Trains,French Villas, and Japanese Gardens

 Back in December, we took Silas to see the model train display at The Blodel Reserve. Not surprisingly, he really really loved it.

He even got to talk to the conductor and help fix a problem with one of the trains.

The houses were incredible pieces of handicraft in and of themselves, though they couldn't hold a candle to the trains, in Silas' eyes.

We walked back from the train exhibit at the big house via the Japanese Garden.

Drew explained to Silas how they rake the Zen garden.

Blodel is always beautiful, year round.

If it's autumn and you love it...

This is my favorite time of year: harvest festivals, crisp cool days, falling leaves, pumpkins, Halloween. We are enjoying all of the above here at Planet Silas. Silas got to ride a pony at the Johnson Farm Harvest festival. He rode the land slide, too, just like last year:
Yesterday, we went to the Fire Station's pancake breakfast, skipped the pancakes, and headed straight for the line to ride on the fire trucks. Unlike last year, Silas changed his mind about 10 minutes in and decided there was no way he was going to ride that truck. He still got a chance to show off his firefighter jacket, however.
On one of our last truly warm days, we had a picnic supper with friends along the Hood Canal.
It was lovely:
I'm planning an Autumn-themed week here on the blog. We've got pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumkins as well as a sneak peak at Silas' Halloween costume. Stay tuned!

Edmonds / the ferry

Last Sunday was my final day of vacation and we decided to spend it out and about. Silas loves taking the ferry, so we took the Kingston/Edmonds run and spent the day walking around Edmonds.
We had some time to kill while waiting for the return boat, but quite conveniently, there is a park adjacent to the ferry terminal, complete with a large sandy beach, and a cast iron canoe.
It was warm enough to ride on deck on the way back. Silas described to us what waves are like (above) and was his usual hug-filled self.
Even though I'm back at work, we are still doing plenty of fun summer things. Today we went to the Kitsap Arts and Crafts Fair and we saw a reptile show featuring all kinds of cool critters. Silas got to touch two geckos, a 5' long snake, a baby alligator, and his favorite, a kimono dragon with two tails (the only known one of it's kind in the world).

Hope your summer has been a lot of fun too!

Fire house fun fair, Father's day...

The camera was in black n white mode this weekend. You may recall that Silas is a fire fighter enthusiast. We took him to the pancake breakfast last fall, and yesterday, we took him to the Fire House fun fair.
We took a walk down our block in the afternoon.
Then it was back to the homestead:
For Father's day, I suggested we head up to Port Townsend, as we have done in the past. But Drew said he'd rather tackle this:
Once we get the rest of the shed taken down and the land cleared, we'll have more room for gardening, and a play set for Si. But before that work get's underway, we're off to brunch!

At the Fire Station

Last weekend, we went to the local fire station's pancake breakfast. Silas was very very excited, especially when they gave him is very own firefighter badge and helmet.
But the best part was definitely getting to ride on top of the fire truck. You can't tell from the picture below(it was pretty cramped up there and I wanted to enjoy the ride, so I quick snapped a picture, such as it is), but Silas is standing at the very top back of the truck, and he is having the time of his life. The truck took us around the neighborhood for about five minutes, with two firefighters hanging off of the back, totally old-school.
On our way home, we happened to be behind a firetruck carrying some families. One of the moms had asked the fireman to take a picture and he was balancing on the back with just the strap keeping him from falling off in order to take their picture (why didn't I think of that). For the rest of the afternoon, Silas kept climbing onto the back of one of our big chairs, pretending to take pictures, exclaiming "I'm a fireman!" It cracks us up that that's what he took away from his time at the fire station: Fireman = Photographer.

Harvest Festival 09

Silas and I had a blast today at the Harvest Festival. We saw lots of friends and got to ride in a cart pulled by horses. Silas drove an old tractor...
And rode down the Land Slide (twice!). There he is, making his way down. I can't believe I captured this on film--they fly down so fast:
We listened to a lot of great music too. Next to the stage, they have an old carnival trailer from the 1920s. Isn't it beautiful?
The Harvest Festival is put on each year at Johnson Farm, which is a public farm run by the Trust for Working Landscapes. All the donations from this event go to this worthy organization, which promotes and supports local farms and farmers.

This is the third year that Silas has gone to this Festival. Here's last year's posting.

Future Fest

We went to the Great Peninsula Future Fest a few weekends ago. Lots of fun, especially the circus acts. Silas made a fantastic trash art fish, which he gifted to Patrick. We'll look forward to going back next year.

The 4th and beyond

The Island has a pretty big to-do on the 4th of July -- lots of food, booths, kids activities, music, etc. It's pretty much an all out festival, complete with a dunk tank, giant inflatable castles, and a parade which features a library staff book-cart drill team.

Silas got to blow bubbles:
He made a flag shaker at the Library's children's fair:

And most significantly, he got to ride a pony for the first time.! He played it pretty cool while he was riding, but he has mentioned it several times since, so I think he thoroughly enjoyed it. Now when we walk up the hill by our house to see the horses and he says "I ride them sometimes!" we can say, "that's true, Silas!" (sort of).When we arrived home from the events on the 4th, we found some balloons waiting for Silas on our front porch, courtesy of Patrick. That boy loves his balloons! They floated around the house for about 5 days and I was really surprised they hadn't deflated and sank to the floor. Unfortunately, a couple of days ago, Silas came running to me with tears in his eyes saying "I popped them away!" What he actually meant was that, despite our warnings, he'd brought them out onto the deck and let them go. I ran outside, but they were already at the treeline, and still rising. Bye-bye balloons. Thanks for staying as long as you did.
For those of you who don't know, I usually take a good chunk of my vacation time in July, so I'm off of work this month from July 2nd till the 27th. That means I've been doing lots of extra activities with Silas, like going to a children's play (the Emporer's New Clothes) last Tuesday, which was part of the library's summer reading program. Wednesday was our wedding anniversary and I wanted to go hiking, but it was quite overcast and rain threatened, so the three of us headed up to Port Townsend for the day instead and will save the hike for another time in the very near future. Last night, Patrick hung out with Silas so Drew and I could go out to dinner, which was lovely.

And that's pretty much the update. I am rarely on the computer and can't even remember when I last checked my email. It's been nice to take a break since I stare at a screen all week long when I'm working. But, I will try to post again sometime soon.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer!

Grandma G goes to Islandwood

We had so much fun at last year's Backyard Habitat Fair at Islandwood, that I wanted to bring Grandma G there this year.

Grandma helped Silas make bookmarks (above). Then, we took Grandma to see the hydrological water filtration system:We took a short break...
...before touring the beautiful gardens (mainly vegetable):

I love Islandwood, and I think Grandma does too!

PS. Click on the Islandwood label below to see last year's trip to the Habitat Fair.

Way back to the Medieval Faire

I'm still a bit behind in my posting... The weekend before last, my friend Beth and I took Silas to the Medieval Faire in Port Gamble, which is in north Kitsap and is a tiny but lovely little town. The Faire was small compared to the Bristol Renaissance Fair I often went to back in Wisconsin, but it was fun none-the less.

Silas enjoyed seeing the warp-weighted loom:
And he got to try out Japanese Kumihimo:
Silas also liked the wood and metal working and the fencing. One of my favorite moments came when we saw two people dressed in thier period costumes sitting on a bale of hay, facing away from us. They were wearing racoon tails (real, I think?) which were trailing down behind them. Silas, quite earnestly, pointed to the man and exclaimed "He's sitting on his puppy!" Priceless.

Beth took a few pictures, including some of Silas and me. Maybe she'll post them on her blog sometime (hint, hint).

Mitchell Park Domes

What better way to beat the winter blues but to spend the day at the Mitchell Park Domes? Apparently, our family was not the only one to have this idea. We spent a few hours on Monday enjoying the Domes with a fair amount of other people, including Papa, Grandma, Auntie Jennie, Uncle Eric, and cousins Adam and Anna. Eric managed to snap a few pictures of the three of us. Silas' favorite part of the domes was the waterfall in the Tropical Dome (too crowded with people to take any pictures there). Had there not been a lot of other kids wanted to see it, Silas could have happily stood staring at the falls all day long. Like his cousins, Silas also enjoyed watching the trains. Next time we visit, Grandma and Papa will take us to see the Domes at night as they have a spectacular new night display.

We are off to visit the LeClairs in Madison this afternoon and then will be back in WA State on Sunday. I'll probably post again with a vacation wrap-up sometime after we get back home.

Chinese New Year Celebration

Last Sunday, we took Silas to the Chinese New Year celebration down town. I was pleasently surprised that the noise from the lighting of 1000 firecrackers (accompanied by drumming and a dragon dance), didn't seem to bother Silas at all. In fact, he loved the dragon and wanted to get as close to it as possible.
He also loved the gigantic red ball:
Here are my two handsome boys, enjoying the parade.
We had a fun time and ran into several of our friends (that's small town life for ya!).

On the home-front, we are getting ready for our trip to Wisconsin. We leave on Thursday. There may be one more posting tomorrow, but if not, we'll see all of you Wisconsin people soon!