake Quinault Lodge, built in the 1920's. The location and view are amazing and gave one the feeling of going back to a more leisurely time.

Kalaloch

As we got closer to the ocean the fog set in. The mysterious wall of fog ahead of us.

This is the Kalaloch Lodge. We spent the night here in one of the cabins near by. The fog was so thick the night before we didn't see the beauty of this location until the next morning when we awoke to this...

What a gorgeous location. We could have spent hours here.

Forks

You Twilight fanatics will love this...

Need I say more? The whole town is a buzz. Bella's birthday is coming up on Saturday and they expected thousands to show up for the event.

Here is an interary of the days events.
We picked up t-shirts for some of the fans back home.
It was pretty entertaining to listen to the locals buzz about their NOW famous town.

Lake Crescent

This is the most gorgeous lake.

The mountains extend right into the lake. The water is very cold and crystal clear.

This is Lake Crescent Lodge. We ate lunch here and enjoyed the view.
The property has darling little cottages to stay in as well.

Olympic Peninsula - Port Angeles

We stayed here at the George Washington Inn. They just opened in February of this year. It sits on the Straight of Juan de Fuca just east of Port Angeles.