family, woodworking, photography, K-pop
Thanks for all the lovely support regarding The Whole Foods Incident. E doesn’t have much of an appetite yet but is otherwise back to normal. This morning he was bopping around to kids’ shows as he normally does. E loves dancing around to music and playing his little guitar. Both are pretty cute.
This picture cracked me up. Our fondness for The Beatles and the Wiggles’ influence may have destined E to be a Beatles fan. But then again he might rebel and become a Stones man just to spite us.
Despite E feeling better I’m really dragging this morning. A few weeks ago we had bought tickets for a concert last night and when E went to bed okay we decided to go as planned. We saw three Scottish bands: We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Twilight Sad, and Frightened Rabbit.
The show was supposed to start at 9pm but the first band didn’t start until 10pm. We had snagged some seats at a table but I was kind of struggling because I hadn’t slept well the night before. I didn’t fall completely asleep but I came close a couple of times to nodding off. I felt bad because it was disrespectful to the bands playing and also because falling asleep at a rock concert is really, REALLY lame. But I perked up once Frightened Rabbit came on. They were great.
By the time we got home and to bed it was 2am. Right now I’m basically counting down the hours until E takes his nap so I can take one myself. Poor N has to work all day. But he has an office so maybe he can close his door and catch some zzzs too.
I bought this sprinkler quite a while ago (before our trip to Seattle, in fact) but never got around to setting it up for E to play in. But over the weekend we remedied that situation. E had a blast.
I realized today that I hadn’t posted any pictures from our trip to the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, WA yet. It was one of the highlights of our time on the peninsula. Basically, you drive through the farm and throw bread to animals like bears (behind electric fences) and buffalo, zebras, deer, elk, and llamas (not behind fences and free to come up to your car and eat out of your hand).
The guy running the farm the night we were there was super nice. We didn’t know what time it closed and actually arrived 30 minutes too late. But he saw how crestfallen we were and let us in anyway (yay!).
The sun was setting as we drove through and the way the light hit the grass behind this bear was incredible. Everything was glowing.
A lot of the bears are rescued from circuses and some of them appear in movies and tv shows. They’re trained and will sit up and beg for bread. It’s pretty crazy to see such a huge animal sit up on your cue.
There was a herd of white deer there. This fawn was adorable.
The buffalo came right up to the car which was a little intimidating. They licked the windows with their huge tongues. If your window was down too far they would try and stick their heads in the car…
…like this elk.
A peacock was very obliging and showed off for us.
This zebra came up and ate from my hand.
If you’re ever on the Olympic peninsula I would recommend stopping by, especially if you have kids with you. E was actually pretty tired and fell asleep as we drove through but my nephews (ages 9 and 7) loved it. The only thing you’re allowed to feed the animals is bread. You can buy it there or pick up cheap bread at a grocery store and bring your own.
So earlier this week I was really sad because I thought I had busted my Holga. I assumed something was wrong with the shutter was because half of the pictures I shot in WA came out blurred and washed out. (Before I posted them here I upped the contrast on the shots below in Photoshop to help them out a bit.)
A nephew at the beach.
Ghost deer!
And ghost buffalo.But then I googled “Holga shutter problem” and found a discussion board where someone was posting about the same issue. And someone asked the guy if he had accidentally switched the camera from “normal” to “bulb” mode (where the shutter stays open as long as you hold down the button). As soon as I read that I ran upstairs and looked at my camera and sure enough the switch on the bottom was set on bulb. Sigh.
I had some mixed feelings: I was really happy my camera wasn’t broken but pretty regretful that so many of my pictures were affected by my oversight. Ah well. Part of the charm of the Holga is that you never know what you’re going to get and I like the way that the above photos turned out. I think they look kind of mysterious and old-timey. I might even set the camera on bulb to get this effect on purpose in the future.
But either way you can bet your pants that I’m going to double-check that switch from now on.
Here are some of the photos I took with my Holga when we were in Seattle.
Nephew D at the beach.
Sister-in-law Mindy with solemn niece C.
At the locks.
The skyline as seen from the dock at Ivar’s Salmon House.I’m pretty sad about my Holga. I think it might have gotten banged up during the trip because for half of the rolls I shot the shutter seems to have stayed open longer than it should have and they’re kind of washed out and blurry. Some of the shots still turned out pretty cool, though. I’ll post some of them later.
While we were in Sequim we also stopped by a few lavender farms. My favorite farm was Purple Haze Lavender. It probably has something to do with being named after a Jimi Hendrix song but the farm’s atmosphere is friendly and relaxed. (Some of the other local farms are kind of frou-frou and a bit stuffy.)
This was actually my second time visiting. My mom and I stopped by almost ten years ago. The farm (and it’s name) has stuck with me all these years so on this trip we took the opportunity to go back.
It was just as charming as I remembered.
The beach condo my family stayed out was on the Olympic peninsula and about 10 minutes away from the small town of Sequim. It’s a great little town. Because it’s in the rainshadow of the mountains it receives a lot less rain that the surrounding areas. The climate is great for growing things, especially lavender.
While we were in Sequim we stopped by Graysmarsh Farm to pick some raspberries and buy some lavender. E had a fun time roaming up and down and rows and eating handfuls of raspberries.
E examines the raspberries.
When he got bored with the berries he entertained himself with some of the handy sticks lying around.
Everyone enjoyed feeding E berries and he was more than happy to keep eating and eating and eating them.
I had never seen such huge raspberries before. They were incredible.
We ended up with two big buckets of berries. We ate one of them and then froze the rest.
By the time we were finished everyone was tired and E was tired AND grimy. But everyone had had a good time.
After we ate our way from one end of Wallingford to the other we stopped by Gasworks Park on the way home to take in one of the best views in Seattle.
There were a lot of people there enjoying the summer evening.
It was relaxing to watch the boats go by.
Detail of a sundial.Today is a state holiday to honor the pioneer members of my church and so N has the day off from work. Presented with a Thursday night that was no longer a “school night” we got a sitter and went out to dinner and to see Harry Potter. It was really nice to spend time one-on-one with N chatting and laughing after not seeing each other for a while. I think it might be true what they say about absence and the heart because he seems even cuter and funnier than before.
I hope you have a great weekend!